I have Ubuntu 14.04 with Unity as DE installed on my PC. But I recently found out that Gnome DE is installed, too. I don't need Gnome, never use it, so I wannt to remove it. Can I do this without causing damage to Unity? Are there any packages that belong to Gnome but are used by Unity as well?
2 Answers
Just do:
sudo apt-get remove ubuntu-gnome-desktop gnome-shell gdm
and gnome shell shall be removed(I had to say it like that). Don't worry, unity will work fine.
In case you want to uninstall all the unneeded software gnome-ubnutu installs check out: Remove ubuntu-gnome-desktop?
Edit1: to remove gnome flashback, do:
sudo apt-get remove gnome-session-flashback
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Hm ok I tried that command.. But it told me: "Package 'gdm' is not installed, so not removed", the same for package ubuntu-gnome-desktop and gnome-shell. When I tried that long commmand in the answer You linked, I got some Exceptions telling me that these packages could not be found.– Simon IJul 19, 2014 at 10:05
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@SimonI - which version of Gnome do you have installed? mmm3743 - i think trying to remove
ubuntu-gnome-desktop
probably won't work - as it is a a meta-package it only installs the desktop as dependencies/recommendations, so removing it probably won't do much (atleast when i last tried) - that linked question should be helpful though. Note if another desktop environment is not installed, the computer will probably end up with a text interface...– WilfJul 19, 2014 at 11:15 -
Wilf - you are right about ubuntu-gnome-desktop package, but the command also removes gnome-shell(DE) and gdm(gnomes login session manager), Simon I - post a screenshot of your gnome– mmm3743Jul 19, 2014 at 16:02
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@Wilf - Two Options are available in the login screen: "Gnome Flashback (Compiz)" and "Gnome Flashback (Metacity)". gnome-session --version puts out "gnome-session 3.9.90"– Simon IJul 23, 2014 at 14:41
Unity is based off of gnome 3, so you can't safely remove it. Unity is basically like a skin on top of gnome, but integrated VERY tightly. Don't remove it unless you switch to another non-gnome based or gnome 2 based DE that has it integrated.
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sorry, but I'm at least right in that unity is a graphical shell for gnome, so removing gnome entirely IS a bad idea, like if someone has gnome 3 as their main DE, they can remove that, but removing the base gnome window manager/base module will ruin unity. Look it up in the guides to install unity on like kubuntu and such, it tells you to not only install unity but also install gnome shell. Jul 18, 2014 at 22:07
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wikipedia: "Unity is a graphical shell for the GNOME desktop environment developed by Canonical Ltd. for its Ubuntu operating system." Jul 18, 2014 at 22:08
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bwahahaha, gnome serves no function if you use unity, removing it will do nothing to unity. Yes, you are right that unity is based off of gnome, but not gnome 3, it is based off of gnome 2, look it up!!!– mmm3743Jul 19, 2014 at 0:35
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unity is gnome 3 at heart, the reason they transitioned to unity is because the gnome 2 interface could no longer be provided under the gnome 3 interface, and gnome 2 was no longer receiving security updates so they had to move to gnome 3 or develop their complete own DE, so they went with just skinning gnome 3 Jul 19, 2014 at 0:42