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I installed it from apt-get and it only has Applications and Places instead of the Activities menu, it also doesn't have the dock or launcher. Using the super key does nothing, as neither does mousing to the upper left corner. I have also installed the tweak tool, but it looks like all the settings are not being applied to the UI. Am I missing something. I have never used Gnome 3 before as I recently upgraded from Ubuntu 10.4, which I believe was Gnome 2 for the shell. I have been reading the documentation on the Gnome site and it says there should be an Activity menu and other items that aren't there. Thanks

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  • Sounds like gnome-fallback-session got installed and activated. Dec 23, 2011 at 5:17

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With ATI 7740, installing proprietary drivers for 3D acceleration should fix the problem.

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That's not Gnome Shell, but Gnome Panel, which is the old interface we've used in Ubuntu previously. If you're seeing this, it is because Gnome Shell has special needs that aren't met by your VGA or graphics drivers.

None of this really has anything to do with Gnome 2 or Gnome 3. It's just a matter of the window manager. For instance, with Gnome 2, Ubuntu used Compiz or Metacity depending on whether you have hardware support or not. Ubuntu now uses Gnome 3 by default, but the same is still true. Unity uses Compiz and Unity 2D uses Metacity. This is why Unity works independently of your hardware. Gnome Shell, on the other hand, currently only supports Mutter, which does require hardware support. Mutter's requirements are not the same as Compiz', so even if you're able to run Unity 3D, you might not be able to run Gnome Shell.

Upgrading drivers might fix this issue. You should also know that Gnome is working on making Gnome Shell available without such strong requirements. It might be available already in 12.04, though I don't think it is yet.

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