How can I install latest version of Cinnamon in Ubuntu?

Question

My computer's OS and desktop environment are:

• Ubuntu 20.04 (focal) 64 bit

• Cinnamon Desktop 4.4.8

Here is a screenshot of my system (sorry, it's French, it's ok if you don't know french to see it):

The latest version of Cinnamon is 4.6.6, and I want to update to that version. My question is simple: How can I update to Cinnamon 4.6.6 without reinstalling Cinnamon?

NOTE: This question does not anwser my question: Why don't the Ubuntu repositories have the latest versions of software?

Answer 1

Cinnamon available via apt/default Ubuntu repository is not latest one. You have two options to install latest stable version of Cinnamon.

Note: This PPA does not have any packages for Ubuntu 20.04, and method 1) does not work.

1) Install latest version of cinnamon via below PPA

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:embrosyn/cinnamon
sudo apt update && sudo apt install cinnamon

If you want latest version than available via ppa, you can proceed for below option.

2) Compile and install Latest Cinnamon from source code

Install dependencies to compile Cinnamon.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install dpkg-dev

Get the latest source code for muffin and cinnamon github repositories.

git clone git://github.com/linuxmint/muffin.git
git clone git://github.com/linuxmint/Cinnamon.git

Compile and install the latest build of muffin.

cd muffin
sudo dpkg-buildpackage -d 

It will take few minutes to compile source code and create debian packages. You will be able to see following packages placed after successful build where your repo was cloned. Go one dir back. cd ../

Below is output after I compiled source code.

gir1.2-meta-muffin-0.0_4.6.2_amd64.deb
muffin-common_4.6.2_all.deb
libmuffin0_4.6.2_amd64.deb
muffin-dbg_4.6.2_amd64.deb
muffin_4.6.2_amd64.deb
muffin-doc_4.6.2_all.deb

Install latest muffin.

sudo dpkg -i *.deb 

Compile and install latest stable Cinnamon by below command.

cd Cinnamon
sudo ./autogen.sh
sudo dpkg-buildpackage -d

Go one directory back. You will be able to find following latest cinnamon packages.

cd ../

Below is output I got after compiling source code.

cinnamon-dbg_4.6.6_amd64.deb
cinnamon_4.6.6_amd64.deb
cinnamon-doc_4.6.6_all.deb
cinnamon-common_4.6.6_all.deb

Install latest Cinnamon packages.

sudo dpkg -i *.deb

Check Cinnamon version.

cinnamon --version 

Below is example output after installation of latest Cinnamon available as of now.

kk@kk-focal:~$ cinnamon --version 
Cinnamon 4.6.6

Answer 2

I found a PPA maintained by the developers of Wasta Linux (a derivative of Ubuntu, featuring the Cinnamon desktop).

Since they maintain an operating system, I would trust the PPA built by them.

^{Image source}

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:wasta-linux/cinnamon-tagged
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt dist-upgrade

Currently the PPA hosts Cinnamon 4.8 for Ubuntu 20.04.