F17 - how to completely remove Gnome shell?

[igorbounov]

I need to remove Gnome 3.4 Desktop environment clean and complete, because I'm using Mate Desktop now and am not planning to use Gnome Shell at all.
But I don't want removing gtk-3.0 and dependencies, because I'm using gtkmm-3.0 for developing applications.
Has any body already done successfully such a thing?
Would "yum groupremove gnome-shell" do the task?

[secipolla]

Hi friend.
Best is to install the minimal iso (netinst.iso): get your version at http://ftp-stud.hs-esslingen.de/pub/...ses/17/Fedora/
Before installing, write down or save to a thumbdrive the repo file for the Mate desktop so you can add it during the installation. But that isn't a must as you can add it afterwards.

Then after you reboot to your command line system, add a new user (by default you will have only root), install a couple of basic things like yum-utils and yum-presto (see more at http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=277781 and other threads), add the Mate repo file to /etc/yum.repos.d (if you haven't done it during the installation) and install it.
Then:

ln -sf /lib/systemd/system/runlevel5.target /etc/systemd/system/default.target

to make the default target the graphical desktop, reboot into Mate and start installing whatever you need (through yum itself, or install yumex or gnome-packagekit).

[sea]

Ehm...

Isn't mate based upon gnome?
Thus, removing gnome shell WILL crash mate...

[igorbounov]

Currently Mate Desktop is based on gnome 2.32. Mate developers will probably port it on gnome 3.x. But now Mate and Gnome Shell have an irritating name duplication for many utilities. So I'm looking for a way to get rid of these duplications.
As I've found the "yum groupremove Gnome Desktop environment" is going to delete too much: LibreOffice, a lot of other usefull applications (Firefox, pidgin...) - it looks like dependencies for Gnome environment are wrong composed.
secipolla, thanks for your message, but I'll keep these recommendations for the next Fedora release.
May be, for Fedora 18, Fedora developers will provide for inclusion of Mate or Cinnamon into official repositories instead of highly unusable minimalistic Gnome Shell.

[secipolla]

First a heads up that installing from minimal is quite simple. But if you prefer starting with something graphical, install the LXDE spin. I haven't tried it but I suppose it doesn't bring much GNOME stuff (the Xfce spin comes with GDM). Then follow the advices on the Mate thread here on the forum.

[flyingfsck]

Hmm, the original poster asked how to remove Gnome. The short answer is, you can't unscramble an egg. The long answer is that you can if you are very persistent, but it is easier to re-install as others suggested.

[nsnbm]

Another alternative, which may be quite unpalatable to many, is to install everything, gnome, kde, etc ... the whole lot of the installation dvd which takes up something like about 9 gigabytes, and then just choose what you want to use. I can't count the number of times that I wanted to use some gnome or kde application, and was glad they were just there, though my normal desktop is just a simple window manager. I used to be into the minimalist fetish with a preference for having just the tools I needed, but now I like to float around and explore a bit of stuff which is just there for the taking, so to speak. Ben.

[flyingfsck]

That is usually what I do too. However, Gnome 3 cocks up XFCE and LXDE, so lately I only install XFCE, LXDE and KDE then choose what I want at login.

[FedoraLinuxKid]

The simple sweet answer is, unless you want a broken system, you cannot. I did the same thing trying to remove GNOME Shell and it was gonna remove BASH! I said HECK NO YOU AINT DOIN THAT! On a more positive note, Fedora 18 will have a MATE Image for download. Fedora 18 beta brought mate as an alternative to GNOME Shell. Personally I will use MATE once the fedora 18 reaches final. I will do a clean mate install and just use Fedup after that. But for now unless you want a broken system you may as well stick with GNOME Shell. Don't worry Fedroa 18 will be out in mere weeks with mate.

---------- Post added at 01:36 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:33 PM ----------

Oh and MATE Aims ad being a GNOME 2 fork. It will NEVER EVER port to gnome 3. It will always be GNOME 2.32 with constant updates of it's own.

[StephenH]

The question was how to remove gnome-shell. That can be done. However, one must have an alternative environment in place and working first. It won't necessarily leave one with a broken system. It is not ideal. Reinstalling to get the desktop you want is better, but you can do it. You may not need to completely eliminate Gnome to get rid of Gnome Shell. They are two separate things.

Get Xfce, LXDE, KDE, Enlightenment, or other desired environment going. Use switchdesk to make sure the system's default is set to that environment.

rpm-qa | grep gnome will tell you what parts are installed

Afterward, yum remove gnome-shell can be executed. If it insists on uninstalling something like Firefox, you can simply put that back afterward. You can also remove gnome-desktop and other parts. Keep going until you find a part that wants to take too much with it. It is at that point, you should stop and just live with the remnants of Gnome. After all, some of those parts are still useful (at least until the Gnome developers finish crippling them).

From the man page for switchdesk:

switchdesk provides a simple method of choosing between the various
desktop environments available under Red Hat Linux, including GNOME,
KDE, and FVWM2. If X Windows is running, switchdesk will bring up a
dialog box which allows the user to choose between the available desk‐
tops installed on the system. This dialog follows the appearance of
the user's current desktop as closely as possible. If a desktop name
(KDE, GNOME, XFce4, FVWM, WINDOWMAKER) is supplied as an argument, or X
is not running, switchdesk can be used from the command line.