This tutorial shows you how to install Cinnamon desktop environment on Ubuntu.
Cinnamon is the default desktop environment of Linux Mint. Unlike Unity desktop environment in Ubuntu, Cinnamon is more traditional but elegant looking desktop environment with the bottom panel and app menu etc. Many Windows migrants prefer Linux Mint over Ubuntu because of Cinnamon desktop and its Windows-resembling user interface.
Now, you don’t need to install Linux Mint just for trying Cinnamon. In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to install Cinnamon in Ubuntu 18.04, 16.04 and 14.04.
You should note something before you install Cinnamon desktop on Ubuntu. Sometimes, installing additional desktop environments leads to conflict between the desktop environments. This may result in a broken session, broken applications and features etc. This is why you should be careful in making this choice.
How to Install Cinnamon on Ubuntu
There used to be a-sort-of official PPA from Cinnamon team for Ubuntu but it doesn’t exist anymore. Don’t lose heart. There is an unofficial PPA available and it works perfectly. This PPA consists of the latest Cinnamon version.
Open a terminal and use the following commands:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:embrosyn/cinnamon
sudo apt update && sudo apt install cinnamonIt will download files of around 150 MB in size (if I remember correctly). This also provides you with Nemo (Nautilus fork) and Cinnamon Control Center. This bonus stuff gives a closer feel of Linux Mint.
Using Cinnamon desktop environment in Ubuntu
Once you have installed Cinnamon, log out of the current session. At the login screen, click on the Ubuntu symbol beside the username:
When you do this, it will give you all the desktop environments available for your system. No need to tell you that you have to choose Cinnamon:
Now you should be logged in to Ubuntu with Cinnamon desktop environment. Remember, you can do the same to switch back to Unity. Here is a quick screenshot of what it looked like to run Cinnamon in Ubuntu:
Looks completely like Linux Mint, doesn’t it? I didn’t find any compatibility issue between Cinnamon and Unity. I switched back and forth between Unity and Cinnamon and both worked perfectly.
Remove Cinnamon from Ubuntu
It is understandable that you might want to uninstall Cinnamon. We will use PPA Purge for this purpose. Let’s install PPA Purge first:
sudo apt-get install ppa-purgeAfterward, use the following command to purge the PPA:
sudo ppa-purge ppa:embrosyn/cinnamonIn related articles, I suggest you to read more about how to remove PPA in Linux.
I hope this post helps you to install Cinnamon in Ubuntu. Do share your experience with Cinnamon.
I followed your instructions and then logged out. The new log-in screen did not list Cinnamon as an available DE. I, at first, thought something went wrong. However, I performed a hard reboot and this time Cinnamon DE was available. It works just fine. Thanks for the info Abhishek.
Will this work with Ubuntu 19.04?
The PPA is available for 19.04 so yes, it should work.
Excellent, I’ll give it a try. Before that though, when I tried out Ubuntu 19.04 on my Lenovo ThinkPad X1C7 I couldn’t get the touchpad to work, so I’ll have to see if I can fix that first . . .
$ sudo apt install cinnamon
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
cinnamon : Depends: adwaita-icon-theme-full but it is not installable
Depends: cinnamon-screensaver but it is not going to be installed
Depends: cinnamon-session but it is not going to be installed
Depends: gir1.2-caribou-1.0 but it is not installable
Depends: gir1.2-keybinder-3.0 but it is not installable
Depends: gir1.2-xapp-1.0 (>= 1.0.4~) but it is not going to be installed
Depends: mate-panel but it is not installable or
gnome-panel but it is not installable or
tint2 but it is not installable
Depends: mesa-utils but it is not installable
Depends: metacity but it is not installable
Depends: nemo but it is not going to be installed
Depends: streamer but it is not installable
Depends: xapps-common but it is not going to be installed
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.
Try running these commands:
sudo apt -f install
sudo apt autoremove
Doesn’t work to install from embrosyn/cinnamon ppa.
Will still install from ubuntu repo with “sudo apt install nemo”
I love your work!
Always nice and informative treads, but this time I do not understand… Why use Cinnamon on Ubuntu? If you love Cinnamon Mint is best :)
Some people like experimenting with DEs. This is for them :)
Some software only works on Ubuntu, not Mint. I know Mint is based on Ubuntu but some are specific in their requirements. I have come across one such piece of software but prefer Mint, so this works perfectly for me.
This is what happened to me also. This solution allows me to have the look I want and the underlying structure I need.
Because those of us still trying to find a desktop that will work good on our old systems have to try multiple ones to see what works best with our old hardware. I installed Ubuntu 18.04 LTS but the gnome desktop is very sluggish, went to unity desktop next 75% better but still looking to get that other 25% hopefully this is it.
I have been a Mint user for a couple of years and have always had problems installing other packages. Many are not available directly on Mint. If you attempt to install Ubuntu ones, you have to manually change some of the URLs used to the name of the current version from the Mint one to the proper ubuntu one.