How can I install Cinnamon on a minimal CLI installation?

Question

I've come across similar, already answered questions on this website; however none of them deals with starting from the scratch - the Ubuntu core.

The normal release of 12.04 was not responding well on my old PC. Thus, I decided to install "Non-PAE Ubuntu core using" mini.iso.

Now, I am having the Ubuntu core installed which swiftly boots into the terminal CLI. However I want to install a GUI onto this.

I don't want to do apt-get install ubuntu-desktop since that comes with Unity, which I hate like anything.

There are ways to install Mate and Cinnamon available here, however they are valid only if some other GUI is already present. But, I want to install them when no GUI is initially present - right from the core.

In a nutshell: I am looking how to install "Cinnamon" right from the scratch (Ubuntu Core CLI), so that the system directly boots into cinnamon login screen.

On my other system I would also like to do the same but use Mate instead of Cinnamon.

Solution 1

I am looking how to install "Cinnamon" right from the scratch

One answer at a time :)

sudo apt-get install python-software-properties -y
sudo apt-add-repository ppa:gwendal-lebihan-dev/cinnamon-stable -y
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install cinnamon

Solution 2

In addition to cinnamon and X, you should install a display manager like LightDM or SLiM. I found this necessary when I tried to install cinnamon 1.6 along with the mini.iso of Ubuntu.

Comments

[nilsonneto]

@Z9iT - why are you trying to install on a minimal install. Why not install onto a full standard Ubuntu - and then remove unity? Maybe I'm being too simplistic? If its such an old PC - it may not have good enough graphics to install cinnamon. Have you tried lubuntu or xubuntu?

[BhaveshDiwan]

@fossfreedom Yes, I have tried Lubuntu and Xubuntu and they are really good. The system runs Ubuntu 12.04 very efficiently thus i suppose cinnamon may also run efficiently. The only problem is that, after the command startx cinnamon the desktop comes with a xterm window, and once the window is closed, cinnamon crashes.. only startx command says failed to load Ubuntu session... I don't want to go for full distribution because it has many packages irrelevant to me like libre-office and basero. I want to install only those packages i need rather than uninstalling which i don't use. :)

[nilsonneto]

if you can run gnome-shell then cinnamon should work - visa versa - If you cannot run gnome-shell, cinnamon will not work. Thus I would check first that your PC has the graphics specification to run Cinnamon by installing gnome-shell.

[BhaveshDiwan]

I am using gnome-shell efficiently so far.

[BhaveshDiwan]

whats the use of python-software-properties .Is there no need to install xinit or xorx or else they will come along the install cinnamon

[ish]

python-software-properties includes the apt-add-repository script; it is not included by default with core installs. Cinnamon should pull in all Xorg and other dependencies automatically.

[BhaveshDiwan]

I tried this, however 100% success wasn't achieved. apt-get xint is necessary for this. Moreover the GUI didn't started automatically, and the system booted back to the terminal. When i did "startx" it showed error message "Session ubuntu cannot be loaded" Doing startx cinnamon did started the environment however it was crippled, and on closing the terminal window, the session got aborted.. Hope ther's another way out to achieve this..

[BhaveshDiwan]

This workout is not behaving the way it should. After several attempts, I concluded that if you simply install cinnamon, it wont start unless xinit it also installed. However it will not initialize automatically, and one have to start it manually. simply doing "Startx" will not do the favor and the system will respond failed to load ubuntu session, and it will freez then on.

[BhaveshDiwan]

Thanks; I will try this very soon and let you know the results..