How to install the (latest version of) Nemo in Ubuntu 18.04 without cinnamon dependencies?

Question

In previous Ubuntu versions there was a Nemo version without cinnamon dependencies but the PPA does not (yet?) include a version for Ubuntu 18.04 Bionic Beaver.
Is there another way to install the (latest version of) Nemo in Ubuntu 18.04 without cinnamon dependencies?

Solution 1

Doug provided a PPA for install the Nemo in Ubuntu 18.04 (only) without cinnamon dependencies (see his comment).
For newer Ubuntu versions: A unity session using Nemo in 20.04 can be set up to work reasonably well, especially if you use a modified nemo.desktop in the launcher (see Doug's comment).

He recommends to purge the installed nemo files before installing the new version. I did the following:

sudo apt purge cinnamon-desktop-data cinnamon-l10n gist hddtemp hwdata inxi libcinnamon-desktop4 libnemo-extension1 libxapp1 mesa-utils nemo nemo-data nemo-fileroller ruby-json xapps-common

Then added the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mc3man/bionic-noprop
sudo apt-get update

Then install Nemo:

sudo apt-get install nemo nemo-fileroller

To make Nemo the default file manager:

xdg-mime default nemo.desktop inode/directory application/x-gnome-saved-search

To handle the desktop just disable nautilus:

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background show-desktop-icons false

Reboot or log out

Thank you, Doug, for this great option.

Solution 2

I had the same problem, and the only (temporary) solution is to use the artful packages which should work (they're working for me) since Ubuntu 17.10 uses Gnome Shell anyway.

Just change /etc/apt/sources.list.d/webupd8team-ubuntu-nemo3-bionic.list to read deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/webupd8team/nemo3/ubuntu artful main You can also use the GUI by opening "Software & Updates" and editing the repo there, by changing bionic to artful.

Eventually, a Bionic repo will be available and then we can change the source again.

Comments

[doug]

I use it here in 18.04 but with unity as most of that ppa's patches are for unity integration. Are you looking to just to remobe the cinnamon deps but use in a gnome session? (gnome-session

[Filbuntu]

@doug Yes, correct. I would like to use Nemo in a Gnome session (Ubuntu default) without the cinnamon dependencies.

[doug]

Well long story short I had ppa'd the webupd8 version for bionic during dev in anticipation of libgnome-desktop-3 upgrading but didn't notice nemo was going to also upgrade. So the ppa became useless for many unless they knew how to install downgrades (both ppa & repo were same version.) There was no simple way to rebuild in a ppa & I'm not inclined to fix the patches for the new libgnome-desktop-3 version. Note also that this was done specifically for a unity session so removed 2 patches & put in a more useful .desktop for unity' s launcher icon's actions though could also work ok in gnome.

[doug]

So to help out some users I recently came up with a way to rebuild to reversion higher. The ppa is here, if inclined to use i'd purge nemo if already installed & autoremove any other nemo packages (4 in total). Then install nemo & see.. launchpad.net/~mc3man/+archive/ubuntu/bionic-noprop

[Filbuntu]

@doug Thank you very much, Doug! Hopefully you don't mind that I turned it into an answer!

[doug]

Not at all. Just to note: the reason for the ppa was for 18.04 unity users who've tired of nautilus.. To that end I did remove the orig. ppa's dbus & .desktop patches & put in my own .desktop file patch so there were constant xdg folder quickists. Also note that if anyone who uses the ppa tries to get it's nemo build-dep they will fail as to get a new build required a sleigh of hand regarding libgnome-desktop-3-dev & the one used for the ppa is not in the ppa (for good reason, the libgnome-desktop-3 build in the ppa only has the shared lib..

[Filbuntu]

@doug Thanks again! I don't really understand everything ;-). What do you mean with "the one used for the ppa is not in the ppa"? Your PPA - WebUpd8-PPA? Are there any caveats the normal user (Ubuntu 18.04 with Gnome desktop)? Will you be able to add an update of Nemo in the future?

[doug]

While both libgnome-desktop-3-12 & 3-17 can co-exist in an install (or ppa) there can only be 1 libgnome-desktop-3-dev package (-dev packages are rarely 'versioned'). So any ppa (or local) build using that -dev package would use the current source version (3-17) in 18.04 which would fail without reworking the patches. To work around that I created a 'mirror' build of the 3-12 source in another ppa & versioned it so the build system would use that to build nemo. If users happened to install that -dev & gir1 packages it could cause issue so it's been hidden away so to speak.

[doug]

If you were to take a look at the package details in the ppa you'd see the libgnome-desktop-3 build there only has the -data and shared lib packages, no -dev & gir1 packages.

[Filbuntu]

@doug Thank you for this helpful answer, even I could understand it ;-).

[sup]

@doug Thank you for this. Even compiling some extensions from here: github.com/linuxmint/nemo-extensions however, I seem to be now affected by this bug: bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/unity/+bug/1170647 - which was fixed in 16.04 for Nautilus. Any idea why it reappears when using Nemo as default file manager? I thought they just fixed BAMF for this.

[doug]

@sup - maybe because I did not enable the 12_unity_launcher_support.patch when building nemo. Using that patch creates the poor behavior regarding the default xdg folders from the laucher quicklists that's also seen in nautilus. So I've no intention of enabling that patch as that behavior is more important to me than a minimized external volume behavior (if in fact that patch would solve...

[doug]

Nah, the repo nemo shows same behavior regarding minimized external volumes. If you can locate what fixed it & it's not nautilus specific I'd take a look..though I believe it is nautilus specific.

[sup]

@doug I think it is this branch that fixed it: code.launchpad.net/~3v1n0/unity/… Nautilus is mentioned in the diff files only with regards to launchers. I tried replacing "nautilus" with "nemo" in all the desktop files that have nautilus in their name but that did not help. As for quicklist and default XDG folders, I use custom folders and Nemo fails with those (unless my changing the desktopfiles caused that.

[sup]

@doug Have you tried looking into it?

[doug]

yeah, it was done for nautilus not nemo. Nothing to be done there

[Felipe]

I don't experience any of those problems, it's as stable as it's always been. Make sure you don't have all configurations stored from previous Ubuntu versions

[Filbuntu]

Unfortunately Nemo crashes now & then (twice a day), especially when looking at the icons in a folder with mainly pictures.

[Moilleadóir]

See my runaway comment below.

[Filbuntu]

Thank you for this workaround! I really hope there will be an easier way or the PPA will be updated, though, as this workaround sounds a bit risky for me.

[Filbuntu]

You are right, it was the Universe repo version "3.6.5-1" that was installed with this solution and not the 3.6.5-1~webupd8~artful01 and the Cinnamon desktop was installed as well.

[doug]

As that was orig. just a ppa to insure I had working patched nemo for myself just decided today to change to "Label" (displayed name, not actual ppa name). If any issue with package manager or apt left simple instructions at bottom of description on main ppa page. Should only take a min. to do one time 'fix' launchpad.net/~mc3man/+archive/ubuntu/bionic-noprop Also added a mediainfo-tab plugin & fixed the media-columns plugin.

[Filbuntu]

Comment from user x7i7l: For some reason, on KDE Neon, Doug's repository doesn't help me. I've followed all the instructions but no matter what I do it still pulls in Cinnamon dependencies. I checked and Muon package manager is pulling in Doug's version. @doug Do you have an answer?

[doug]

run apt-show nemo check the deps & recommends, see if any of those are causing this in muon

[Filbuntu]

@x7i7l You probably figured it out, it is apt show nemo (not apt-show).

[Filbuntu]

@doug Is there a possibility to update Nemo in your PPA to a newer version? I think version 4.0.6 is already out. Cheers!

[doug]

@ Filbuntu, no, that would require redoing most of the patches and switching to a meson build. Not worth it..

[Filbuntu]

@doug Thank you for the response. It is a pity it is a lot of work. Nemo often crashes, especially when viewing folders with pictures in the icon view.

[rasul]

@doug Can the PPA be used for Ubuntu 20.04 too?

[doug]

No, those patches will only work in 18.04. That being said a unity session using nemo in 20.04 can be set up to work reasonably well, especially if you use a modified nemo.desktop in the launcher.