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I have Ubuntu 14.04 with Unity as DE installed on my PC. But I recently found out that Gnome DE is installed, too. I don't need Gnome, never use it, so I wannt to remove it. Can I do this without causing damage to Unity? Are there any packages that belong to Gnome but are used by Unity as well?

Simon I
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2 Answers2

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Just do:

sudo apt-get remove ubuntu-gnome-desktop gnome-shell gdm

and gnome shell shall be removed(I had to say it like that). Don't worry, unity will work fine.

In case you want to uninstall all the unneeded software gnome-ubnutu installs check out: Remove ubuntu-gnome-desktop?

Edit1: to remove gnome flashback, do:

sudo apt-get remove gnome-session-flashback

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mmm3743
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  • Hm ok I tried that command.. But it told me: "Package 'gdm' is not installed, so not removed", the same for package ubuntu-gnome-desktop and gnome-shell. When I tried that long commmand in the answer You linked, I got some Exceptions telling me that these packages could not be found. – Simon I Jul 19 '14 at 10:05
  • @SimonI - which version of Gnome do you have installed? mmm3743 - i think trying to remove ubuntu-gnome-desktop probably won't work - as it is a a meta-package it only installs the desktop as dependencies/recommendations, so removing it probably won't do much (atleast when i last tried) - that linked question should be helpful though. Note if another desktop environment is not installed, the computer will probably end up with a text interface... – Wilf Jul 19 '14 at 11:15
  • Wilf - you are right about ubuntu-gnome-desktop package, but the command also removes gnome-shell(DE) and gdm(gnomes login session manager), Simon I - post a screenshot of your gnome – mmm3743 Jul 19 '14 at 16:02
  • @Wilf - Two Options are available in the login screen: "Gnome Flashback (Compiz)" and "Gnome Flashback (Metacity)". gnome-session --version puts out "gnome-session 3.9.90" – Simon I Jul 23 '14 at 14:41
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Unity is based off of gnome 3, so you can't safely remove it. Unity is basically like a skin on top of gnome, but integrated VERY tightly. Don't remove it unless you switch to another non-gnome based or gnome 2 based DE that has it integrated.

sbergeron
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    everything you said is wrong, how did you manage to do that? – mmm3743 Jul 18 '14 at 21:46
  • sorry, but I'm at least right in that unity is a graphical shell for gnome, so removing gnome entirely IS a bad idea, like if someone has gnome 3 as their main DE, they can remove that, but removing the base gnome window manager/base module will ruin unity. Look it up in the guides to install unity on like kubuntu and such, it tells you to not only install unity but also install gnome shell. – sbergeron Jul 18 '14 at 22:07
  • wikipedia: "Unity is a graphical shell for the GNOME desktop environment developed by Canonical Ltd. for its Ubuntu operating system." – sbergeron Jul 18 '14 at 22:08
  • bwahahaha, gnome serves no function if you use unity, removing it will do nothing to unity. Yes, you are right that unity is based off of gnome, but not gnome 3, it is based off of gnome 2, look it up!!! – mmm3743 Jul 19 '14 at 00:35
  • unity is gnome 3 at heart, the reason they transitioned to unity is because the gnome 2 interface could no longer be provided under the gnome 3 interface, and gnome 2 was no longer receiving security updates so they had to move to gnome 3 or develop their complete own DE, so they went with just skinning gnome 3 – sbergeron Jul 19 '14 at 00:42
  • I'm not gonna continue arguing with you, I will just tell you this, unity is based off of gnome 2, unity is not just a theme, once they decided to develop unity they copied gnome 2 code base and started from there, they decided to develop unity because they didn't like gnome 3 – mmm3743 Jul 19 '14 at 09:43
  • @sbergeron - Unity is (probably) more of a fork from Gnome, based on the same code. It does not rely on Gnome 3 (which on the default Ubuntu distribution is not installed), but it does rely on similar/same libraries and applications. IT DOES NOT RELY ON GNOME ITSELF – Wilf Jul 19 '14 at 11:11
  • so does it rely on the gnome 3 or gnome 2 libs? – sbergeron Jul 22 '14 at 13:56
  • I don't think it really depends on most Gnome things anymore (not including applications), apart from basic libraries such as GTK - you can check with packages by looking at their dependencies - i.e. what they need to work - e.g. Unity. Unity is probably made more off what Gnome 2 is based on (as I think Gnome 3 was released after Unity). You can remove Gnome 3 fine, as any common libraries etc that both have should be kept, as they are still depended on by Unity (if those common packages are removed though, it will likely try and remove both). – Wilf Jul 23 '14 at 21:30
  • if anything is removed, it can be reinstalled easily anyway with sudo apt-get install PACKAGE. – Wilf Jul 23 '14 at 21:32