How to Install GNOME on Ubuntu 24.04

To get GNOME running on Ubuntu 24.04, first make sure your system is up to date. You can do this by opening the terminal and typing:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

Once your system is fully updated, you can install the full GNOME desktop environment using the following command:

sudo apt install ubuntu-gnome-desktop -y

This installs the GNOME session along with GNOME Display Manager (GDM). After installation, reboot your system:

reboot

At the login screen, click on the gear icon and choose GNOME or GNOME on Xorg, depending on your preference.

If you don’t want the full Ubuntu GNOME experience and prefer a minimal installation without extra packages like Firefox or Thunderbird, install just the GNOME core:

sudo apt install gnome-session gnome-terminal gnome-control-center -y

To switch to GDM if you’re using another display manager (like LightDM), run:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure gdm3

Then reboot:

reboot

If you want to clean up your previous desktop environment (for example, if you’re switching from KDE or XFCE), you can remove it like this:

sudo apt remove kde-plasma-desktop

Or for XFCE:

sudo apt remove xubuntu-desktop

After uninstalling, it’s a good idea to run:

sudo apt autoremove

To verify you’re now running GNOME, use:

echo $XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP

It should return GNOME.

And if you want to customize GNOME, install GNOME Tweaks:

sudo apt install gnome-tweaks

Now you can adjust themes, fonts, extensions, and more with a graphical tool. That’s all you need to get GNOME up and running cleanly on Ubuntu 24.04. Happy customizing!