Installing Cinnamon from an existing Environment

For what I've tested since I use the Cinnamon interface, the best way these days to install Cinnamon desktop is in my case on Ubuntu Mate.

There's no need need to add the ppa, because Cinnamon packages (see link for version depending on Ubuntu release) are included on the Ubuntu sources.

Content description of every Cinnamon packages can be found here.

After a clean Ubuntu installation:

1. sudo su


2. apt update && apt upgrade


3. apt install cinnamon

If you like to install it minimaly (without any tools):

1. apt install cinnamon --no-install-recommends


2. apt install -f (to check for depencies)

4. reboot


5. Select the wanted default user interface before login

Installing Cinnamon on Ubuntu server 22.04

From scratch with no environement installed yet:

If you would like to have the Ubuntu kernel with Cinnamon as only desktop environement:

1. You can download and install Ubuntu server


2. Select the minimized installation and no third party driver (because it will install a server version)

4. update & upgrade & reboot after connection to your session instance.

   
   

   sudo su

   
   

   apt update && apt upgrade

   
   

   reboot

   
   



5. Install muffin (low gnome window manager, where Cinnamon is based on)

   
   

   sudo apt install muffin

   
   



6. Install slick-greeter (low gtk greeter made for muffin and looks like unity)

   
   

   sudo apt install slick-greeter

   
   



7. And finally install the desktop environement (minimaly to get only the environment without other software):

   
   

   sudo apt install cinnamon --no-install-recommends

   
   



8. Install yaru-theme-icon package present on the Ubuntu server (compatible icon pack as base)

   
   

   sudo apt install yaru-theme-icon

   
   



9. Install your graphic driver and Reboot

   
   



10. resolve networking applet issues

    
    



11. Install additional packages to personalize your desktop.

    
    

I personally recommend gnome software since it's compatible with Ubuntu as much as with Cinnamon.

Even for system settings, like the control panel. I did install it for system management and testing, so here some I've installed:

sudo apt install gnome-logs eog inetutils-ping nmcli gnome-calculator gnome-screenshot xdg-user-dirs-gtk gedit-plugins gnome-font-viewer mate-themes simple-scan gparted gpart gnome-control-center gnome-disk-utility 

You'll find more information about those on the Ubuntu packages page.

For the greeter settings you'll need to install the "Login Window" settings: sudo apt install lightdm-settings

For its background image use only the /usr/share/backgrounds folder. Because the user folder's aren't permitted.

For the internet browser, I prefer Chrome and install it with wget and dpkg -i.

Here's a screenshot of this desktop:

Here's the Cinnamon menu with usefull settings and tools configured into the "System Tools" menu for my needs.

Here's the greeter:

And here you can see no other environment choice as Cinnamon:

Last installation system information:

Kernel: 5.19.0-23-generic arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: N/A

Desktop: Cinnamon v: 5.4.12

tk: GTK v: 3.24.34 dm: LightDM Distro: Ubuntu 22.10 (Kinetic Kudu)

Installing Cinnamon from Mint PPA on Ubuntu 22.04 server

In this post you can find how to install the most recent version of Cinnamon on your server, based on the Linux Mint PPA.

I've also a made a bash script menu to solve most of the issues I've got on Ubuntu server with Cinnamon installed. It's availble on Github here.

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