Restoring The Gnome Shell

If you are using Ubuntu, later versions of the OS have a GUI (called Unity) that looks more like a video game (or Windoze 8) than a real GUI. Good luck trying to get any actual work done under Unity. You'll probably want to replace the Unity GUI with the 3.4 Gnome Shell or, even better Gnome Classic, both of which have a GUI that is more like what you're used to.

Under Ubuntu 12.04, enter the following commands to install the Gnome-Shell 3.4:

     su
     add-apt-repository ppa:gnome3-team/gnome3
     apt-get update
     apt-get install gnome-shell

Under Ubuntu 12.10, you can simply install the Gnome-Shell, as above, but you will probably want to install the whole Gnome 3 desktop (which includes the 3.6 Gnome Shell) by entering the following commands:

     su
     apt-get install ubuntu-gnome-desktop ubuntu-gnome-default-settings

When you are prompted by the install, select GDM as the default display manager (supposedly, you can use LightDM but Gnome doesn't appear to work as well with LightDM as it does with GDM).

If GDM is already installed and the package manager doesn't prompt you to choose between LightDM and GDM, or you selected LightDM by mistake, you can run the following commands to set things right:

     su
     dpkg-reconfigure gdm

This time, select GDM instead of LightDM.

The "ubuntu-settings" package is used to set various Ubuntu defaults, like the window button order or which Rhythmbox plugins are enabled by default, as well as a number of other annoying defaults, so it is also a good idea to remove the "ubuntu-settings" package like this:

     su
     apt-get remove ubuntu-settings

Note that, when you remove the "ubuntu-settings" package, the "ubuntu-desktop" package will be removed as well. This is just a meta package and your system shouldn't be affected by its removal.

Even after you remove the "ubuntu-settings" package, the Gnome Shell will continue to use Ubuntu's overlay scrollbars. Personally, we think these are about the most annoying scrollbars we've ever seen so, if you want to use the Gnome 3 scrollbars instead, remove overlay scrollbars using the following commands:

     su
     apt-get remove overlay-scrollbar*

Once you're done with all of these changes, reboot the computer.

If you want Gnome Classic, when the login prompt appears, choose the "Not listed?" option. At that point, you'll see the "Session" choice. Click that and you'll see a list of sessions. From this list pick "Gnome Classic". You'll have to do this at the same time that you log in.

There is more information at this location:

     http://www.webupd8.org/2012/10/how-to-get-complete-gnome-3-desktop-in.html