Install Gnome 2.x in Mint 12 with Mate

If you want to get the old Gnome 2.x navigation and look, Mint 12 now offers this under the Mate configuration project.

In Ubuntu Oneiric’s universe repository there’s a package gnome-session-fallback that provides classic gnome desktop, but it ugly and uneasy to configure panel.
Now Linux Mint 12 has released. It brings MATE and MGSE.
MATE is a fork of Gnome 2 which is compatible with Gnome 3. Thanks to MATE, you can run both versions of Gnome on the same system
NOTE: MATE is brand new, it’s not completely stable yet, and it’s missing a few parts.
MGSE stands for Mint Gnome Shell Extension, it’s a Gnome 3 desktop with classic Gnome 2 style interface.



Install MATE and MGSE in ubuntu 11.10:
Open up a terminal window and edit the source.list by this command:

sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

in pop-up gedit window add this line to the end and save it.

deb http://packages.linuxmint.com/ lisa main upstream import

Now update the source, add the GPG key, and finally update the source again.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install linuxmint-keyring
sudo apt-get update

Now MGSE and MATE are available in Ubuntu SoftWare Center. Just search and install mint gnome shell extension and mint-meta-mate
Fix broken packages if installation failed:
I failed to install MATE due to python-desktop-mata package. But MGSE properly installed, previous picture is a screenshot of MGSE.
There’re two broken packages that can be fixed by Synaptic Package Manager.
1.) Install Synaptic by:

sudo apt-get install synaptic

2.)Launch Synaptic Package Manager, find Broken under Custom Filters. Mark to remove broken packages and finally apply the changes.
Fix Ubuntu Software Center doesn’t launch problem and sudo add-apt-repository error:
After installed MGSE and MATE, you may got error while running sudo add-apt-repository and can’t launch Ubuntu Software Center.
It can be easily fixed by:

sudo gedit /etc/lsb-release

change and make it look like following:

DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=11.10
DISTRIB_CODENAME=oneiric
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION=”Ubuntu oneiric”

Related posts:

1. Install and Add Linux Mini Main Menu (Mint-Menu) in Ubuntu 10.04 Panel
2. Ubucompilator-A GUI .deb package creator for ubuntu, debian, linux mint
3. Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Login to Classic Gnome2 and Gnome3(gnome-shell)
4. Clear sessions from drop-down list in LightDM Login Screen
5. Classic Menu indicator applet in Ubuntu 11.04 Unity system tray

Source: http://ubuntuguide.net/ubuntu-11-10-install-classic-gnome2-desktop-linux-mint-mate