GNOME - Installing a standard GNOME group for best GNOME experience and integration

(A copy of my post from Reddit, perhaps new users will benefit from this)

Endeavour OS is the best Arch-based distro in my opinion. A big thank you to the development team.

My preferred DE is GNOME and after using Fedora for a while, I appreciated Fedora’s excellent GNOME integration. Once I installed Endeavour, I noticed that GNOME application group is only partially installed with missing extensions, virtual file systems and applications provided by a standard GNOME application group. I realize that this is done by design to achieve a minimal installation and everything else is left to the user.

But in the future if would be great to have this as an option during installation and install the standard GNOME group.

So, for those of you who would like to achieve a better GNOME integration, run the following command to complete the standard GNOME group of applications and extensions, then reboot and enjoy a better GNOME integration:

sudo pacman -S --needed gnome

:point_up_2:

Endeavouros help you with basic . usr do rest :+1: That the point

5 Likes
[scott@endeavourOS ~]$ sudo pacman -S --needed gnome
[sudo] password for scott: 
warning: baobab-41.0-1 is up to date -- skipping
warning: cheese-41.1-1 is up to date -- skipping
warning: eog-41.1-1 is up to date -- skipping
warning: epiphany-41.0-1 is up to date -- skipping
warning: evince-41.3-1 is up to date -- skipping
warning: file-roller-3.40.0-1 is up to date -- skipping
warning: gedit-40.1-1 is up to date -- skipping
warning: gnome-backgrounds-41.0-1 is up to date -- skipping
warning: gnome-books-40.0-1 is up to date -- skipping
warning: gnome-calculator-41.1-1 is up to date -- skipping
warning: gnome-calendar-41.1-1 is up to date -- skipping
warning: gnome-characters-41.0-1 is up to date -- skipping
warning: gnome-clocks-41.0-1 is up to date -- skipping
warning: gnome-color-manager-3.36.0-1 is up to date -- skipping
warning: gnome-contacts-41.0-2 is up to date -- skipping
warning: gnome-control-center-41.2-1 is up to date -- skipping
warning: gnome-disk-utility-41.0-1 is up to date -- skipping
warning: gnome-font-viewer-41.0-1 is up to date -- skipping
warning: gnome-keyring-1:40.0-1 is up to date -- skipping
warning: gnome-logs-3.36.0-1 is up to date -- skipping
warning: gnome-maps-41.2-1 is up to date -- skipping
warning: gnome-menus-3.36.0-1 is up to date -- skipping
warning: gnome-music-1:41.0-1 is up to date -- skipping
warning: gnome-photos-40.0+14+g884b1fd1-1 is up to date -- skipping
warning: gnome-remote-desktop-41.2-1 is up to date -- skipping
warning: gnome-screenshot-41.0-1 is up to date -- skipping
warning: gnome-session-40.1.1-1 is up to date -- skipping
warning: gnome-settings-daemon-41.0-1 is up to date -- skipping
warning: gnome-shell-1:41.1-1 is up to date -- skipping
warning: gnome-shell-extensions-41.0-1 is up to date -- skipping
warning: gnome-system-monitor-41.0-1 is up to date -- skipping
warning: gnome-themes-extra-3.28-2 is up to date -- skipping
warning: gnome-user-docs-41.1-1 is up to date -- skipping
warning: gnome-user-share-3.34.0-2 is up to date -- skipping
warning: gnome-video-effects-0.5.0+4+g9554041-2 is up to date -- skipping
warning: gnome-weather-41.0-1 is up to date -- skipping
warning: grilo-plugins-1:0.3.14-1 is up to date -- skipping
warning: gvfs-1.48.1-1 is up to date -- skipping
warning: gvfs-afc-1.48.1-1 is up to date -- skipping
warning: gvfs-goa-1.48.1-1 is up to date -- skipping
warning: gvfs-google-1.48.1-1 is up to date -- skipping
warning: gvfs-gphoto2-1.48.1-1 is up to date -- skipping
warning: gvfs-mtp-1.48.1-1 is up to date -- skipping
warning: gvfs-nfs-1.48.1-1 is up to date -- skipping
warning: gvfs-smb-1.48.1-1 is up to date -- skipping
warning: mutter-41.1+r20+ge3931f7b8-1 is up to date -- skipping
warning: nautilus-41.1-1 is up to date -- skipping
warning: orca-41.0-1 is up to date -- skipping
warning: rygel-1:0.40.2-3 is up to date -- skipping
warning: sushi-41.0-1 is up to date -- skipping
warning: totem-3.38.2-1 is up to date -- skipping
warning: tracker-2.3.6+7+gb27396252-3 is up to date -- skipping
warning: tracker-miners-2.3.5+2+gec09554af-4 is up to date -- skipping
warning: tracker3-miners-3.2.1-2 is up to date -- skipping
warning: vino-3.22.0+74+g7a95e10-1 is up to date -- skipping
warning: xdg-user-dirs-gtk-0.10+9+g5b7efc6-3 is up to date -- skipping
warning: yelp-41.2-1 is up to date -- skipping
warning: gnome-boxes-41.2-1 is up to date -- skipping
warning: simple-scan-40.6-1 is up to date -- skipping
:: There are 3 members in group gnome:
:: Repository extra
   1) gdm  2) gnome-software  3) gnome-terminal

Enter a selection (default=all): 

For those curious to know exactly what the command sudo pacman -S --needed gnome will install, look at the above. You can ignore the “warnings” as those are only there because I already have those packages installed. The only thing --needed gnome will install for me is gdm, gnome software, and gnome terminal. I use a patched AUR version of GDM for Nvidia/intel hybrid optimus drivers to work so I don’t want that, gnome software you shouldn’t even use on an Arch-based system, you should rely on pacman or Pamac if you really need a GUI, but I would only recommend pacman myself, and I use Tilix over gnome terminal, so that would be installed as well. The new Atlantis install is a very very minimal Gnome install. My Gnome install is from back in July when the team shipped more common Gnome components by default, but with the new Atlantis release that has changed. So for me I don’t have anything I need to do here, but for brand new users that installed Atlantis, I would say this is a very good command to use, I would just excluded Gnome Software, but everything else looks good for users that want what I want, which is like a pure Gnome desktop type of experience. Thanks for this post though, I found this very useful to know!

2 Likes

Which ones? Aren’t they available for selection from the Calamares installer?

I’ll give the install a go this weekend. As far as I could tell on my last install, everything GNOME seemed to work. What packages do you think are missing? If @Scotty_Trees is correct, he didn’t pull a single package, everything was skipped due to being installed.

There’s a way to add in your own specific packages, and I believe even an entire package list if you want during the installation.

It sounds like you’d like to add in the gnome-extra package. That wouldn’t likely be something EOS would ever ship. No need for “extras,” that’s up to the end user.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/GNOME#Installation

2 Likes

I am only talking about gnome, not gnome-extra. Just did a fresh install in a VM and ran “sudo pacman -S --needed gnome”. Here is the difference of what’s installed (skipping) and what would be added as part of the standard gnome group:

[dan@dan-standardpcq35ich92009 ~]$ sudo pacman -S --needed gnome
[sudo] password for dan:
warning: eog-41.1-1 is up to date – skipping
warning: evince-41.3-1 is up to date – skipping
warning: file-roller-3.40.0-1 is up to date – skipping
warning: gdm-41.0+r15+g23ebe617-1 is up to date – skipping
warning: gedit-40.1-1 is up to date – skipping
warning: gnome-color-manager-3.36.0-1 is up to date – skipping
warning: gnome-control-center-41.2-1 is up to date – skipping
warning: gnome-disk-utility-41.0-1 is up to date – skipping
warning: gnome-keyring-1:40.0-1 is up to date – skipping
warning: gnome-screenshot-41.0-1 is up to date – skipping
warning: gnome-session-40.1.1-1 is up to date – skipping
warning: gnome-settings-daemon-41.0-1 is up to date – skipping
warning: gnome-shell-1:41.1-1 is up to date – skipping
warning: gnome-terminal-3.42.2-1 is up to date – skipping
warning: gnome-themes-extra-3.28-2 is up to date – skipping
warning: gvfs-1.48.1-1 is up to date – skipping
warning: gvfs-afc-1.48.1-1 is up to date – skipping
warning: gvfs-gphoto2-1.48.1-1 is up to date – skipping
warning: gvfs-mtp-1.48.1-1 is up to date – skipping
warning: gvfs-nfs-1.48.1-1 is up to date – skipping
warning: gvfs-smb-1.48.1-1 is up to date – skipping
warning: mutter-41.1+r20+ge3931f7b8-1 is up to date – skipping
warning: nautilus-41.1-1 is up to date – skipping
warning: sushi-41.0-1 is up to date – skipping
warning: totem-3.38.2-1 is up to date – skipping
warning: tracker3-miners-3.2.1-2 is up to date – skipping
warning: xdg-user-dirs-gtk-0.10+9+g5b7efc6-3 is up to date – skipping
:: There are 35 members in group gnome:
:: Repository extra

  1. baobab 2) cheese 3) epiphany 4) gnome-backgrounds 5) gnome-books 6) gnome-calculator
  2. gnome-calendar 8) gnome-characters 9) gnome-clocks 10) gnome-contacts 11) gnome-font-viewer
  3. gnome-logs 13) gnome-maps 14) gnome-menus 15) gnome-music 16) gnome-photos
  4. gnome-remote-desktop 18) gnome-shell-extensions 19) gnome-software 20) gnome-system-monitor
  5. gnome-user-docs 22) gnome-user-share 23) gnome-video-effects 24) gnome-weather
  6. grilo-plugins 26) gvfs-goa 27) gvfs-google 28) orca 29) rygel 30) tracker
  7. tracker-miners 32) vino 33) yelp
    :: Repository community
  8. gnome-boxes 35) simple-scan

Enter a selection (default=all):

1 Like

Many of these are what other people would call “bloat”…

6 Likes

Or aptly named “extra” by the repository.

2 Likes

I understand and this is not an issue for more experienced users.

So, I did a quick test and installed Arch (using archinstall script) with GNOME chosen as a DE and surprisingly the entire GNOME group is installed even with Arch. Something to perhaps consider for future ISOs, at least to have an option (full or basic GNOME group). New users moving from other GNOME based distros might appreciate it…

Hmm I like the idea personally. Not sure how easy that would be to implement into the .iso though or if it would add extra work for the .iso devs. I’ll check out the .iso in Boxes to see what all can/could be installed in a Gnome install. Brb.

While I understand your argument - New users aren’t likely using Arch, or Endeavour. Endeavour is geared towards those who already know what they want in their system, and just need a great starting point to customize their own system. It’s not specifically a full fledged and accessorized setup. Anyone using EOS should know they need those extra packages, not have to remove them later if they weren’t wanted.

You can ALWAYS add more packages to the installer if you’d like them to be installed during the initial process.

Even if a user doesn’t know and i can attest to that. They find out in a hurry and they learn as they go. As you say most new users already know what they want and that’s why they have chosen EndeavourOS to begin with.

I don’t know what the current options are in Calamares, but having both “GNOME” and “GNOME Extras” check-boxes should be a pretty straightforward solution to this.

1 Like

Well that’s kind of the thing, there is not a “Gnome Extra” package to select or more accurately, there is no way currently in the Calamares installer to install the --needed gnome packages, an option that could be included, but I’m not sure if it should or not. Screenshot below shows Gnome installs a very basic Gnome setup without much of anything, but I think that was the devs intentions, to cut down on download/install time and limit bloat and let the user install whatever they want:

Screenshot from 2021-12-13 12-06-49

I guess it depends how the selection compares to the other DEs. If it’s equivalent then it’s fine as-is. Otherwise, adding another item “GNOME Desktop Extras” containing the gnome-extra group would do the job.

1 Like

not a bad thing it no there :innocent: ( my opinion only )

2 Likes

The problem with that approach is most users select the top level DE item without drilling in. Since EOS is trying to provide a minimal but functional install be default, that wouldn’t really work. You would really need second, less minimal, section for each DE. However, that becomes confusing and the reality is that even with two options people would still be complaining that there wasn’t an option which exactly met their needs.

5 Likes

I don’t know why people want this stuff added. There is a user_pkglist you can use to install additional software on the install. Nobody is even using it hardly. You can also install this after with the package manager. The options that are already included in the packages have been decided on by the devs. If we include packages for every little thing everyone wants then it really isn’t EndeavourOS anymore. It just becomes another bloated distro! Well at least Gnome is bloated! :rofl:

3 Likes