How to try out Gnome 40 testing

This is based on Babywogue’s tutorial

With the rapid development of Gnome 40, it can be great if users could easily try out the proposed changes. Currently, there is no simple way to try out Gnome 40, so here is a guide to installing it in Fedora Rawhide.

It is recommended you try this using a virtual machine as this could mess your current install. Enable 3D acceleration on your preferred VM software for the best experience.

Additionally, using a shell such as fish makes the process easier.

Step 1. Build dependencies.

~$ sudo dnf build-dep mutter gnome-shell

Step 2. Create a new directory to build mutter.

~$ mkdir Gnome40
~$ cd Gnome40/

Step 3. Clone Muter

~$ git clone https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/mutter

Step 4. Build Mutter. This will replace your current package.

~$ cd mutter
~$ meson _build --prefix=/usr
~$ sudo ninja -C /home/yourUserNameHere/Gnome40/mutter/_build

Wait for it to finish before installing the shell.

Step 5. Clone Shell 40

~$ cd ../
~$ git clone https://gitlab.gnome.org/feaneron/gnome-shell/

Step 6. Build Shell 40

~$ cd gnome-shell
~$ git checkout gbsneto/40-stuff
~$ meson _build --prefix=/usr
~$ sudo ninja install -C _build

Note, you may need to install sassc and asciidoc separately.

Step 7. Restart Gnome-shell by re-logging.

Done.

3 Likes

I wonder how long before GNOMEOS comes with GNOME 40…

That will likely make it far easier to test (although you might end up downloading the image a few times…)