Gnome2 -> Gnome3 - no way

[Valeri Galtsev]

On Tue, January 6, 2015 3:21 am, a jenisch wrote:
> Hi,
>
> In the process of upgrading one of my systems (FreeBSD amd64,
> 9.3-STABLE) I came across the update from gnome2 to gnome 3.
> The corresponding entry in /usr/ports/UPDATING says
>
> ---------- < cut here > ----------
>
> 20141119:
>   AFFECTS: users of x11/gnome2, graphics/clutter and lang/vala
> ...
>   Make a list of the installed ports:
>   # pkg info > ~/installed-ports-list
>
>   Delete the old and conflicting packages:
>   # pkg delete clutter gnome-utils gnome-panel gnome-keyring vala-vapigen
> \
>       guile gcalctool gnome-media libgnomekbd gnome-themes at-spi
>   # pkg delete gnome-screensaver gnome-applets bug-buddy \
>       evolution-exchange evolution-webcal gnome-system-tools \
>       seahorse-plugins gnome-control-center
>   For package users the following lines will be enough:
>   # pkg upgrade
>   # pkg install gnome3
>
>   For ports users should do the following:
>   # portmaster -a
>   # portmaster x11/gnome3
>
> ---------- < cut here > ----------
>
> Up to and including the "pkg delete" entries everything went OK.
>
> But when I tried to do a "pkg install gnome3" I only got
>
> # pkg install gnome3
> Updating FreeBSD repository catalogue...
> FreeBSD repository is up-to-date.
> All repositories are up-to-date.
> pkg: No packages available to install matching 'gnome3' have been
> found in the repositories
> #
>
> The only gnome3-related thing that seems to be available as package
> seems to be "gnome3-lite" which clearly is not the full gnome3.
>
> Even though I normally use portupgrade for upgrading my ports I tried
> to run the two portmaster commands given in "UPDATING" but again this
> didn't work.
>
> Just out of curiosity I went and installed a fresh 10.1 System and
> tried to do a "pkg install gnome3" there - again gnome3 couldn't be
> found as a package; so this seems to be a more general issue.
>
>
>
> So here are my questions:
>
> o) Has anybody else out there experienced similar issues in upgrading
> from gnome2 to gnome3?
>
> o) How can I get gnome3 on my system again?
>
> o) AFAIK gnome3 is a supported desktop environment under FreeBSD (?).
> Are there, besides KDE which I don't like for personal reasons, any
> reasonable alternatives providing similar features like Gnome?
>
> Thanks much in advance for your help,
> -ewald

On a side note (as I do not know if at all it is applicable to you): I for
one just switched away from Gnome 3: in a course of upgrade from FreeBSD
10.0 to 10.1 I was made to "step up" from Gnome 2 to Gnome 3 (successfully
in my case - on technical side of it). And after a couple of weeks of
frustration of just trying to do what I usually do on my workstation I
decided to give up on Gnome. If you are happy with Gnome 3, just junk this
my e-mail. Anyway, I asked on this list an advice "from a person not ready
to join ipad generation ;-)" what would be decent replacement of Gnome 3.

Thanks to everybody for all your advices and suggestions!!

I ended up switching from Gnome 3 to mate. I just added mate, leaving
everything else as it was (i.e. starting gdm, etc.), and at X login screen
I can choose mate. And I work on my workstation happily ever since. As
(someone mentioned on this thread) mate is a fork of Gnome.

Other options mentioned in advises were (and I tried them too, and each of
them fills the bill, mate was just something I was most comfortable with):

xfce
fvwm
i3
lxde

KDE (which I disregarded; basically it is the new way of user interaction
in Gnome 3 that I can not stand mostly; and KDE 4 is pretty much alike)

Valeri


++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Valeri Galtsev
Sr System Administrator
Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics
Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics
University of Chicago
Phone: 773-702-4247
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