Arch Linux

ChoiYun

Member

Registered: 2021-04-25

Posts: 2

Install Gnome 3.38 instead of Gnome 40

Hello everyone! This is my first post on the forum, sorry if I'm in the wrong section. I have been using Arch for a few months, meaning I am still a complete beginner.

I reinstalled Arch a few weeks ago and decided to use Gnome (for the first time). I noticed that Gnome in the official repositories is at version 40 and I would like to use a slightly older version that is compatible with most extensions, such as Gnome 3.38.

How can I install Gnome 3 instead of Gnome 40 using the official repositories? Thanks!

Scimmia

Fellow

Registered: 2012-09-01

Posts: 13,729

Re: Install Gnome 3.38 instead of Gnome 40

Don't. Seriously, don't.

The only way would be to use the Archive to pin your entire system to a specific date, which you'd be stuck at.

ChoiYun

Member

Registered: 2021-04-25

Posts: 2

Re: Install Gnome 3.38 instead of Gnome 40

Don't. Seriously, don't.

The only way would be to use the Archive to pin your entire system to a specific date, which you'd be stuck at.

Should I just only wait to the extensions become portable to the latest version of Gnome?

eschwartz

Fellow

Registered: 2014-08-08

Posts: 4,097

Re: Install Gnome 3.38 instead of Gnome 40

In theory, you could maintain a fork of the entire Gnome ecosystem as custom packages. Maybe add them to the AUR.

You should not need custom packages for glib2/gtk3 at least... gnome 40 uses gtk4, but gtk3 is still around.

It's a lot of effort for little gain IMO.

---

Managing AUR repos The Right Way -- aurpublish (now a standalone tool)

liewkj

Member

Registered: 2019-07-08

Posts: 210

Re: Install Gnome 3.38 instead of Gnome 40

These are the packages that need to be downgraded to go back to last available GNOME 3.38. Note that partial update is not supported by official ArchLinux and to keep the rest of the system updated you will have to customize pacman to ignore them until all your must-have extensions catch up with GNOME 40. You may also want to check if downgrade is necessary for plugins that use notification, such as weather & clock.

gnome-settings-daemon-3.38.1-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst
gnome-shell-1_3.38.4-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst
gnome-shell-extensions-3.38.2-1-any.pkg.tar.zst
mutter-3.38.4-2-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst

MS-DTYP

Member

Registered: 2020-05-01

Posts: 30

Re: Install Gnome 3.38 instead of Gnome 40

I was able to downgrade to GNOME 3.38 by the following command:

downgrade baobab cheese eog epiphany evince file-roller gdm gedit gnome-autoar gnome-backgrounds gnome-bluetooth gnome-books gnome-boxes gnome-calculator gnome-calendar gnome-characters gnome-clocks gnome-color-manager gnome-contacts gnome-control-center gnome-desktop gnome-disk-utility gnome-documents gnome-font-viewer gnome-keyring gnome-logs gnome-maps gnome-menus gnome-music gnome-online-accounts gnome-photos gnome-remote-desktop gnome-screenshot gnome-session gnome-settings-daemon gnome-shell gnome-shell-extensions gnome-software gnome-system-monitor gnome-terminal gnome-themes-extra gnome-user-docs gnome-user-share gnome-video-effects gnome-weather grilo-plugins gvfs gvfs-afc gvfs-goa gvfs-google gvfs-gphoto2 gvfs-mtp gvfs-nfs gvfs-smb mutter nautilus networkmanager orca rygel sushi totem tracker tracker3 tracker3-miners tracker-miners vino xdg-user-dirs-gtk yelp gjs gcr evolution-data-server libdazzle adwaita-icon-theme gsettings-desktop-schemas libgdm libnautilus-extension simple-scan

It kind of works, not without errors, and without gnome-calendar, but it works.

The new GNOME design is absolutely unproductive.

Maybe there is a way to enable the old design in the latest version? I know of the RensAlthuis/vertical-overview extension, but doesn't do everything I need.

Also for everyone, may be the solution from https://www.reddit.com/r/archlinux/comm … to_revert/ will be useful for you.

Last edited by MS-DTYP (2021-05-10 18:53:06)

Scimmia

Fellow

Registered: 2012-09-01

Posts: 13,729

Re: Install Gnome 3.38 instead of Gnome 40

That only works until there's an icu update, or glib2 update, or any number of other updates that the rest of your system will require and will completely break your setup holding back gnome. Terrible idea.

Last edited by Scimmia (2021-05-10 23:11:17)

digitalone

Member

Registered: 2011-08-19

Posts: 355

Re: Install Gnome 3.38 instead of Gnome 40

If you use Gnome on Arch, be sure to install less extension as possible. The only useful one I have is the clipboard indicator. Otherwise, it's better to use another distribution.