Gnome minimal package selection

parbleu · 2021-11-28 14:23:54

Hi there,

coming from Debian I just started my journey with Arch. On Debian, I used to install only a subset of the GNOME stuff. However, Debian didn't provide the freedom to specify the packages in that detail as Arch does.

So I wonder, which of the GNOME packages are essential respectively highly recommended. I'm not referring to applications that are directly used, like evince, eog, etc. I think of those which are more active in the background, like gnome-keyring, gnome-menus, gnome-session. These were included in the minimal GNOME core provided by Debian, but maybe I can skip them or add them later if needed?

Trilby · 2021-11-28 14:36:56

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

Head_on_a_Stick · 2021-11-28 17:53:21

parbleu wrote:

So I wonder, which of the GNOME packages are essential respectively highly recommended.

That really depends on just how functional you want the desktop to be.

This time I went for 1, 8, 10, 16, 18, 21, 29, 30 & 31 (I think). I don't want or need GVFS, tracker or the applications but you might feel differently.

I would say that mutter, gnome-session & gnome-shell are the only really essential packages but most people would probably consider the resulting desktop to be fundamentally broken in respect of general functionality. YMMV.

Use the package information to make an informed decision about installing each component if you're not sure and yes, you can always add extra stuff later.

parbleu · 2021-11-30 19:24:18

Thanks for this detailed reply. I discovered that some packages are installed irrespectively if they were selected or not. One of these is gnome-sessions, but also gnome-online-accounts, gnome-color-manager and a few others.

Trilby · 2021-11-30 20:22:31

Gnome-session is a direct dependency of gnome-shell. But neither gnome-online-accounts nor gnome-color-manager are; nor are they anywhere in the dependency tree. So you must have explicitly installed something else that depends on them.

Last edited by Trilby (2021-11-30 20:22:51)

Head_on_a_Stick · 2021-12-01 17:55:15

Both gnome-online-accounts and gnome-color-manager are dependencies of gnome-control-center. You could actually do without that and just use gsettings instead (provided by the glib2 package) but it's a bit cumbersome.

Arch Linux

#1 2021-11-28 14:23:54

Gnome minimal package selection

#2 2021-11-28 14:36:56

Re: Gnome minimal package selection

#3 2021-11-28 17:53:21

Re: Gnome minimal package selection

#4 2021-11-30 19:24:18

Re: Gnome minimal package selection

#5 2021-11-30 20:22:31

Re: Gnome minimal package selection

#6 2021-12-01 17:55:15

Re: Gnome minimal package selection

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