Install Cinnamon 2.0 on Ubuntu 13.10 “Saucy Salamandar”

Cinnamon 2.0, the latest edition of the Cinnamon desktop environment, was released just eight days ago, while Ubuntu 13.10, the latest version of the popular Linux distribution, was released just yesterday.

This tutorial shows how to install Cinnamon 2.0 on Ubuntu 13.10 via a Personal Package Archives (PPA).

Warning: Installing Cinnamon (2.0) on Ubuntu 13.10 will break Unity. You will not be able to log into Unity again. If you really wish to run Cinnamon 2 on a Debian- or Ubuntu-based distribution, try Linux Mint Cinnamon.

For those who love the Cinnamon desktop, but not the Unity desktop, the default on Ubuntu 13.10, but still like the run Ubuntu Desktop, the method given in this tutorial is the best way to run Cinnamon 2.0 because the stable version of Cinnamon in the Ubuntu repository is Cinnamon 1.7.4.

All the steps will be carried out from the command line, so launch a shell terminal and lets begin. New users: Type “term” (minus the quotes) in the Ubuntu desktop’s search bar. The first item that shows up in the search results should be the shell terminal. Click to launch it.

Then type the following command to add the PPA to the list of package repositories available to your system: <strong>sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gwendal-lebihan-dev/cinnamon-stable</strong>. Follow that with <strong>sudo apt-get update</strong> to update the package database. Then install Cinnamon with <strong>sudo apt-get install cinnamon</strong>.

Reboot the computer. At the login screen, you should now have a Session menu that looks like the one in this image. Select Cinnamon and log in.

This is the default desktop you will see.

If you don’t like that, you can install additional themes by clicking on the Themes icon in Cinnamon’s System Settings. This screen shot shows the desktop with the Droit theme in use.