How can I install Gnome 3 on Debian Squeeze?

Question

I would like to replace Gnome 2 with Gnome 3, but I do not want to upgrade from Squeeze to Wheezy. How can I do that?

Answer 1

There are currently no plans to backport Gnome 3 to Squeeze. You can (though you shouldn't) install Gnome 3 from testing:

1. Open /etc/apt/sources.list in your favourite text editor
2. Add the line deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ wheezy main at the end of the file
3. Run apt-get update to update APT's lists
4. Upgrade the gnome-core package from your favourite APT frontend

This should get you Gnome 3 in a Squeeze-Wheezy hybrid. However, following the steps above is not recommended since mixing two releases is a Bad Thing. While it may work, it may also leave you with a broken system.

What are the reasons keeping you from upgrading from Squeeze to Wheezy? Fixing those reasons might be easier and safer than creating the above-mentioned Squeeze-Wheezy hybrid

Answer 2

You will need to install aptitude and tasksel before install gnome. I followed this page and it works on Debian Squeeze too. http://namhuy.net/1085/install-gui-on-debian-7-wheezy.html

Aptitude is an Ncurses based FrontEnd to Apt, the debian package manager.

Tasksel is a tool that installs multiple related packages as a co-ordinated “task” onto your system.

# apt-get install aptitude tasksel

Install gnome on debian

# tasksel install gnome-desktop --new-install