Want to try out the new Gnome 40 Desktop? You can install it in Ubuntu 21.04 Hirsute Hippo via PPA.

Gnome 40 was released more than a week ago with new features including new design for the overview screen, a horizontal workspace switcher, Dock at the bottom, new gestures, and more.

While Ubuntu 21.04 includes Gnome 3.38.x with some Gnome 40 core applications, you can get the new desktop environment via this third-party PPA.

1.) Firstly open terminal by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard. When it opens, run command to add the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:shemgp/gnome-40

Type your user password (no asterisk feedback) when it asks and hit Enter to continue.

2.) After adding the PPA, run command to upgrade the mutter window manager:

sudo apt install mutter

You can follow the command in the PPA description, which adds the package version in the code. It however just works with the package name only.

3.) Then install Gnome Shell 40 via command:

sudo apt install gnome-shell

4.) As the default Yaru theme is not updated for Gnome 40, you have to install and use Gnome Session instead of the Ubuntu Session. To install it, run command:

sudo apt install gnome-session

5.) And run command for the rest packages:

sudo apt upgrade

Finally reboot your machine. When you’re in login screen, DO SELECT “Gnome” or “Gnome on Xorg” before logging in. To do so, select your user and then click the gear button in the bottom-right and select Gnome in popup menu.

How to Uninstall Gnome 40:

To remove the new Gnome Desktop and revert back to the original v3.38.x, run command to purge the Ubuntu PPA:

sudo apt install ppa-purge && sudo ppa-purge ppa:shemgp/gnome-40

And if you no longer use the Gnome Session from login screen, remove it via command:

sudo apt remove gnome-session

Prefer the light mode appearance? Here’s how to change the system tray menu, date & time menu, notifications, and other top panel drop-down menus from dark to light in Ubuntu 21.04.

Different to previous Ubuntu releases, Ubuntu 21.04 now has top-panel menus in dark mode. It’s good for those prefer the dark themes. However, light mode fans need to change the Gnome Shell theme to get better experience.

Before:

After:

1. Install User Themes Extension:

To get started, you have to first install the User Themes Gnome Shell extension, which enables ability to change the Gnome Shell Theme.

Method 1: Install the extension via single command:

Press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to bring up a terminal window and run the command below will install a dozen of extensions, including User Themes, in Ubuntu:

sudo apt install gnome-shell-extensions

Once installed, log out and back in.

Method 2: Install the extension from extensions.gnome.org:

For clean freak just need the single extension, firstly install chrome-gnome-shell package via command:

sudo apt install chrome-gnome-shell

Then click to go to the extension web page and turn on the toggle icon to install the extension.

Don’t see the toggle icon? Click ‘Click here to install browser extension’ to install browser extension, and then refresh the web page.

2. Change Gnome Shell Theme:

After installed User Themes extension, launch Gnome Tweaks (install it from Ubuntu Software) and go to Extensions tab.

There scroll down, find out and turn on the extension, click the gear button to get into settings. And finally select Yaru-light or gnome classic for even light top panel.

That’s it. Enjoy!

Want to start drawing on your screen and save artwork as PNG or SVG? It’s easy to do this in Ubuntu via Gnome Extension.

“Draw On Your Screen” is a Gnome Shell extension allows to start or stop drawing on screen easily via Alt+Super+D keyboard shortcut. With it, you can start free drawing, create basic shapes, insert text, and export your artwork to SVG file.

1.) Install the Gnome Shell Extension for Ubuntu 20.04:

The extension is available as normal software package in Ubuntu repository. Simply open terminal either from your system app launcher, or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard. When it opens, run command to install the extension:

sudo apt install gnome-shell-extension-draw-on-your-screen

Type your user password, if it asks, and hit Enter. For security reason, there’s no asterisk feedback.

2.) Enable the Extension.

The extension is not enabled immediately after installation. So you have to turn it on via the Gnome Tweaks tool.

1. First press Alt+F2 to bring up ‘Run a Command’ dialog box, type r, and hit Enter to restart Gnome Shell without losing any running applications.

2. Install Gnome Tweaks from Ubuntu Software if you don’t have it. Then open it and navigate to Extensions tab.

There turn on the toggle icon for the extension to enable it.

3.) Start drawing on your screen.

Now you can start drawing by pressing Alt+Super+D, and leave the mode either by pressing the keyboard shortcut again or use Esc key.

In the drawing mode, you can right-click on desktop to get a list of menu options.

To draw rectangle, circle, line, insert text, and more shortcuts, press Ctrl+F1 to get help.

For more about the extension, tips and tricks, go to the project page.

Install the Extension for Ubuntu 22.04

The original extension ends supporting up to Gnome 38. For Ubuntu 22.04 users, do the steps below one by one to install the v2 fork.

1. First, open Ubuntu Software then search for and install ‘Extension Manager’.

Install Extension Manager in Ubuntu 22.04+

2. Next, launch ‘Extension Manager’ from Activities overview screen (press Windows logo key to activate).

3. Finally use Extension Manager to search and install the tool for drawing on screen:

After installed it, you may use the same shortcut (Super+Alt+D) to start drawing in Ubuntu 22.04 screen. Though, you can also go back ‘Installed’ tab in Extension Manager and configure the extension for more options.

Want to disable the top panel, left dock launcher, search box, and other Gnome UI elements in Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 22.04, and Ubuntu 24.04 LTS? You can now do it via a Gnome Shell extension.

Just Perfection is an extension allows you to get a super minimal GNOME desktop. It offers a list of options to toggle on / off the visibility of Gnome top bar, Dash (dock launcher), Search (search box in both Activities view and ‘Show Applications’), Hot Corner, OSD (notification pop-up), Workspace popup and workspace switcher, Background Menu, App Gesture.

It also overrides the current GNOME shell theme while user themes extension is not required.

To install the extension in Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 22.04, and Ubuntu 24.04., do following steps one by one:

1. Open terminal and run command to install chrome-gnome-shell package if you don’t have it.

sudo apt install chrome-gnome-shell

2. Then go to the extension web page, turn on the toggle icon to install it.

Don’t see the toggle icon? Click the link which says “Click here to install browser extension” to install browser extension and refresh the web page.

NOTE 1: the extension by default disable all the available options. If you want to re-enable any of them, press Ctrl+Alt+T to open terminal and run command:

gnome-tweaks

to bring up Gnome Tweak tool (install it via sudo apt install gnome-tweaks command) and change the settings in Extensions tab.

NOTE 2: At the moment of writing, the extension supports for Gnome from 3.36 to 46. Check the ‘Shell version…’ drop-down box before installing it on your system.

In the default Gnome desktop when you trying to open an application, the app window sometimes does not get into focus immediately, instead it pops up ‘xxx’ is ready notification and opens the window behind the current focused window.

This usually happens when another window is getting focused during the process of launching a desired application.

To get rid of the ‘Window is ready’ notification and focus window immediately, I think a quick enough system response should fix the problem. Besides, you can install “Focus my window” Gnome extension.

1.) Open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command to install chrome-gnome-shell package if you don’t have it.

sudo apt install chrome-gnome-shell

2.) Then go to the extension web page in your browser. Turn on the toggle icon and install it.

NOTE: The old extension is no longer exist. The new one supports only GNOME 45 and 46 so far, meaning for Ubuntu 23.10 and Ubuntu 24.04!.

Don’t see the toggle icon? Click the link “Click here to install browser extension” and finally refresh the page.

That’s it. Enjoy!

(Optional) If you want to remove the gnome shell extensions, either turn off the toggle icon in the web page, or use either Extensions or GNOME Extensions Manager (both available in the new App Center app) utility.

In Ubuntu 20.04 Gnome Shell, application indicator on top panel has wide spaces between icons. You can reduce the icon spacing via an extension called Unite.

Unite is a Gnome Shell extension which makes a few layout tweaks to the top panel and removes window decorations to make it look like Ubuntu Unity Shell. With the extension, your system tray area will look like:

To install the extension, do following steps one by one.

1.) Open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command:

sudo apt install chrome-gnome-shell

2.) Run command to install the extension required x11-utils library:

sudo apt install x11-utils

3.) Go to extensions.gnome.org/…/unite/, toggle on and install the extension.

If you don’t see the toggle icon, click link to install browser extension and refresh this web page

The extension by default reduces top bar item spacing. To tweak other panel appearance, open Gnome Tweaks (or Extensions tool), and go to unite settings.