How to Install Cinnamon 1.8 Desktop Environment in Ubuntu 13.04

Ubuntu 13.04 Raring Ringtail shipped with Unity 7, but plenty of users were eyeing an alternative that offered a more traditional desktop metaphor without sacrificing modern features. Cinnamon 1.8, developed by the Linux Mint team, hit that sweet spot—a polished, taskbar-driven interface built on modern GNOME technologies. This guide walks through the complete installation on Ubuntu 13.04, followed by configuration, theming, and a frank look at how it compares to GNOME Shell.

What Cinnamon 1.8 Brings to the Table

Cinnamon 1.8 was a significant release. The headline features included:

• Improved Nemo file manager with better performance and new plugin support.
• Screensaver overhaul replacing gnome-screensaver with a Cinnamon-native implementation.
• Desklet support for placing widgets directly on the desktop (clocks, launchers, system monitors).
• Edge-tiling refinements allowing half-screen and quadrant snapping.
• Revamped settings panel consolidating all configuration into a single, well-organised window.

If you were frustrated by GNOME Shell’s minimal approach or Unity’s rigid layout, Cinnamon offered something refreshingly customisable.

Step-by-Step Installation

Step 1 — Add the Cinnamon PPA

The version of Cinnamon in the Ubuntu 13.04 universe repository was outdated. The dedicated PPA carried the latest 1.8.x builds.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gwendal-lebihan-dev/cinnamon-stable

Press Enter when prompted to confirm the PPA addition.

Step 2 — Update the Package Index

sudo apt-get update

Wait for the repository metadata to refresh. You should see the new PPA listed in the output.

Step 3 — Install Cinnamon

sudo apt-get install cinnamon

This pulls in the Cinnamon desktop shell, Nemo file manager, and all required dependencies. The download is roughly 80–120 MB depending on what you already have installed.

Step 4 — Log Out and Switch Sessions

Log out of your current Unity session. At the LightDM login screen, click the small session selector icon (usually a gear or Ubuntu logo beside your username) and choose Cinnamon. Enter your password and log in.

Step 5 — Verify the Installation

Once logged in, you should see the Cinnamon panel at the bottom of the screen with a menu button, task list, system tray, and clock. Open a terminal and confirm the version:

cinnamon --version

You should see output like Cinnamon 1.8.x.

Configuring Cinnamon

System Settings

Open Menu → System Settings (or right-click the desktop and select Settings). The Cinnamon Settings panel is divided into sections:

• Appearance — themes, backgrounds, fonts, and effects.
• Preferences — applets, desklets, extensions, notifications.
• Hardware — display, keyboard, mouse, sound, power management.

Panel Customisation

Right-click the bottom panel to access panel settings. You can move the panel to the top, enable a second panel, adjust height, and toggle auto-hide. Applets can be added or removed by right-clicking the panel and selecting Add applets to the panel.

Hot Corners

Navigate to Settings → Hot Corners to assign actions to screen corners. Common choices include showing the Expo view (all workspaces) or the Scale view (all windows on the current workspace).

Theming Cinnamon 1.8

Cinnamon separates theming into three layers: window borders (Metacity/Muffin themes), controls (GTK themes), and the desktop/shell (Cinnamon themes). You can mix and match.

Installing Third-Party Themes

Download theme archives and extract them to the appropriate directory:

mkdir -p ~/.themes

Extract GTK and Cinnamon themes into ~/.themes/. Then open Settings → Themes and select them from the drop-downs.

Icon Themes

Icon packs go into ~/.icons/. Popular choices of the era included Faenza, Numix, and Moka. After placing the icon folder, select it under Settings → Themes → Icons.

Cinnamon vs GNOME Shell on Ubuntu 13.04

For users migrating from Windows or traditional GNOME 2, Cinnamon’s workflow felt immediately familiar. GNOME Shell, by contrast, required a shift in habits—powerful once learned, but steeper up front.

Common Pitfalls

Screen tearing on NVIDIA cards. Cinnamon’s compositor could exhibit tearing with proprietary NVIDIA drivers. The fix was to enable “Force Composition Pipeline” in NVIDIA X Server Settings, or to add export CLUTTER_VBLANK=True to your ~/.profile.

Cinnamon crashes falling back to software rendering. If your GPU driver was misconfigured, Cinnamon would start in software rendering mode (extremely slow). Run glxinfo | grep "direct rendering" to verify hardware acceleration. If it says “No”, fix your graphics driver first.

PPA version conflicts after dist-upgrade. If you later upgraded to Ubuntu 13.10, the PPA packages could conflict with updated GNOME libraries. The safest approach was to purge the PPA before upgrading using ppa-purge:

sudo apt-get install ppa-purge
sudo ppa-purge ppa:gwendal-lebihan-dev/cinnamon-stable

Nemo replacing Nautilus as default. Installing Cinnamon made Nemo the default file manager system-wide, including in Unity. To revert, run:

xdg-mime default nautilus.desktop inode/directory application/x-gnome-saved-search

Removing Cinnamon

If you decide Cinnamon is not for you, removal is straightforward:

sudo apt-get remove cinnamon cinnamon-common cinnamon-settings nemo
sudo apt-get autoremove

Log out, switch your session back to Ubuntu at the login screen, and everything returns to the standard Unity desktop.

Final Thoughts

Cinnamon 1.8 on Ubuntu 13.04 was one of the best ways to get a traditional, customisable desktop without leaving the Ubuntu ecosystem. The PPA made installation painless, and the settings panel gave you granular control over nearly every visual and behavioural aspect of the desktop. If you were running Raring Ringtail and wanted an alternative to Unity, Cinnamon was a seriously compelling choice.