How to install the Linux Mint Cinnamon desktop environment on Ubuntu

If you have finally taken your decision of switching from Windows to Linux, and made the move to Ubuntu, for its widespread popularity, that’s great! But after being a Windows user for quite some time, there are chances you will feel homesick for not getting the start menu at its place, and the overall user interface, which is quite different on Ubuntu, which runs the Unity desktop. But, being a new user on Linux, you will need support in almost every stage, and the large online community using Ubuntu will surely help you with most issues that you will come across. 

Unlike Windows computers, you can change the complete desktop environment on a Linux distribution, to make everything look exactly the way you want. There is a handful of Linux desktop environments, which come with something similar to the start menu on Windows computers. One of them is the Cinnamon desktop environment which comes with the Linux Mint distribution of Linux. As Linux is open-source, you can simply download the Cinnamon desktop environment on your Ubuntu computer to get the user interface you are looking for without ditching Ubuntu altogether, where you can get support for all the simple problems that you will come across. So, installing the Cinnamon desktop environment on Ubuntu will bring the best of both worlds.

Now, without any further delay, let’s get started with how you can install the Cinnamon desktop environment on your computer running Ubuntu.

Installing Cinnamon desktop on Ubuntu

Step 1: The first step will be to add the repository download and install the Cinnamon desktop environment using the PPA. Just enter the following command after opening a Linux terminal and hit the enter key.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:embrosyn/cinnamon

download and install the Cinnamon desktop environment

Step 2: This will start adding the repository on your computer running Ubuntu, and you will have to allow the process of adding the repository by hitting the enter key when you are prompted to do so.

Install Cinnamon desktop environment on Ubuntu 20

Step 3: After the repository is added, you should update the repository by typing the following command and by hitting the enter key.

sudo apt update

update the repository

Step 4: Once the execution is complete, you should finally execute the final command to start the installation of the Cinnamon desktop environment on your computer running Ubuntu. Just type in the following command and hit the enter key to start the installation of the Cinnamon desktop environment.

sudo apt install cinnamon

sudo apt install cinnamon

Step 5: The installation starts, just like the installation of most other desktop environments and packages from the official repository, you will be displayed with a list of dependencies, and the amount of space that will be consumed after installation is complete. If you agree with everything, just type in ‘y‘, and hit the enter key to carry on with the installation of the desktop environment.

installation Linux Mint desktop environments and packages

The installation of the Cinnamon desktop environment will take quite some time, and once the installation is complete, exit the terminal window, and restart your computer. However, you can even log out and log in again, but it didn’t work for me. 

So I will recommend you to restart your computer and once the login screen appears, click on the small gear icon, and then click on ‘Cinnamon’.

Step 6: Now, just log in with existing credentials and you should now automatically land on the Cinnamon desktop environment on Ubuntu.

Login with Cinnamon desktop environment on Ubuntu.

Here are a few screenshots of Ubuntu 18.04 LTS running the Cinnamon desktop environment.

few screenshots of Ubuntu 18.04 LTS

I know, if you have switched from Windows, this can be a big relief for you if you are always looking for the start button to search for the smallest of things.

Even though the alternative to start-menu that is available on the Cinnamon desktop environment is not exactly similar to the start button available on Windows computers, but it should work almost the same way, to search for programs, and open the most important utilities.

However, if you have made your decision to remove the Cinnamon desktop environment for any reason the steps are quite easy as well.

Removing Cinnamon desktop environment from Ubuntu

Just log out from your Cinnamon desktop session, and choose any other desktop environment, or the default desktop environment by clicking on the gear icon, and log in to your user account with existing credentials.

Step 1: Now, type in the following command and hit enter key to start the removal of the Cinnamon desktop environment from your computer running Ubuntu.

sudo apt remove cinnamon

Removing Cinnamon desktop environment from Ubuntu

Step 2: After the process of removal starts, just type in ‘y‘ and hit the enter key, after the details about which files will be deleted, are displayed to you.

Remove Linux Mint Cinnamon desktop environment

Step 3: The execution of this command is complete, you will have to type in the following command and hit the enter key again to complete the process of the removal of the Cinnamon desktop environment from your computer.

sudo apt autoremove

sudo apt autoremove

To start the execution, you have to type in ‘y‘, and hit the enter key, when the details about which files will be deleted are displayed to you.

delete Linux Mint desktop environment files

Now, just restart your computer by exiting your terminal window, after the execution of the following commands are complete and the next time you log in, you can find, the Cinnamon desktop environment is missing from the gear icon. If you have no other desktop environment installed, you will only find the default environment, which came with Ubuntu.

Login using Ubuntu on Wayland

So, that was all about how you can install the Cinnamon desktop environment at the Linux Mint desktop environment on Ubuntu. Even though I tried it on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, it should work on the newer versions of Ubuntu, as the PPA is available in the newer versions, as well.

At the time of executing any of the steps, you might have to enter the admin password multiple times. I just showed you how to remove the Cinnamon desktop environment, but the PPA is still there, which can be useful if you again want to download the Cinnamon desktop environment later on.

So, that was all about how you can install the Cinnamon desktop environment on Ubuntu and remove the same if you don’t need it anymore. Do you have any questions? Feel free to comment on the same below.

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