This is for Cinnamon Desktop 1.4 installed on Ubuntu 12.04

The problem and solution is likely the same for all other Linux distros, but no guarantee is made.

One of the alternative desktops you can install is Cinnamon.

Unfortunately, in some cases, instead of getting the Cinnamon desktop:

you get the GNOME Classic (no effects) desktop:

You can tell it uses no 3D hardware acceleration because the text in the toolbar is white. In the GNOME Classic interface (which does use 3D hardware acceleration), the text is greyed out:

The Cause

This happens because you do not have 3D hardware acceleration. GNOME (on which Cinnamon is built) is designed for systems having 3D hardware acceleration. From the GNOME website:

GNOME Shell uses relatively primitive 3D capabilities that have been available from essentially all computing devices made in the last four or five years.

Essentially, if your graphics hardware is pre-2007, there is a good chance that you will not have the necessary hardware to run GNOME in 3D. Consequently, this means you will not be able to run the Cinnamon desktop.

The Solution

Unfortunately, there may not be a solution, but you can try some of the following:

1. If you are running Ubuntu inside a virtual machine (like VirtualBox) then enable 3D acceleration for the virtual machine (for VirtualBox, this also requires installing the Guest Additions).
2. If you are certain your graphics card has the necessary horsepower to run 3D hardware accelerations, look for an updated driver. Sadly, advance driver support is often lacking in Linux.
3. If you have a desktop computer, you can also replace the current video card with something more powerful (just make sure there are Linux drivers available for it).

If none of those solutions work, then you can’t run Cinnamon (at least, not unless Cinnamon decides to release a 2D version of their interface).

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NOTE: For Cinnamon to work, your system must provide 3D hardware acceleration. If your system does not have 3D hardware acceleration, you will only see the “traditional” GNOME desktop.

This is a limitation of GNOME 3 (on which Cinnamon is built). According to gnome.org:

GNOME Shell uses relatively primitive 3D capabilities that have been available from essentially all computing devices made in the last four or five years.

This seems to imply that the if your video card is pre-2007, there is a good chance Cinnamon (and GNOME) will not display as expected.

What it Looks Like

The basic, straight-out-of-the-box, look of the desktop is:

Quick Instructions

If you are comfortable using a terminal entering commands then open a terminal and enter the following commands:

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

Restart your system.

Detailed Instructions

If you are not comfortable opening a terminal and entering commands, or have never done so before, these step by step directions should guide you through the process:

Opening a Terminal

Press Ctrl+Alt+T to open a terminal. (Detailed instructions for opening a terminal can be found here.)

You should now have something that looks like this:

Adding Software Sources

1) Enter the following line exactly in the terminal:

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

You can type it or cut and paste it.

It should look something like this when you are done:

2) Press the Enter key.

3) Enter your password (this is the password you use to log into Ubuntu) and press the Enter key:

When you are done, it will look like this:

Updating the Software Sources

1) Enter the following exactly:

sudo apt-get update

2) Press the Enter key.

3) Enter your password and press the Enter key.

Ubuntu will then spend several minutes updating your software sources. The amount of time will depend on the speed of your Internet connection.

When it is done, it should look something like this:

Installing the Cinnamon Desktop

1) Enter the following exactly:

sudo apt-get install cinnamon

2) Press the Enter key.

Some text will scroll across the screen showing exactly what is going to be installed. You will be prompted to continue with the installation:

3) Press the Enter key to proceed with installation. (You can also type y followed by Enter.) If you don’t want to install it, then press n followed by the Enter key.

Installation time will depend on your Internet connection speed (how quickly you can download the code) and computer speed (how quickly you can compile everything).

4) After installation is finished, click on the System icon in the upper right corner of the desktop and select Shut Down… from the drop down menu:

5) Click on Restart:

Selecting the Desktop

After the system has restarted, it is necessary to select the new desktop from the login screen.

1) Click the icon in the top right of the Login box:

2) Select Cinnamon:

3) Login:

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