Good news is that it is gorgeous, performant, smooth and has nice gesture support. The release date of gnome 40 is March 24th 2021, and it will probably take about 2-4 weeks after that before the changes are likely to come to the stable branch. So, we are preparing ahead of time as well we can to make the next release as good as possible.
@Ste74 is packaging gnome-next, a group of packages with which you can test gnome 40 already and contribute feedback to the upstream and suggestions and wishes on how you feel Manjaro gnome edition should proceed.
We have set up automatic daily iso builds on github. The iso is very minimal and is meant mostly for testing gnome-shell. The iso-files of over 2Gb are split into multiple zip files because of the filesize restrictions in free tier of github. When you have downloaded the parts of the iso that you want, you can extract it together with command 7z x *.z01 or by using engrampa or other graphical archive managers. If we notice some iso to be good enough, we can upload it to osdn too for easier access.
Have fun testing and please provide opinions and feedback! Expect bugs and most extensions not working yet, the big two being dash-to-dock and dash-to-panel.
Pamac extension and shell integration works. Kstatusnotifier works. Many things in gnome-extensions package work, with the notable execution of user-themes. Pop-shell works, material-shell works. I was surprised how many things work already.
But nightthemeswitcher causes hard lock-up, which requires reboot and disabling it from tty.
FIrefox, nautilus and gnome terminal running. The idea is to move to mave native gnome theming with adwaita-maia, ensuring that there is no theme related breakage in the future because it is built from the original gnome sources. We use the compact variant so that Adwaita takes no more screen real estate than other themes do, but the default thickness is also available for users with touch screens.
At some point we would like to implement recoloring the theme like Zorin and elementary do
Some extensions screwing up on a new version of GNOME has always been a thing in the past. I expected something much worse though, like vanilla GNOME or nothing.
Yep, I was also surprised, but it seems that gnome team is actually working to make life easier for shell extension developers.
The main ones I hope to catch up are:
dash-to-dock
dash-to-panel
nightthemeswitcher
user-themes
If those make over the transition, gnome-layout-switcher is going to keep working mostly as before.
Material-shell developer has confirmed that he will have no issues with the update. I’m mostly concerned with dash-to-dock, because Ubuntu is planning on dropping it, and Canonical has been one of its big supporters and a guarantee that it is going to keep working.
‘Dash to dock’ is a must for many people. Specially now with this radical change in philosophy from vertical to horizontal in the alignment of elements.
I could live without a permanent dash, or even with that weird wokspaces horizontal switcher. But anything other than a vertical dash/dock on the left, closer to the Activities corner/hotspot, is a big NO-NO from me.
@Chrysostomus Downloaded these 3 files for gnome40 testing on Manjaro 20.2.1 with Gnome 3.38.3 DE: manjaro-gnome-next-20.2.1-unstable-210130 -linux59-pkgs.txt, …-linux59.iso.sha256 and … -linux59.iso.zip.
Tried to extract them together with command 7z x *.z01, but failed.
Created bootable USB with image only from-linux59.iso.zip: it opens Terminal and accepts credentials (manjaro/manjaro) and stops after that without continuing the booting further.
Pamac offers engrama from Official cources (community) and AUR for Mate DE.
That particular iso was built without gdm. It will be present on the next build. If you got to TTY with the iso, you were doing the right thing. Current isos are under 2Gb, so they are not split into parts. I’ll try to keep it that way as long as I can.
@ChrysostomusSome findins aboutmanjaro-gnome-next-20.2.1-unstable-210130 -linux59.iso tested on laptop HP 8530p:
Booting with open source drives from bootable USB with command starts OK
After giving credentials tty opens and booting from USB continues after ’startx’
Opens blue ’Activities’ Gnome 40 screen with Dock in the bottom with some major apps and Dash
In Dash Gnome Extensions menu opens OK with some apps pre-selected, but non of them opens
In Dash no Settings, no Manjaro Settings Manager
Access to Nautilus file system OK including access to SSD/HDD files; file transfer from SSD/HDD to external drive OK
No access to internet via Ethernet or wifi, Bluetooth says it works (but I did not test)
Manjaro Architect installer informs about ’no access to internet’ and stops
Manjaro installer: Informs about ’no access to internet’, but works OK until partition, where only one option works: Clear the Drive → when allowed → starts downloading / installing → after installation completed booting takes place with the same procedure as with bootable USB →
After booting completes from SSD the blue ’Activities’ screen of Gnome 40 opens with Dock in the bottom as with the bootable USB
Terminal command uname -a says ‘’… 5.9.16-1-MANJARO #1 SMP PREEMPT Mon Dec 21 22:00:46 UTC 2020 x86_64 GNU/Linux’’, no access to updates (sudo pacman -Syu)
All the rest looks the same as with bootable USB: similar Gnome 40 screens as in your screenshots available, Gnome Extensions menu opens but non of the apps won’t open, no access to internet (via Ethernet or wifi) etc …
We’ll it’s a lot of info, so yes and no This is a minimal iso, so a lot of things are missing, like manjaro-settings-manager. The most useful categories of input at this point are opinions:
How do you like the new gnome-shell?
What suggestions you have for Manjaro gnome edition?
I triggered a new build now, the iso should be available in about an hour. The theming should now be more correct, especially in Firefox and gnome-shell, and there should now be gdm for login screen.
Firefox should now have
default layout with lone tabs hidden.
draggable window also from the buttons, like other headerbar apps
I couldn’t find gnome control center, is it because of minimal iso?
I came to like Gnome recently after lots of hate at first (Windows for years, Linux in general less than one year ago). But the Manjaro Gnome, not the standard naked Gnome without dock.
Here it’s new Gnome but with a “dock” only appearing in activities view. I’m a mouse user, not an all-keyboard one. I like to see - and click - my favorites apps anytime.
I look forward to a Manjaroed Gnome, with a dock at the bottom, the left, somewhere.
This is a minimal iso, so a lot of things are missing, like manjaro-settings-manager. The most useful categories of input at this point are opinions:
I’m a mouse user, not an all-keyboard one. I like to see - and click - my favorites apps anytime.