How to install MATE desktop on Ubuntu 22.04 Jammy Jellyfish Linux

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By default, Ubuntu 22.04 Jammy Jellyfish sports the GNOME desktop environment, or no GUI at all in the server edition. If you would like to change things up and install Mate instead, the GUI can be downloaded and installed directly from Ubuntu’s package repositories.

This can be done whether you are switching from GNOME to Mate, or you currently are running command line interface only and wish to install a graphical desktop environment. Mate is a great choice that comes with all the tools you will need to administrate your Ubuntu system.

In this tutorial, we will go through the step by step instructions to install the Mate GUI desktop environment on Ubuntu 22.04 Jammy Jellyfish.

In this tutorial you will learn:

  • How to install tasksel
  • How to install MATE desktop
  • How to switch to lightdm display manager
  • How to login to MATE desktop
MATE desktop on Ubuntu 22.04 Jammy Jellyfish Linux
MATE desktop on Ubuntu 22.04 Jammy Jellyfish Linux
Software Requirements and Linux Command Line Conventions
Category Requirements, Conventions or Software Version Used
System Ubuntu 22.04 Jammy Jellyfish
Software tasksel, MATE desktop
Other Privileged access to your Linux system as root or via the sudo command.
Conventions # – requires given linux commands to be executed with root privileges either directly as a root user or by use of sudo command
$ – requires given linux commands to be executed as a regular non-privileged user

Install MATE desktop on Ubuntu 22.04 step by step instructions

  1. We will be using the tasksel command to install MATE desktop GUI. In case the tasksel command is not available on your system you can install it with these commands: 
    $ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt install tasksel
  2. Execute the following command to begin the MATE desktop installation, depending on which package you wish to install. The ubuntu-mate-desktop package will come with more MATE apps installed by default and the ubuntu-mate-core is lighter with less software. 
    $ sudo tasksel install ubuntu-mate-desktop
OR
$ sudo tasksel install ubuntu-mate-core
    MATE desktop installation command on Ubuntu 22.04
    MATE desktop installation command on Ubuntu 22.04
  3. If you already have GNOME installed, you should receive a notification during MATE installation to let you know that you will now have multiple display managers installed. If you want Ubuntu 22.04 to boot into MATE desktop by default, then you will need to set your default display manager to lightdm when the prompt appears. Use TAB to select lightdm` and hit the ok button.
    Prompt asking us to switch over to sddm display manager
    Prompt asking us to switch over to sddm display manager
  4. After installation, you can reboot your Ubuntu 22.04 system to load into the MATE desktop environment. 
    $ reboot
  5. At the login screen, select Desktop session as Mate. Then you can login and begin using your newly installed MATE desktop environment.

    Open Desktop session selection menu and Select MATE session, enter your password and hit login button
    Open Desktop session selection menu and Select MATE session, enter your password and hit login button

Closing Thoughts

In this tutorial, we saw how to install the MATE desktop environment GUI on Ubuntu 22.04 Jammy Jellyfish Linux. MATE is a speedy and responsive desktop environment, which comes loaded with a lot of its own applications to make your system administration that much easier. Ubuntu 22.04 and MATE desktop is a great combination that you are sure to enjoy – many will find they like it a lot better than the default GNOME environment on Ubuntu.

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