How to Install Budgie Desktop in Ubuntu 16.04, 16.10

Budgie Desktop

Ubuntu Budgie now is an official Ubuntu flavor. For those who want to try this Gnome 3 based desktop environment, here is how to install Budgie Desktop in Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 16.10. Also a complete uninstall guide is available.

Budgie Desktop is a modern desktop features heavy integration with the GNOME stack. It’s the default desktop environment of Ubuntu Budgie (formerly known as Budgie Remix), which now is an official Ubuntu flavor.

Install Budgie Desktop in Ubuntu:

Budgie Remix Team has an official PPA repository. So far Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 16.10, and their derivatives are supported.

1. Open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command to add the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:budgie-remix/ppa

Type in your password (no visual feedback) when it asks and hit Enter.

Budgie Desktop PPA

2. Then update and install the desktop via:

sudo apt update

sudo apt install budgie-desktop-environment

The commands will install the new desktop environments along with new startup splash, GTK login greeter, recommended Gnome libraries, etc.

3. Once installed, log out and select Budgie Desktop session by clicking the logo icon after your username.

budgie desktop session

How to Completely Uninstall / Remove Budgie Desktop:

1. To uninstall the desktop environment, open terminal and run command:

sudo apt remove budgie-desktop-environment budgie-desktop && sudo apt autoremove

And the PPA can be removed by going to System Settings -> Software & Updates -> Other Software tab.

2. To restore the default login screen (Unity Greeter), run command to remove GTK greeter:

sudo apt remove lightdm-gtk-greeter && sudo apt autoremove

3. To restore the default start-up splash logo, run command:

sudo update-alternatives --config default.plymouth

Type the number that indicates Ubuntu logo and hit enter.

Set Plymouth theme

And apply the plymouth changes via command:

sudo update-initramfs -u

The command takes a few seconds depends on your machine.

About ml

ml is a part time stay-at-home dad who've been using Ubuntu Desktop for a few years. He writes in the free time and wishes to share some useful tips with Ubuntu beginners and lovers.

7 comments

  1. Dionisius Wahyu Adi Saputra

    Thank’s a ton! It works! Very beautiful, but sad, it is heavy enough. It takes several seconds almost minute every time I open or click some action.

    • Dionisius Wahyu Adi Saputra

      I’m done. It is becoming more heavy. I couldn’t barely typing code smoothly in Android Studio. And finally remove budgie with
      your step by step to completely uninstall budgie.

      There are some command typo in your uninstallation guide, point number 3.

      It should be “sudo update-alternatives –config default.plymouth”, just like what you’re typed in your given screenshot.

      Great post by the way!

  2. Currently downloading on a fresh install of Ubuntu 16.04. I’m a bit discouraged by Dionisius’s experience, but I’ll give it a try myself and report back here with thoughts.

    • Following this guide caused a lot of issues with my machine. First off, there are a lot of joint dependencies. Unity gets partly overridden by this.

      Second, Budgie doesn’t work with VNC, just as a warning to other people out there.

  3. thaks alot nice guide…

  4. It’s a very awesome DE, very clear and promising.
    When I switched back to Unity, at first the desktop didn’t loaded completely and then desktop icons looked weird. I was able to load Unity greeter by creating file /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf (didn’t exist! Budgie surely overwrote it) and specifying the unity-greeter.
    In this moment everything is great, except Dropbox cannot run because of a weird Dbus error.
    Thanks for all Budgie, but I will continue with Unity. Uninstalling and wait to see if Dbus error got solved or not.

  5. This is great! I NEEDED budgie for years!