Installing the full desktop

[Keith]

On 1/11/22 10:44 AM, Liam Proven wrote:
> If you pick the minimal installation option, that gives you a desktop
> and a browser and not much else, how can you add the full "normal"
> desktop later?
>
> In other words, not update to a newer version, but just install all
> the missing desktop components.
>
> I've Googled this but I can't find anything relevant, to my surprise.
>
> FWIW, this is a test install of GNOME edition of 21.10 but I would
> guess it would be much the same for any version.
>

Just install the appropriate metapackage that has dependencies to all
the necessary components that comprise the full desktop that you want.
In 20.04 its the "gnome" metapackage:

Full GNOME Desktop Environment, with extra components
This is the GNOME Desktop environment, an intuitive and attractive
desktop, with extra components.
  .
This metapackage depends on the standard distribution of the GNOME
desktop environment, plus a complete range of plugins and other
applications integrating with GNOME and Debian, providing the best
possible environment to date.

For complete Ubuntu, it would be "ubuntu-desktop", for MATE, its either
mate-desktop-environment or ubuntu-mate-desktop. You would have to
examine the dependencies to see what either metapackage pulls in. Same
with KDE and other desktop flavors.

--
Keith