The passage is a step‑by‑step tutorial for installing the Budgie desktop environment on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS using the official ubuntu‑budgie‑desktop meta‑package. It outlines preparing the system with an update and upgrade, choosing gdm3 as the display manager during installation, and switching to Budgie at the login screen. Optional clean‑up commands are provided for removing GNOME packages, along with brief troubleshooting tips for common issues like conflicting display managers or missing theme files. The overall goal is to give users a quick, lightweight alternative desktop without reinstalling the operating system.

Install Budgie Desktop Environment on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

You’re about to add a fresh look to your Ubuntu install without reinstalling the whole OS. This guide walks through pulling Budgie from the official repos, fixing the usual hiccups, and getting you back to work (or play) in under ten minutes.

Why give Budgie a try?

Budgie’s panel‑centric layout feels lighter than GNOME yet still polished enough for daily use. I switched after a friend complained that GNOME felt “like a heavyweight box of crayons” on his old laptop, and the performance boost was noticeable right away.

Prepare your system

1. Open a terminal.

2. Update the package index – this ensures you pull the newest Budgie bits, not some stale cache:

   sudo apt update
   

3. Upgrade any pending packages; skipping this step can leave you with mismatched libraries that later cause “missing dependency” errors:

   sudo apt upgrade -y
   

Install the Budgie packages

Ubuntu ships a ready‑made meta‑package called ubuntu-budgie-desktop. It pulls all required components and sets up the display manager automatically.

sudo apt install ubuntu-budgie-desktop -y

During installation you’ll be asked which display manager to keep. I always pick gdm3 unless you have a strong reason to stick with LightDM; gdm3 plays nicely with Wayland if you ever enable it later.

Switch to Budgie

1. Log out of your current session.
2. At the login screen click the gear icon (or session selector) and choose “Budgie”.
3. Enter your password and let GNOME hand over control.

If the gear doesn’t appear, make sure gdm3 is indeed running:

systemctl status gdm3

Restart it if necessary: sudo systemctl restart gdm3.

Clean up (optional)

If you’re done with GNOME and want to reclaim a few megabytes, remove the old packages:

sudo apt purge ubuntu-desktop gnome-shell
sudo apt autoremove -y

Be careful – purging ubuntu-desktop can also yank some useful utilities. Double‑check the list before confirming.

Troubleshooting common hiccups

• “Failed to start gdm.service” – This often means two display managers are fighting over the same socket. Disable LightDM if it’s still installed: sudo systemctl disable lightdm. Then enable GDM again and reboot.
• Missing theme files after upgrade – I’ve seen this happen after a partial kernel update that left /usr/share/themes half‑installed. Running sudo apt --fix-broken install usually restores the missing pieces.

That’s it. Your Ubuntu 22.04 should now be running Budgie, looking snazzy and feeling a bit quicker.