Hello guys! I would like to know how do I install Gnome 3 (preference for the last one that came out, which if I’m not mistaken was 3.38, and someone can correct me if I got it wrong) in Fedora 37. I would like to put 3 in place of that 43, or install 3 in parallel. I would also like to know the disadvantages of doing this, as well as the risks.
I seriously doubt that is possible. If you want a detailed and correct answer then you would need to contact the gnome developers and ask. I know that gnome-shell is one of the protected packages that cannot be removed from the workstation system
It might be possible for you to install a minimal system with absolutely no gui pieces then install gnome 3.38 from fedora 33 but I have no clue how that might be possible and there are surely difficulties in getting it to work with the major updates in everything that have occurred in the last 2 years.
I would start with an F33 install that has gnome 3.38, then research how to upgrade everything BUT gnome. So many pieces interact it would be difficult to have anything even close to F37 and gnome 3.38.
You may wind up tying yourself to F33 as the latest you can install if gnome 3.38 is the criteria that controls it.
Yeah, I agree with Jeff — this is going to be next to impossible. If you really want to try, your best bet is going to be to ignore rpm packaging and build it locally (perhaps into /usr/local
, so you have a clean separation). But this is not a small undertaking.
I’ve thought about installing an older version, but I always have difficulties finding the corresponding iso, since fedora people don’t make it available on the distribution’s website.
Older releases don’t get bugfixes or security updates, so we don’t want to encourage them. They are preserved on our archives, but although I’m linking that for convenience of looking, I really don’t recommend it. Instead, perhaps better to choose something like CentOS Stream 8, which has GNOME 3.32 and will be supported through 2024.
But, I think even better might be to look at what’s making you want the older release, and address that directly. If it’s UI changes, it’s possible an extension might put things the way you like…
FWIW, it looks like AlmaLinux 8 will be supported for even longer, as well. That said, 100% agree that making Gnome 4x work is the better way forward.