Raspberry Pi OS • Re: GUIDE: Install GNOME 48 Ubuntu-like on Raspberry Pi OS Lite (NO SNAP) Debian 13 Trixie

[Update] GNOME 44 → 48 on Raspberry Pi OS Lite Ubuntu-like

I rebuilt my setup and upgraded from GNOME 44 to GNOME 48 on Raspberry Pi OS Lite (Debian 13). This new iteration looks closer to Ubuntu and automates a lot of small details.

What I changed

• Fixed Yaru/Ubuntu themes: adjusted set that renders correctly on GNOME 48 (Shell/GTK/Icons/Sounds), instead of the incomplete Debian variant.
• Automatic Light/Dark switching: a script ties the Appearance toggle to Shell accents, GTK, icons, and LibreOffice so they all follow your choice.
• LibreOffice Ubuntu themes: visually aligned with the rest of the system.
• Locale-driven language & spell-check: after  sudo dpkg-reconfigure locales, GNOME/app languages and dictionaries are installed to match your locales.

Why this is better than my previous GNOME 44 setup

• More consistent theming across Shell/GTK/LibreOffice.
  Less manual tweaking; more things switch automatically.
• Closer to the Ubuntu look many people expect.

Known issue: Geary
The Geary that ships with Debian 13 + GNOME 48 has a design/theme bug that makes read/unread state hard to see.
Plan: I intend to provide an older working Geary build, but it isn’t ready yet.

In progress / To-do

• Chromium theme auto-apply: make Chromium follow GNOME Light/Dark + Yaru accents automatically.
  Default Chromium extensions: add sane defaults (uBlock Origin, h264ify, GNOME Shell integration) out of the box.
• GNOME Shell extensions baseline: finalize a small, sensible default set (the usual basics); still validating which ones behave best on Pi.

Feedback welcome
Please tell me what’s missing, broken, or could be improved. I’ll follow up and refine this further.

Statistics: Posted by Wobbo — Sat Oct 11, 2025 6:54 pm

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