I wanted to try gnome-shell in 11.10 (also 12.04 now)
I removed it, however, classic Gnome is still there and the battery icon is changed (too big and can't use a icon pack on it like faenza)
Also, numerous applications were added and the entries remain on the login screen.
How can I remove it completely, rolling back all changes made when installing gnome-shell?
Gnome-Shell and Gnome-Classic (also known as gnome-fallback/gnome-session-fallback) can be simply removed from the Software Center:
search for gnome shell
search for gnome-session-fallback
However, removing from the software center does not remove every package originally installed.
To do this, copy and paste the following into gnome-terminal:
to remove gnome-shell
sudo apt-get purge alacarte cups-pk-helper gir1.2-accountsservice-1.0 gir1.2-caribou-1.0 gir1.2-clutter-1.0 gir1.2-cogl-1.0 gir1.2-coglpango-1.0 gir1.2-folks-0.6 gir1.2-gconf-2.0 gir1.2-gdesktopenums-3.0 gir1.2-gee-1.0 gir1.2-gjsdbus-1.0 gir1.2-gkbd-3.0 gir1.2-json-1.0 gir1.2-mutter-3.0 gir1.2-networkmanager-1.0 gir1.2-panelapplet-4.0 gir1.2-polkit-1.0 gir1.2-telepathyglib-0.12 gir1.2-telepathylogger-0.2 gir1.2-upowerglib-1.0 gir1.2-xkl-1.0 gjs gnome-applets gnome-applets-data gnome-contacts gnome-icon-theme-full gnome-panel gnome-panel-data gnome-session-fallback gnome-shell gnome-shell-common gnome-themes-standard indicator-applet-complete libcaribou-common libcaribou0 libclutter-1.0-0 libclutter-1.0-common libcogl-common libcogl-pango0 libcogl9 libgjs0c libmozjs185-1.0 libmutter0 libpanel-applet-4-0 mutter-common python-gmenu
to remove gnome-classic
sudo apt-get purge alacarte cups-pk-helper gir1.2-gconf-2.0 gir1.2-panelapplet-4.0 gnome-applets gnome-applets-data gnome-panel gnome-panel-data gnome-session-fallback indicator-applet-complete libpanel-applet-4-0 python-gmenu
Sounds like you're logging in to the Gnome fallback session, which is installed along with gnome-shell. Remove that, too, and things should be back to normal.
The following terminal commands will take care of that:
sudo apt-get remove gnome-session-fallback
sudo apt-get markauto
# sudo apt-mark auto # → for newer versions
The second command (apt-mark) will remove any other auto-installed packages whose dependents are no longer installed (like gnome-panel and gnome-applets).
You might want to change your theme back to Ambiance, if you changed it to Adwaita for Gnome Shell, and you can do that in System Preferences under Appearance.
Hey I had the same problem. All you have to do is go to terminal, type
sudo apt-get purge gnome
If all goes well, further type
sudo apt-get autoremove
This should completely remove all gnome related packages. Then go to appearance and restore your original theme. You may have to restart your computer. After that everything should work fine.
If you installed using Gnome3 ppa you would better use ppa purge. it is now integral part of Ubuntu tweak. So download Ubuntu tweak and check purge ppa and there you are Also see: How do I install and use the latest version of GNOME?
