Installing MATE Desktop On Fedora 17

MATE is a continuation of GNOME 2, maintained by the MATE Desktop Environment project. It’s included in Fedora’s official repositories and is a supported desktop option.

Install MATE Desktop

MATE is available as a desktop environment group in Fedora 41’s repositories. Install the base desktop with:

sudo dnf install @mate-desktop

The @mate-desktop group installs the core components needed for a functional MATE session.

Install Additional MATE Applications

Beyond the base desktop, you’ll want several standard applications. Install them with:

sudo dnf install mate-media \
  mate-screensaver \
  mate-system-monitor \
  mate-power-manager \
  mate-utils \
  mate-image-viewer \
  mate-terminal

These provide common functionality like volume control, screensaver, system monitoring, terminal access, and image viewing.

MATE Forked Applications

MATE maintains its own versions of several GNOME applications, keeping them aligned with GNOME 2 design principles:

Caja – File manager (GNOME Nautilus fork)
Pluma – Text editor (gedit fork)
Eye of MATE – Image viewer (Eye of GNOME fork)
Atril – Document viewer (Evince fork)
Engrampa – Archive manager (File Roller fork)
MATE Terminal – Terminal emulator (GNOME Terminal fork)
Marco – Window manager (Metacity fork)

Set MATE as Default Desktop

After installation, log out and select MATE from the session menu at the login screen. Most display managers (GDM, SDDM, LightDM) show this option near your username.

Remove GNOME Applications (Optional)

If you want to clean up GNOME packages and use MATE equivalents exclusively:

sudo dnf remove eog \
  file-roller \
  nautilus \
  gedit \
  gnome-terminal \
  gnome-screensaver \
  gnome-media \
  gnome-system-monitor \
  gnome-power-manager \
  gnome-utils

Be cautious—verify that nothing else depends on these packages before removing them.

Remove GNOME Core (Advanced)

To remove the GNOME desktop environment entirely:

sudo dnf remove gnome-session \
  gnome-desktop3 \
  gnome-session-xsession \
  gnome-shell

Remove additional GNOME packages if desired:

sudo dnf remove gnome-themes \
  gnome-menus \
  gnome-search-tool \
  gnome-video-effects \
  gnome-bluetooth \
  gnome-screenshot

Troubleshooting

If MATE doesn’t appear as a session option after installation, restart the display manager:

sudo systemctl restart display-manager

For Wayland-based systems, MATE may still be X11-only. Check your session type and switch back to X11 if needed.

Additional Resources

For a full list of available MATE applications and community extensions, check the MATE Desktop project page.

Troubleshooting Common Issues

When encountering problems on Linux systems, follow a systematic approach. Check system logs first using journalctl for systemd-based distributions. Verify service status with systemctl before attempting restarts. For network issues, use ip addr and ss -tulpn to diagnose connectivity problems.

Package management issues often stem from stale caches. Run dnf clean all on Fedora or apt clean on Ubuntu before retrying failed installations. If a package has unmet dependencies, try resolving them with dnf autoremove or apt autoremove.

Related System Commands

These commands are frequently used alongside the tools discussed in this article:

systemctl status service-name – Check if a service is running
journalctl -u service-name -f – Follow service logs in real time
rpm -qi package-name – Query installed package information
dnf history – View package transaction history
top or htop – Monitor system resource usage

Quick Verification

After applying the changes described above, verify that everything works as expected. Run the relevant commands to confirm the new configuration is active. Check system logs for any errors or warnings that might indicate problems. If something does not work as expected, review the steps carefully and consult the official documentation for your specific version.

Installing MATE Desktop on Fedora 17