Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot has released its first beta version for a few days, the final release will be put out 31 days later on October 13.

Today, I just new installed Ubuntu 11.10 daily build in my machine. Unity becomes more comfortable. New LightDM is cool, it’s easy to change the log-in screen background. But as I know, so far there’re only two greeter themes: unity-greeter(default in Oneiric) and crowd-greeter. Hoping for more beautiful and cool lightdm greeter.

In Ubuntu 11.10 daily build, there are only two log-in sessions: Ubuntu(unity 3d) and Ubuntu 2D(unity 2d). You might want to login gnome-shell or classic Gnome 2 desktop.

Install Gnome 3

Gnome 3 is available in Ubuntu 11.10 universe repository by default, just run this command in terminal:

sudo apt-get install gnome-shell

Then, log-out and select the session “Gnome” to log-in again and you’re in gnome-shell.

Install Gnome 2 Classic

If you dislike Gnome3 and Unity, you can install gnome-session-fallback to get classic gnome desktop. I don’t recommend this session. It’s kinda incomplete, no System menu and need holding Alt key to configure panel.

sudo apt-get install gnome-session-fallback

Then log-out and select the session “Gnome classic” to log-in.

Auto Login Gnome Shell, Gnome Classic Desktop

First of all, go to System Settings -> User Account -> Unlock -> Enable Automatic Login. Now it auto login Unity desktop at next boot.

To auto login gnome-shell and gnome classic, see: HERE

My Desktop: