How to install MATE desktop on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa Linux - LinuxConfig.org

The objective is to install MATE desktop as an alternative desktop environment on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa Desktop/Server Linux.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://linuxconfig.org/how-to-install-mate-desktop-on-ubuntu-20-04-focal-fossa-linux

Hello. When I follow these instructions to install ubuntu-mate-desktop on ubuntu 20.04 I get a prompt inside the terminal window to insert the ubuntu20.04.1 CD and press Enter. But when I do that nothing happens. And I can’t click the OK button on the prompt.

Does this procedure work for other people?

I also have that problem. What’s strange about it is that I think that it should ask me to insert the Ubuntu 20.04.1 USB Stick because that’s how I originally installed Ubuntu, NOT the 20.04 CD/DVD. I didn’t even have a CD/DVD with 20.04 on it. I do now, and it took hours to research, download the ISO (several hours for that on a slow connection) then burn the DVD…which also had issues because Brasero kept refusing to install the ISO on any 4.7GB DVD+R. Finally I grabbed a DVD-R (1.8GB) and it liked that one for some reason.

So after several hours, I was finally able to click OK and do this installation…which is the most current Mate installation mentioned by Google. That’s why I wanted to follow these instructions. But boy, what a trial.

Okay, it just finished so time to continue on…

After it finished installing, it dropped back to Term. I did not get the OK page following the install. And I did not get that ‘Config LightDM’ page either. So I rebooted and Mate is running so Thanks!

To stop Ubuntu asking for DVD or USB you need to simply edit the /etc/apt/sources.list and remove or comment all sources you do not wish your Ubuntu system to be using. After that run apt update to update the index file.

Sounds simple enough but where does one find /etc/apt/sources.list?

Thanks!

Hi JimHiTek,

The file in question is under your root directory, which is marked as “/”. Under this root directory is another subdirectory called etc, which contains another subdirectory called apt, which in turn holds the text file sources.list. You can navigate to the mentioned directory with the cd command:

$ cd /etc/apt

You can print the contents of the file with cat:

$ cat sources.list

And edit it with a text editor, such as nano. You need to have high (superuser) rights to do so, which you can achieve with sudo:

$ sudo nano sources.list

But you don’t really need to navigate into the directory that holds the file, you can use absolute path in the final command as well:

$ sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list