Gnome extensions under Ubuntu 21.10
I have upgraded from 21.04 to 21.10 having first switched off my gnome extensions as I have had problems upgrading with Gnome extensions switched on in the past. The upgrade seems to have worked ok but my extensions are no longer available. The Tweak tool no longer supports the extensions and https://extensions.gnome.org/local/ shows that a lot of extensions are now "Out of Date" due to 21.10 using Gnome 4. The extensions that are not greyed out and marked "Out of Date" can be switched on with the toggle but do not actually appear on the desktop, and the next time I look on https://extensions.gnome.org/local/ they are switched off again.
Is there any way to use Gnome extensions in Ubuntu 21.10/Gnome 4? I need some of them for my daily work and I haven't the time to discover other ways to do what I have used them for for years now. I'm afraid I'll have to revert back to 21.04 if Gnome extensions are gone for good in 21.10.
Solution 1:
Gnome extensions tend to break between upgrades of Gnome Shell because the Gnome Developers do not formally support them through a stable API. Many third party extensions thus can break. In particular Gnome 40 had some rather important changes. Many older extensions are broken. For their availability, you depend on the developer willing to update the extension, unless you know coding such extensions yourself. Sometimes, other extensions that are maintained may provide similar functionality.
You will need to update all extensions that do not anymore work, or try to find an alternative for these that are not anymore available.
- You may delete all your manually installed extensions right away by deleting all items in your
~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensionsfolder. Then reinstall the extensions you need from the Gnome Shell extensions website, in as far as they have been updated to work with Gnome 40. Your system wide installed extensions will have been updated during the upgrade process, and should still work. - Some extensions are available in the Ubuntu software repositories. If possible, prefer to use and install extensions from the Ubuntu software. These have been packaged and tested for your distribution, and their use is "officially supported". Most of that selection includes extensions that are around for some time, and have regularly been updated. Installing extensions from the Gnome Shell Extensions website, on the other hand, is not officially supported (and even not possible with the snap version of Firefox that comes with 21.10). So there, you are on your own: it may work or it may not work.
- On a fresh install, Gnome Tweaks informs that extension management is relegated to a dedicated tool, "Extensions". Install that tool from the Snap Store or with the command
sudo apt install gnome-extension-prefs. Start it by searching for "Extensions". With it, you can enable and disable both manually and system wide installed extensions, and change their options. The tool, when installed, also checks for updates of the extensions.
Solution 2:
The Gnome extensions can be switched on after typing "extensions" in the activities search box. Even "Dash to Dock" still works.