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Pantheon on Gurnard

Visual overview

Prefer a visual tour of the variant itself? See the Gurnard overview → start page.

Gurnard pairs Ubuntu 24.04 LTS with Pantheon, the desktop environment built for elementary OS. This guide covers the Pantheon-specific basics: what it is, how it differs from stock elementary OS on Gurnard, and where to get help.

Experimental

Gurnard is an Experimental variant (see the ROADMAP) — the surface is new and still changes often. If something looks wrong, a bug report is welcome and useful; see "Bug reports" below.

What Pantheon is​

Pantheon is a Wayland/GTK desktop built from scratch for elementary OS: calm, minimal, and opinionated by design, not a customized GNOME or KDE. On Gurnard it is the same Pantheon codebase on top of Ubuntu 24.04 LTS instead of elementary OS's own base. TunaOS wraps it in an atomic bootc core: one image, one transaction, rollback on failure.

How Gurnard differs from elementary OS​

  • Base system: Ubuntu 24.04 LTS under Pantheon, not elementary OS's own base. Package management, kernel, and system services follow TunaOS's bootc model — atomic image updates via sudo bootc upgrade, not apt upgrade on a live system.
  • Gurnard does not ship AppCenter. elementary's curated AppCenter store is elementary-specific infrastructure and does not ship on Gurnard. Install apps from Flathub instead (pre-enabled — see below).
  • Homebrew and Flathub ship in the image, like every other TunaOS variant. Stock elementary OS does not ship either one by default.

First steps​

  • Application launcher: press the Super (Windows) key to open Pantheon's application launcher, then type to search installed apps.
  • Workspaces: the Pantheon overview shows all open windows and workspaces at once. It is how you switch context without a taskbar. Swipe up on a trackpad, or use the workspace shortcut in Pantheon's default keybindings.
  • Dock: Pantheon's dock sits at the bottom of the screen by default. Right-click the dock for its settings, or open System Settings → Dock to adjust position, size, and auto-hide behavior.
  • System Settings: the gear icon in the top-right corner opens Pantheon's control center. You can also search for "Settings" in the launcher. Displays, keyboard, network, and the dock all live there.

Installing apps​

Gurnard ships with Flathub pre-enabled — there is no AppCenter. Install apps the same way as any other TunaOS variant:

flatpak install flathub org.gnome.TextEditor

or open the GNOME Software app store in the image, which also installs from Flathub.

Bug reports​

Pantheon on Gurnard is new, and we want bug reports early, while a fix is cheap (see the Gurnard launch announcement). File issues in github.com/tuna-os/tunaOS, and tag them gurnard so they're easy to find. Include:

  • Whether the issue is Pantheon-specific or reproduces on stock elementary OS too (if you know)
  • Your hardware and whether you're on the live ISO or an installed system
  • sudo bootc status output if it's an update/image issue

See also​