How to install the (latest version of) Nemo in Ubuntu 18.04 without cinnamon dependencies?

Doug provided a PPA for install the Nemo in Ubuntu 18.04 (only) without cinnamon dependencies (see his comment).
For newer Ubuntu versions: A unity session using Nemo in 20.04 can be set up to work reasonably well, especially if you use a modified nemo.desktop in the launcher (see Doug's comment).

He recommends to purge the installed nemo files before installing the new version. I did the following:

sudo apt purge cinnamon-desktop-data cinnamon-l10n gist hddtemp hwdata inxi libcinnamon-desktop4 libnemo-extension1 libxapp1 mesa-utils nemo nemo-data nemo-fileroller ruby-json xapps-common

Then added the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mc3man/bionic-noprop
sudo apt-get update

Then install Nemo:

sudo apt-get install nemo nemo-fileroller

To make Nemo the default file manager:

xdg-mime default nemo.desktop inode/directory application/x-gnome-saved-search

To handle the desktop just disable nautilus:

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background show-desktop-icons false

Reboot or log out

Thank you, Doug, for this great option.

I had the same problem, and the only (temporary) solution is to use the artful packages which should work (they're working for me) since Ubuntu 17.10 uses Gnome Shell anyway.

Just change /etc/apt/sources.list.d/webupd8team-ubuntu-nemo3-bionic.list to read deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/webupd8team/nemo3/ubuntu artful main You can also use the GUI by opening "Software & Updates" and editing the repo there, by changing bionic to artful.

Eventually, a Bionic repo will be available and then we can change the source again.

Moilleadóir you are right. Sudo apt install nemo would install the standard repo version (along with Cinnamon desktop).

To install nemo=3.6.5-1~webupd8~artful01 you need libgnome-desktop-3.so.12. In Bionic default is libgnome-desktop-3.so.17. Without this package (libgnome-desktop-3.so.12) nemo (3.6.5-1~webupd8~artful01) won’t start.

I found workaround (but you do it on your own risks):

First off all you need to add nemo artful packages (Felipe presnts how to do it)

Secend step: you need to manual install libgnome-desktop-3.so.12

You can found it here: https://packages.ubuntu.com/artful/amd64/libgnome-desktop-3-12/download

sudo dpkg -i libgnome-desktop-3-12_3.26.1-0ubuntu1_amd64.deb

Next step:

sudo apt-get install nemo-data=3.6.5-1~webupd8~artful0

sudo apt-get install nemo=3.6.5-1~webupd8~artful01 

sudo apt-get install nemo-fileroller=3.6.0-1~webupd8~artful 

To avoid actualization to sdandard repo version:

echo "nemo hold" | sudo dpkg --set-selections

echo "nemo-data hold" | sudo dpkg --set-selections

echo "nemo-fileroller hold" | sudo dpkg --set-selections

Since 16.04, I've more or less followed Filibuntu's answer, just with different PPAs along the way. (I never bother replacing the desktop though. Just add the PPA, install, and go.) Even in 18.04 I never ran into the problem of the stock repo version being newer than the PPA.

That's all different now with Focal and it took me forever to figure it out. Some of these suggestions seemed promising but ultimately didn't work. This is what I got working:

## Install Python 3.7 from PPA https://launchpad.net/~deadsnakes/+archive/ubuntu/ppa?field.series_filter=focal
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:deadsnakes/ppa
sudo apt-get install python3.7

## Add recent Nemo PPA from ## https://launchpad.net/~darovic/+archive/ubuntu/nemo?field.series_filter=disco
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:darovic/nemo

## Change distro version name from e.g. "focal" to "disco"
sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list.d/darovic-ubuntu-nemo-focal.list
sudo apt-get update

## Install specific PPA version
sudo apt-get install nemo=4.2.2-darovic0  libnemo-extension1=4.2.2-darovic0  nemo-data=4.2.2-darovic0  python-nemo=4.2.0-darovic0  nemo-audio-tab=4.2.0-darovic0  nemo-compare=4.2.0-darovic0  nemo-emblems=4.2.0-darovic0  nemo-filename-repairer=4.2.0-darovic0  nemo-fileroller=4.2.0-darovic0  nemo-gtkhash=4.2.0-darovic0  nemo-image-converter=4.2.0-darovic0  nemo-media-columns=4.2.0-darovic0  nemo-pastebin=4.2.0-darovic0  nemo-preview=4.2.0-darovic0  python-nemo=4.2.0-darovic0  nemo-seahorse=4.2.0-darovic0  nemo-share=4.2.0-darovic0  nemo-terminal=4.2.0-darovic0  xreader=2.2.3-darovic0

This should be adaptable to future versions of *buntu and Darovic's Nemo build, within reason.

[This was a comment but it was too long!]

I have doubts about this working as it used to. The versions of Nemo in the webupd8team repo and the standard Universe repo are the same, but the Universe repo (version 3.6.5-1) is marked ‘bionic’ whereas the webupd8team one (version 3.6.5-1~webupd8~artful01) is marked ‘artful’. My guess is that sudo apt install nemo would install the standard repo version (along with Cinnamon desktop).

You could use Package | Force Version… in Synaptic to force the webupd8team version. I’m not sure if sudo apt install nemo=3.6.5-1~webupd8~artful01 would work or not as apt-cache policy nemo doesn’t list it as a candidate (i.e. it’s the wrong release).

If you run apt-cache policy nemo what version does it show is installed?

EDIT: I decided to gradually create a new 18.04 install in a VM, rather than upgrading 16.04 in August, so I’ve just got back to looking at this. The Nemo version in the standard repos does not install the Cinnamon desktop (unlike Caja which does look like it installs Mate). In my (limited) testing so far it seems to run fine.