A tutorial called Quickly Setting up Awesome with Gnome describes the process of setting up Awesome window manager in such a way as to retain some features and advantages of GNOME. I figured MATE desktop is a modern version of GNOME 2, so I am trying to set up Awesome with MATE, but to no effect.

I am trying to use the part of the tutorial that describes steps for GNOME <2, namely:

gconftool-2 --type bool --set /apps/nautilus/preferences/show_desktop false

and

gconftool-2 --type string --set /desktop/gnome/applications/window_manager/current /usr/bin/awesome

or

gconftool-2 --type string --set /desktop/gnome/applications/window_manager/current /usr/bin/awesome

then writing

[Desktop Entry] Version=1.0 Type=Application Name=Awesome Comment=The awesome launcher! TryExec=awesome Exec=awesome

to ~/.local/share/applications/awesome.desktop .

There's no effect. Here's what another tutorial on the topic says to do:

Create the following file at /usr/share/xsessions/Xsession.desktop:

[Desktop Entry] Encoding=UTF-8 Name=Awesome + MATE Comment=Awesome + MATE Exec=/etc/X11/Xsession

Create the following file at ~/.xsession

#!/bin/sh mate-session & awesome

Sign out, then choose "Awesome + Mate" clicking on the little cog in the upper right corner.

Remove the MATE panel at the bottom, remove the notification area from the one at the top, go to "Properties", and uncheck "Expand".

Disable the desktop icons in Control Panel -> Look and Feel -> MATE Tweaks

(where is Control Panel?)

Anyway, this still doesn't quite work. Firstly, I install MATE on Ubuntu with

sudo apt install mate-desktop

But the option to select MATE when clicking at the cog in the greeter doesn't appear until I install

sudo apt install mate-session-manager

as well (should I install something else?) Now, when I do everything above, when I choose "Awesome + Mate" at the greeter cog, the awesome desktop briefly flashes, to be replaced with MATE completely. Now, when I log off in MATE, I am back in awesome . When I quit awesome , I'm back at the greeter. Not what I expected when I opted for "Awesome + Mate" experience.

What should I do?