Isso aconteceu comigo quando eu já tinha instalado o Gnome no Ubuntu.
Depois de instalar o Aptitude e usá-lo para instalar, ele me deu a opção de fazer o downgrade do Gnome para instalar o Cinnamon. Se você fizer isso canela deve instalar.
$ sudo apt-get install aptitude
$ sudo aptitude install cinnamon
[sudo] password for <USER>:
The following NEW packages will be installed:
cinnamon{b} gir1.2-muffin-3.0{a} libmuffin0{a} muffin-common{a}
0 packages upgraded, 4 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 2,255 kB of archives. After unpacking 9,065 kB will be used.
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
cinnamon : Depends: libgjs0-libmozjs185-1.0 which is a virtual package.
Depends: libmozjs185-1.0 (>= 1.8.5-1.0.0+dfsg) but it is not going to be installed.
The following actions will resolve these dependencies:
Keep the following packages at their current version:
1) cinnamon [Not Installed]
Accept this solution? [Y/n/q/?] n
The following actions will resolve these dependencies:
Install the following packages:
1) libmozjs185-1.0 [1.8.5-1.0.0+dfsg-4 (raring)]
Downgrade the following packages:
2) gjs [1.36.1+js17-0ubuntu1~raring0 (now, raring) -> 1.34.0-0ubuntu1 (raring)]
3) gnome-shell [3.8.1-0ubuntu1~raring1.2 (now, raring) -> 3.6.3.1-0ubuntu6 (raring)]
4) gnome-shell-common [3.8.1-0ubuntu1~raring1.2 (now, raring) -> 3.6.3.1-0ubuntu6 (raring)]
5) gnome-sushi [3.8.0-1~ubuntu13.04.2 (now, raring) -> 3.6.1-0ubuntu1 (raring)]
6) libgjs0c [1.36.1+js17-0ubuntu1~raring0 (now, raring) -> 1.34.0-0ubuntu1 (raring)]
Accept this solution? [Y/n/q/?] y
The following packages will be DOWNGRADED:
gjs gnome-shell gnome-shell-common gnome-sushi libgjs0c
The following NEW packages will be installed:
cinnamon gir1.2-muffin-3.0{a} libmozjs185-1.0{a} libmuffin0{a} muffin-common{a}
0 packages upgraded, 5 newly installed, 5 downgraded, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 4,992 kB of archives. After unpacking 12.4 MB will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n/?] y
você terá que inserir o 'n' e dois 'y's para instalar.