I have a desktop now. I didn't have to run gnome-shell or keep it
permanenttly installed. This is what I did, and it should work for you
as well.
Go into a terminal and enter these commands:
sudo pacman -S gnome-shell gnome-tweak-tool
gnome-tweak-tool
Now go to the second page from the bottom, I think it's called "file
manager" or similar and tab to the button that speaks, "switch toggle
button not pressed." Unfortunately, most of these buttons and dropdown
boxes don't speak what they are, but this one is the only thing in that
window. Press space to activate the button. Then you can just hit alt-f4
to close the window. You should be placed back in the terminal where you
ran gnome-tweak-tool, where you now can run
sudo pacman -R gnome-shell gnome-tweak-tool
The next time you log in, you will have a Nautilus desktop nearly as you
remember it from 2.32 and earlier. Orca will have a few problems, such
as saying that every icon you land on is unselected and that you never
have anything selected on your desktop when using the "where am I"
function, but overall, it works. You also still won't be able to use
alt-control-d to get to your desktop, but it seems to be in the panel
list once again. Hope this helps get you up and running.
~Kyle
