Hello terroreek,
yes, deleting the broken snapshot of my virtual machine and restarting from clean state i was able to do a dist-upgrade and at least reboot to a gnome desktop. I'm still checking for remaining issues, but ofcourse more testers are welcome.
I don't encourage users to dist-upgrade.
There are no new applications available, neither in unstable nor in experimental repo.
The gnome core components are yet to come. This is what we got so far.
root@sidubox:~# dpkg -l | grep -P 3.12.[01]
ii baobab 3.12.1-1 amd64 GNOME disk usage analyzer
ii cheese-common 3.12.0-1 all Common files for the Cheese tool to take pictures and videos
ii eog 3.12.0-1 amd64 Eye of GNOME graphics viewer program
ii evince 3.12.1-1 amd64 Document (PostScript, PDF) viewer
ii evince-common 3.12.1-1 all Document (PostScript, PDF) viewer - common files
ii evolution 3.12.1-1 amd64 groupware suite with mail client and organizer
ii evolution-common 3.12.1-1 all architecture independent files for Evolution
ii evolution-data-server 3.12.1-1 amd64 evolution database backend server
ii evolution-data-server-common 3.12.1-1 all architecture independent files for Evolution Data Server
ii file-roller 3.12.1-1 amd64 archive manager for GNOME
ii five-or-more 1:3.12.1-1 amd64 make color lines of five or more length
ii four-in-a-row 1:3.12.1-1 amd64 four-in-a-row game for GNOME
ii gcalctool 1:3.12.1-1 all GNOME desktop calculator (transitional package)
ii gcr 3.12.0-1 amd64 GNOME crypto services (daemon and tools)
ii gedit 3.12.1-1 amd64 official text editor of the GNOME desktop environment
ii gedit-common 3.12.1-1 all official text editor of the GNOME desktop environment (support files)
ii gir1.2-gck-1 3.12.0-1 amd64 GObject introspection data for the GCK library
ii gir1.2-gcr-3 3.12.0-1 amd64 GObject introspection data for the GCR library
ii gir1.2-gtk-3.0 3.12.1-1 amd64 GTK+ graphical user interface library -- gir bindings
ii gir1.2-mutter-3.0 3.12.1+really+3.8.4-1 amd64 GObject introspection data for Mutter
ii gnome-backgrounds 3.12.0-1 all Set of backgrounds packaged with the GNOME desktop
ii gnome-calculator 3.12.1-1 amd64 GNOME desktop calculator
ii gnome-disk-utility 3.12.0-1 amd64 manage and configure disk drives and media
ii gnome-icon-theme 3.12.0-1 all GNOME Desktop icon theme
ii gnome-icon-theme-symbolic 3.12.0-1 all GNOME desktop icon theme (symbolic icons)
ii gnome-keyring 3.12.0-2 amd64 GNOME keyring services (daemon and tools)
ii gnome-screenshot 3.12.0-1 amd64 screenshot application for GNOME
ii gnome-terminal 3.12.0-2 amd64 GNOME terminal emulator application
ii gnome-terminal-data 3.12.0-2 all Data files for the GNOME terminal emulator
ii gnome-themes-standard:amd64 3.12.0-1 amd64 Standard GNOME themes
ii gnome-themes-standard-data 3.12.0-1 all Data files for GNOME standard themes
ii gnome-tweak-tool 3.12.0-2 all tool to adjust advanced configuration settings for GNOME
ii gucharmap 1:3.12.0-1 amd64 Unicode character picker and font browser
ii iagno 1:3.12.1-1 amd64 popular Othello game for GNOME
ii libcamel-1.2-49 3.12.1-1 amd64 Evolution MIME message handling library
ii libcheese-gtk23:amd64 3.12.0-1 amd64 tool to take pictures and videos from your webcam - widgets
ii libcheese7:amd64 3.12.0-1 amd64 tool to take pictures and videos from your webcam - base library
ii libebackend-1.2-7 3.12.1-1 amd64 Utility library for evolution data servers
ii libebook-1.2-14 3.12.1-1 amd64 Client library for evolution address books
ii libebook-contacts-1.2-0 3.12.1-1 amd64 Client library for evolution contacts books
ii libecal-1.2-16 3.12.1-1 amd64 Client library for evolution calendars
ii libedata-book-1.2-20 3.12.1-1 amd64 Backend library for evolution address books
ii libedata-cal-1.2-23 3.12.1-1 amd64 Backend library for evolution calendars
ii libedataserver-1.2-18 3.12.1-1 amd64 Utility library for evolution data servers
ii libevdocument3-4 3.12.1-1 amd64 Document (PostScript, PDF) rendering library
ii libevolution 3.12.1-1 amd64 evolution libraries
ii libevview3-3 3.12.1-1 amd64 Document (PostScript, PDF) rendering library - Gtk+ widgets
ii libgail-3-0:amd64 3.12.1-1 amd64 GNOME Accessibility Implementation Library -- shared libraries
ii libgck-1-0:amd64 3.12.0-1 amd64 Glib wrapper library for PKCS#11 - runtime
ii libgcr-3-common 3.12.0-1 all Library for Crypto UI related tasks - common files
ii libgcr-base-3-1:amd64 3.12.0-1 amd64 Library for Crypto related tasks
ii libgcr-ui-3-1:amd64 3.12.0-1 amd64 Library for Crypto UI related tasks
ii libgeocode-glib0 3.12.0-1 amd64 geocoding and reverse geocoding GLib library using Nominatim
ii libgoa-1.0-0b:amd64 3.12.1-1 amd64 library for GNOME Online Accounts
ii libgoa-1.0-common 3.12.1-1 all library for GNOME Online Accounts - common files
ii libgoa-backend-1.0-1:amd64 3.12.1-1 amd64 backend library for GNOME Online Accounts
ii libgtk-3-0:amd64 3.12.1-1 amd64 GTK+ graphical user interface library
ii libgtk-3-bin 3.12.1-1 amd64 programs for the GTK+ graphical user interface library
ii libgtk-3-common 3.12.1-1 all common files for the GTK+ graphical user interface library
ii libgtksourceview-3.0-1:amd64 3.12.1-1 amd64 shared libraries for the GTK+ syntax highlighting widget
ii libgtksourceview-3.0-common 3.12.1-1 all common files for the GTK+ syntax highlighting widget
ii libgucharmap-2-90-7 1:3.12.0-1 amd64 Unicode browser widget library (shared library)
ii libgweather-3-6 3.12.0-1 amd64 GWeather shared library
ii libgweather-common 3.12.0-1 all GWeather common files
ii libmutter0b 3.12.1+really+3.8.4-1 amd64 window manager library from the Mutter window manager
ii libtotem0 3.12.0-2 amd64 Main library for the Totem media player
ii libyelp0 3.12.0-1 amd64 Library for the GNOME help browser
ii mutter-common 3.12.1+really+3.8.4-1 all shared files for the Mutter window manager
ii python-gi 3.12.1-1 amd64 Python 2.x bindings for gobject-introspection libraries
ii python-gi-cairo 3.12.1-1 amd64 Python Cairo bindings for the GObject library
ii python-gobject 3.12.1-1 all Python 2.x bindings for GObject - transitional package
ii python3-gi 3.12.1-1 amd64 Python 3 bindings for gobject-introspection libraries
ii python3-gi-cairo 3.12.1-1 amd64 Python 3 Cairo bindings for the GObject library
ii totem 3.12.0-2 amd64 Simple media player for the GNOME desktop based on GStreamer
ii totem-common 3.12.0-2 all Data files for the Totem media player
ii vinagre 3.12.0-1 amd64 remote desktop client for the GNOME Desktop
ii vino 3.12.0-1 amd64 VNC server for GNOME
ii yelp 3.12.0-1 amd64 Help browser for GNOME
ii yelp-xsl 3.12.0-1 all XSL stylesheets for the yelp help browser
Please be patient and carefully read what your dist-upgrade wants to remove. Even if packages are installable this doesn't warrant for a working gnome desktop.
Take care!
musca