Switch desktops in linux

How to Install and Switch Desktop Environments in Fedora

Do you want to use or try a different desktop environment in Fedora Workstation spin, other than the default, GNOME 3. In this article, we will show how to install and switch desktop environments in Fedora Linux using the graphical user interface (GUI) and via the command line interface (CLI).

Installing Additional Desktop Environments in Fedora

To install different desktop environments in Fedora, first you need to list all the available desktop environments by running the following command.

List Desktop Environments in Fedora

From the output of the above command, look for the section called Available Environments Groups and install the chosen desktop environment using the dnf install command. Make sure to prefix with the @ sign, for example:

Install Cinnamon Desktop in Fedora

Switching Desktop Environments in Fedora

Before login, at the login screen, select your username (e.g TecMint) from the list of usernames (if there is no other user, the default username will appear). Then click on the Preferences icon right below the password field, near the Sign In button.

A window showing a list of several different desktop environments should appear. Select the desktop if you want, and enter the password to log in, as shown in the screenshot below.

Select Desktop Environment in Fedora

After login, you should now have Cinnamon desktop environment as shown in the following screenshot.

Cinnamon Desktop Fedora

Alternatively, install the switchdesk (used to switch desktop from command-line) and switchdesk-gui (used to switch desktop from GUI).

Install Switchdesk in Fedora

Once you have installed the above programs, launch the desktop switching program switchdesk-gui by searching for it in the Activities search bar. After it opens, select the default desktop from the list of available desktop environments, and click OK.

Fedora Desktop Environment Switching

You can also switch your Fedora desktop from the command-line by simply passing the selected desktop environment as the only argument to the switchdesk command, for example, to switch to cinnamon, run the following command.

That’s all! In this article, we have shown how to install and switch desktop environments in Fedora Linux. If you have any questions or queries, use the comment form below to ask us.

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How to Switch Desktop Environments in Ubuntu/Debian From the Command Line

This comes in useful when needing to switch between desktop environments on a Ubuntu 20.04 server, when using it as a remote desktop.

Currently I’m using this with remote desktops that I’m connecting to via xRDP. This may not work for all remote desktop solutions, or all scenarios, however.

I’ve added in how to switch desktop environments for Chrome Remote Desktops, and another section for VNC, after realizing the method is different.

If your scenario is different and this method doesn’t work for you then please feel free to contact us via the comments section or our contact us page.

Objective

In this tutorial we’ll switch between multiple desktop environments from the command line, on a machine running a Debian based Linux distro.

Table of Contents

Prerequisites

• A machine running a Debian based Linux distro with multiple desktop environments installed. (I’m using Ubuntu 20.04)

Switching Between Desktop Environments

To switch between desktop environments on a Debian based distro run the following command:

Then you should be presented with the desktop environments you have installed on your system so you can choose one of them:

Then you can fill in the number corresponding to the desktop environment that you want and press enter.

Then you can logout and log back in, and the desktop launched should be the one that you selected.

Switching to Ubuntu Budgie Desktop Environment

The above method doesn’t seem to work with Ubuntu Budgie.

What does work, however, is editing the /etc/xrdp/startwm.sh file, by commenting out the last 2 lines, and adding budgie-desktop at the end.

To edit the file run:

And comment out the last two lines and add budgie-desktop at the end:

Now when you log in again you should be using Ubuntu Budgie.

I had found this solution here Froth and Java – Ubuntu Budgie and xRDP , but it hasn’t worked for me.

I’ll update this article when I find a fix.

Switching Between Desktop Environments From the Command Line for Chrome Remote Desktop

To configure Chrome Remote Desktop to use a different desktop environment, then run the following command, replacing CHOSEN_DESKTOP_ENVIRONMENT with the desktop environment that you want.

For example, to configure Chrome Remote Desktop to use XFCE you would run:

I’m not sure of a clean way of listing the paths for each desktop environment, at the moment, but you can run the following command and to see the path for each desktop environment:

As mentioned above, you’ll be shown something like the following, where you can see the executables for the desktop environments installed on your system under Path .

And you’ll use the Path for the desktop environment that you want, replacing /usr/bin/CHOSEN_DESKTOP_ENVIRONMENT with it.

Switching to Ubuntu Budgie Desktop Environment for Chrome Remote Desktop

The path to Budgie is /usr/bin/budgie-desktop so to switch to it you can run:

I’m not clear on how to find the path to Budgie in a clean command, however you can switch to it, right now. But the above command should work.

Switching Between Desktop Environments From the Command Line for VNC Server

To see how to switch between desktop environments from the command line for VNC, please visit our related article on installing and configuring a VNC server on Ubuntu 20.04 , in the Configuring VNC to Use Other Desktop Environments (And Switching Between Them) section.

We cover this exact topic in detail in that section.

We recommend reading through the entire tutorial in order to get some background info on how we set up our server.

For example, we mention that in that tutorial we’re using TigerVNC, and that TightVNC has not worked for every desktop environment for us.

Conclusion

I hope this article helps you in changing between desktop environments from the command line.

If you’re having any issues, or have any feedback, we’d love to hear from you in the comments or via the channels on our contact us page.

Resources & Acknowledgements

Alternative way of switching to Ubuntu Budgie Desktop Environment adapted from:

Revisions & Updates of this Article

[Mar 23 2021]: Added workaround to switch to Budgie, along with acknowledgements.

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How to permanently switch Desktop Environments

This guide will explain how to Permanently Switching Desktop Environments in Kali Linux.

Permanently Switch Desktop Environments

Use the following to make a selected Desktop Environment your primary one (i.e. Make Gnome or KDE etc. your default desktop environment.)

Explanation

update-alternatives creates, removes, maintains and displays information about the symbolic links comprising the alternatives system. The alternatives system is a reimplementation of the Debian alternatives system. It was rewritten primarily to remove the dependence on perl; it is intended to be a drop in replacement for Debian’s update-dependencies script. This man page is a slightly modified version of the man page from the Debian project.

It is possible for several programs fulfilling the same or similar functions to be installed on a single system at the same time. For example, many systems have several text editors installed at once. This gives choice to the users of a system, allowing each to use a different editor, if desired, but makes it difficult for a program to make a good choice of editor to invoke if the user has not specified a particular preference.

The alternatives system aims to solve this problem. A generic name in the filesystem is shared by all files providing interchangeable functionality. The alternatives system and the system administrator together determine which actual file is referenced by this generic name. For example, if the text editors ed and nvi are both installed on the system, the alternatives system will cause the generic name /usr/bin/editor to refer to /usr/bin/nvi by default. The system administrator can override this and cause it to refer to /usr/bin/ed instead, and the alternatives system will not alter this setting until explicitly requested to do so.

The generic name is not a direct symbolic link to the selected alternative. Instead, it is a symbolic link to a name in the alternatives directory, which in turn is a symbolic link to the actual file referenced. This is done so that the system administrator’s changes can be confined within the /etc directory: the FHS (q.v.) gives reasons why this is a Good Thing.

When each package providing a file with a particular functionality is installed, changed or removed, alternatives is called to update information about that file in the alternatives system. alternatives is usually called from the %post or %pre scripts in RPM packages.

It is often useful for a number of alternatives to be synchronised, so that they are changed as a group; for example, when several versions of the vi editor are installed, the man page referenced by /usr/share/man/man1/vi.1 should correspond to the executable referenced by /usr/bin/vi. alternatives handles this by means of master and slave links; when the master is changed, any associated slaves are changed too. A master link and its associated slaves make up a link group.

Each link group is, at any given time, in one of two modes: automatic or manual. When a group is in automatic mode, the alternatives system will automatically decide, as packages are installed and removed, whether and how to update the links. In manual mode, the alternatives system will not change the links; it will leave all the decisions to the system administrator.

Link groups are in automatic mode when they are first introduced to the system. If the system administrator makes changes to the system’s automatic settings, this will be noticed the next time alternatives is run on the changed link’s group, and the group will automatically be switched to manual mode.

Each alternative has a priority associated with it. When a link group is in automatic mode, the alternatives pointed to by members of the group will be those which have the highest priority.

When using the –config option, alternatives will list all of the choices for the link group of which given name is the master link. You will then be prompted for which of the choices to use for the link group. Once you make a change, the link group will no longer be in auto mode. You will need to use the –auto option in order to return to the automatic state. Read the complete man page here
Thanks for reading.

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Switch Between Gnome And KDE Desktops In Ubuntu Or Kubuntu

One of Linux strong points over Windows is the capability to switch desktops. Several exist, but the two most popular are Gnome and KDE. For Windows users, KDE will have a familar Windows XP feel, while Gnome may seem dull.

If you have been using Ubuntu, which uses Gnome as the default desktop, or Kubuntu which uses KDE as the desktop, and have been wondering what the other desktop looks like, you can easily install KDE or Gnome and switch back and forth before logging on to Ubuntu.

If you are running Ubuntu, you can install KDE by opening a terminal window and type:

sudo apt-get install kubuntu-desktop

When prompted, enter your password, and then answer yes (Y) when asked if you want to install. The install may take some time to complete, so be patient.

To install Gnome in Kubuntu, open a Terminal window and type:

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop

When prompted, enter your password and continue with the install until it has been completed.

Now reboot either Ubuntu or Kubuntu. Then at the logon screen you can either press F10 or click on the Options logo at the bottom (left side) of the login screen. Then click on Select Session…

Here you can select Gnome (2) or KDE (3) by selecting the radio button.

During the next logon, you will see a prompt asking if you want to use the same desktop manager Just For This Session or Make Default (so you don’t have to be bother with the prompt again).

To change back to either KDE or Gnome, press F10 and select the desktop manager of your choice.

If you changed from the previous desktop manager, you can make it the default at the next logon.

Filed under Ubuntu And Linux Tips by Mike Boyds

What Next?

Comments on Switch Between Gnome And KDE Desktops In Ubuntu Or Kubuntu

Oliver @ 3:43 am

Perfect information. Very well explained. Exactly what I was looking for quite some time. Thx a lot and thumbs up for BlogRush. 🙂

Mike @ 5:58 am

Thanks, now that I’ve determined that Gnome sucks, how do I get it off my system?

miksuh @ 10:25 am

h»Now reboot either Ubuntu or Kubuntu.»

I really don’t understand what you mean, Why should you reboot? That’s not nesessary, just logout and login again using different desktop. Actually it’s not even nesessary to logout, you can start a new X-session, which can be full screen or nested in window. You can also run Gnome apps from KDE-desktop and KDE apps from Gnome-desktop. All you need to do is install both gnome and kde. Nothing of what I said is ubuntu related. This is how X works no matter which Linux-distro you use.

I really don’t understand why there must be Ubuntu (Gnome), Kubuntu (KDE) and Xubuntu (XFCE). In Debian and in most of the other distros too you just install desktop you want and then you use it.

miksuh @ 10:35 am

And by the way. Those screenshots are from GDM (gnome display manager). There is similar for KDE (kdm). Usually you don’t need to worry about that but if you use mostly KDE you might want to replace gdm with kdm. Again this is how it works no matter what distro you use. So if you someday try another distro this tutorial mostly applies for it too. Only the command/package name which installs kde/gnome will be different.

Watching The Net @ 12:25 pm

You just described Linux. A bunch of ways to do the same task. There is no wrong way to do it!

Brad @ 7:24 pm

When I did this, FYI, from Kubuntu, the installer actually asked me which manager I wanted to use by default during the install of the package.

Jim Sowers @ 4:16 pm

This is helpful IF you have to login. I set up my system some time ago such that it doesn’t require me to login since I am the only user. Now, I cannot figure out/remember how to force a login, thus I cannot change between desktops. Please help 😉

Watching The Net @ 6:22 pm

This should help you remember 😉

connor @ 10:35 pm

hey, thanks heaps, i just started using ubuntu. one thing though, when you do it and enter that code (for newbies here) just go Applications, Accessories, Terminal. and also when it asks you to enter your password it’s exactly the same except you cant see what your writing. just punch it in and press enter

suraya @ 2:48 am

Me also not understand why we have Ubuntu (Gnome), Kubuntu (KDE) and Xubuntu (XFCE) ? I know only one fit in one CD. Why just make cd ubuntu-kde, ubuntu-gnome, ubuntu-xfce ?

Valentine @ 5:29 pm

Great. It helped me a lot. Thanx!

quorlia @ 10:15 am

If, like me, you can’t even get Gnome working (fresh Wubi install and I’ve spent the last 4 hours slaving over a hot command line 😉 you might need to do an apt-get update before you can even FIND the kubuntu-desktop package.

Mark @ 4:56 pm

I can confirmed that there were too many unresolved dependencies, at least under Ubuntu 6.06 . This was a nightmare and even trying to satisfy the dependencies hammered the system. I am now preparing a reformat, after attempting this, BE WARNED!

Chris @ 10:32 am

@Mark – Try updating your outdated Ubuntu OS, of course it caused problems! We’re all mostly on 8.04 or 8.10 and you tried with 6.06?

Tim @ 2:51 am

KDE and Gnome are only window interfaces to Linux a sort of ‘front end’ display – in Ubuntu, gnome is most like Microsoft XP, KDE is more like unix. Both have their good and bad points, so for new users of Linux, it may be a good idea to try both. First, you have to load both (there are lots of posts about how to do this)Thereafter KDE will run Gnome applications, and Gnome will run KDE applications (both sorts appear in the ‘applications launcher of either) or either sort of application can be run from the dreaded ‘command line’ The easiest way to swap between the blue KDE desktop and the usual orange Gnome display is via the login window go to in the bottom left.

Some tasks require a bit more skill, and require ‘old fashioned’ command line entry (usuakkl Alt-F2, or an application such as Terminal or my favourite, Konsole). Here Ubuntu offers both super-user access and sudo (super user – DO), which allows users to perform some super-user tasks. For this, I find that KDE is best, because Konsole allows ‘clipboard cut and paste’ (e.g. from internet posts like this), but only using the right mouse button (this is a bit awkward at first, as you can not paste anywhere but at the end – it is not possible to paste in the middle of a part-entered command).

Finally, Linux environments may be cash light, but they can be labor intensive and challenging to master. So back-up your work regularly, and do not be afraid to play. Remember though that super-user is scary, and try not to use it unless you HAVE recently backed up somewhere safe – like a memory stick or USB disk that you can unplug!

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