Switch between XFCE and Cinnamon?
 

When I installed Debian Jessie, I incorrectly chose to install both XFCE and Cinnamon. The default I am running now is XFCE. I would like to switch to Cinnamon.

I am sure there is an easy way to do this. I probably clicked every item under Settings, and still haven't found it yet.

I have spent a day Googling on "switch XFCE to Cinnamon", but haven't read anything useful. I checked in Synaptic and all the Cinnamon packages are currently installed.

haaa where is that file located to change default wm? what login manager are you using? They have a place within that file to designate default login WM/DE so you do not keep having to change it, as well as most keep last WM/DE logged into as the one the user will log back into next time.


How change the default desktop manager in debian?
look here

My understanding is that you change the default desktop environment. Ubuntu has login options for their desktop UI which allow this, however I do not believe Debian does this.

See if you have the following file: /etc/X11/default-display-manager

Edit that file to be for cinnamon.

Look for /usr/bin/cinnamon, or /usr/sbin/cinnamon, find where the cinnamon DM executable is before editing.

I recommend you comment out the existing line using # and make a new line for Cinnamon to verify it works, and also to leave yourself the capability to reset back to your original if you choose in the future.

I am currently editing the file /etc/X11/default-display-manager with gedit (and it is read-only). It has only one line:
/usr/sbin/lightdm

There are about 24 cinnamon files in usr/bin. I'm not really sure which file is the right one (see below)

if you going to go manual mode: gives you read and write

No no no no, don't use 'sudo' to edit files in /etc or /usr! Those are important system files, very risky to edit them directly.

Rather, I suggest simply using the built-in feature of LightDM allowing you to choose the desktop environment with a couple of easy mouse clicks. There is a drop-down menu on the login screen (where you type your username and password). Depending on your LightDM theme, it might look like a little gear or other icon. This is where you can choose between Xfce or Cinnamon. LightDM should remember your choice as the new default. :)

That is what I read on the internet yesterday. Not sure why, but that gear icon does not appear on my login screen ...

But I don't know which of the 20+ cinnamon files to reference instead of lightdm ...

wahhht ? I guess you have a call your supervisor to do that... while I am using sudo and not breaking anything. They are created to be edited manually how do you think the people that put them into their distro get them configured to work to their specs?

If the icon to choose DE is missing then try dpkg-reinstall of the WM.
As to using sudo to change the default DE -- why not? Let's all use chainsaws to slice our bread...

Debian wiki LightDM


these show and explain to you how to as well

http://askubuntu.com/questions/77191...fined-sessions

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...wheezy-943468/

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php..._configuration

I do not use LightDM
I use lxdm

last ditch effort, un-install XFCE4 that is make it go to cinnamon because it has no other choice.

Assuming for the sake of argument that you are correct and "sudo gedit /usr/sbin/lightdm" will allow you to change the default desktop environment. The problem with that method is that, next time you update lightdm through the package manager, it will replace /usr/sbin/lightdm with the new version and wipe out your customizations.

life is a chance --- if you look at the config files you'll see that they where created to be done manually. to address your if you do it one way then the other it will wipe out your conif.

if you do it one way then the same way again the same effect happens. that is the reason one did it again using either way, to make changes to the config file. you are the master of your system. Which ever way one chooses to change the conf files are up to them. pls do not enable ridged thinking.

The config files for each user are meant to be changed to that user's desire. The default files are meant more as templates -- some even state such.
Using root permissions to configure per-user settings is both overkill and ineffective in the long run.

ok this is going into over kill
if the file state do not change some other program changes it like grub files for example ok.

people have brains you know let them use them. please and thank you

he was only asking how to change the default DE/WM which can be set by manually editing the conf file.

I am not going to rip out my lxdm and install lightDM to get to the bottom of this...

PS root permission are being used no matter what when you edit a file on the system side of the OS regardless of whichever means is being used to do so(period)

think about it.

per-user settings has nothing to do with default login WM / DE that is a system wide setting.


search words used "lightdm set default session"
GOOGLE says


in lightdm.conf
if you actually look in the config file you'll see that is has LOTs of settings for manual editing to user specs.

www/ Software/ LightDM/ CommonConfiguration


per the creators of lightDM instructions.