UbuntuThis forum is for the discussion of Ubuntu Linux.
Notices
Welcome to LinuxQuestions.org, a friendly and active Linux Community.
You are currently viewing LQ as a guest. By joining our community you will have the ability to post topics, receive our newsletter, use the advanced search, subscribe to threads and access many other special features. Registration is quick, simple and absolutely free. Join our community today!
Note that registered members see fewer ads, and ContentLink is completely disabled once you log in.
If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us. If you need to reset your password, click here.
Having a problem logging in? Please visit this page to clear all LQ-related cookies.
Get a virtual cloud desktop with the Linux distro that you want in less than five minutes with Shells! With over 10 pre-installed distros to choose from, the worry-free installation life is here! Whether you are a digital nomad or just looking for flexibility, Shells can put your Linux machine on the device that you want to use.
Exclusive for LQ members, get up to 45% off per month. Click here for more info.
Distribution: (U/K/X)buntu 6.1 (newer box) / D*mn Small Linux (older box)
Posts: 326
Rep:
Three Users, Three Window Managers - How?
hi all,
i'd like to set up three new ubuntu users, ubuntu, kubuntu and xubuntu, each with a different window manager (ubuntu, kubuntu and xubuntu, respectively).
You are listing distro names and not window managers. KDE, Gnome are desktop environments. I don't know what xubuntu uses. Install one distro, such as Ubuntu and then install the kde packages.
You are listing distro names and not window managers. KDE, Gnome are desktop environments. I don't know what xubuntu uses. Install one distro, such as Ubuntu and then install the kde packages.
Actually, Ubuntu, Xubuntu, and Kubuntu are all the same distro--Ubuntu.
Ubuntu is Ubuntu with Gnome
Xubuntu is Ubuntu with XFCE
Kubuntu is Ubuntu with KDE
In answer to GNewbie's question, you can just install all three and each user can have a different default desktop environment.
If you already have Ubuntu installed, just install the other two:
i followed th esteps you outlined, but i've gotten in some trouble.
my system wants to boot kubuntu by default. when i open a session with ubuntu (which i want to be my default), i have no option to shut down my computer.
what i want to do is create 3 users, one each that defaults to ubuntu, kubuntu and xubuntu.
while downloading the kubuntu-desktop and xubuntu-desktop, i ran into the following that may address my issue...
│ A display manager is a program that provides graphical login │
│ capabilities for the X Window System. │
│ │
│ Only one display manager can manage a given X server, but multiple │
│ display manager packages are installed. Please select which display │
│ manager should run by default. │
│ │
│ (Multiple display managers can run simultaneously if they are configured │
│ to manage different servers; to achieve this, configure the display │
│ managers accordingly, edit each of their init scripts in /etc/init.d, │
│ and disable the check for a default display manager.)
Does your distro have the xwmconfig utility? If so, just login as each user, run it and select a different window manager each time. If you don't have it, you can manually do what xwmconfig does by creating the $HOME/.xinitrc file for each user. Here's mine (a very basic one) for starting fluxbox:
Code:
#!/bin/sh
# $XConsortium: xinitrc.cpp,v 1.4 91/08/22 11:41:34 rws Exp $
userresources=$HOME/.Xresources
usermodmap=$HOME/.Xmodmap
sysresources=/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xinit/.Xresources
sysmodmap=/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xinit/.Xmodmap
# merge in defaults and keymaps
if [ -f $sysresources ]; then
xrdb -merge $sysresources
fi
if [ -f $sysmodmap ]; then
xmodmap $sysmodmap
fi
if [ -f $userresources ]; then
xrdb -merge $userresources
fi
if [ -f $usermodmap ]; then
xmodmap $usermodmap
fi
# Start the window manager:
exec /usr/X11R6/bin/startfluxbox
Distribution: (U/K/X)buntu 6.1 (newer box) / D*mn Small Linux (older box)
Posts: 326
Original Poster
Rep:
Quote:
Originally Posted by gilead
Does your distro have the xwmconfig utility? If so, just login as each user, run it and select a different window manager each time. If you don't have it, you can manually do what xwmconfig does by creating the $HOME/.xinitrc file for each user. Here's mine (a very basic one) for starting fluxbox:
Code:
#!/bin/sh
# $XConsortium: xinitrc.cpp,v 1.4 91/08/22 11:41:34 rws Exp $
userresources=$HOME/.Xresources
usermodmap=$HOME/.Xmodmap
sysresources=/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xinit/.Xresources
sysmodmap=/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xinit/.Xmodmap
# merge in defaults and keymaps
if [ -f $sysresources ]; then
xrdb -merge $sysresources
fi
if [ -f $sysmodmap ]; then
xmodmap $sysmodmap
fi
if [ -f $userresources ]; then
xrdb -merge $userresources
fi
if [ -f $usermodmap ]; then
xmodmap $usermodmap
fi
# Start the window manager:
exec /usr/X11R6/bin/startfluxbox
gilead, thanks for the lead. i installed ubuntu-desktop first. i then used aptitude to install kubuntu-desktop and xubuntu-desktop. for some reason, kubuntu's start up screen appears when i first start the computer - the ubuntu start up screen used to display prior to my installing kubuntu-desktop.
i don't have xwmconfig and it didn't show up in synaptic (i did expand my repositories beyond the basic ones).
i assume $HOME/.xinitrc means [fill in name of home directory here]/.xinitrc.
i have no clue what follows, so i'm not sure it will do me any good.
i'm thinking about just ditching kubuntu and xubuntu for now - until i can learn enough to set them up to run under different users.
Distribution: K/Ubuntu 18.04-14.04, Scientific Linux 6.3-6.4, Android-x86, Pretty much all distros at one point...
Posts: 1,802
Rep:
Don't confuse the boot screen with the default window manager. You can, afterwards switch to using gde as the default login manager, as opposed to kdm. In either, with the full version of the window managers installed, you should have the option so set a window manager for each of the different user accounts.
Distribution: (U/K/X)buntu 6.1 (newer box) / D*mn Small Linux (older box)
Posts: 326
Original Poster
Rep:
Quote:
Originally Posted by JaseP
Don't confuse the boot screen with the default window manager. You can, afterwards switch to using gde as the default login manager, as opposed to kdm. In either, with the full version of the window managers installed, you should have the option so set a window manager for each of the different user accounts.
JaseP, okay, even if i can google a way to change the boot screen to the ubuntu boot screen*, the option to shut down is removed when i'm using gnome. it is there when i'm in xubuntu.
using ubuntu's gnome, i have to logout and then open up a secure gnome terminal session (this is from memory and i've surely messed up the name) and type "halt" to exit ubuntu.
i think i could work through this if i could just get the shutdown back in ubuntu.
Distribution: (U/K/X)buntu 6.1 (newer box) / D*mn Small Linux (older box)
Posts: 326
Original Poster
Rep:
Quote:
Originally Posted by GNewbie
JaseP, okay, even if i can google a way to change the boot screen to the ubuntu boot screen*, the option to shut down is removed when i'm using gnome. it is there when i'm in xubuntu.
using ubuntu's gnome, i have to logout and then open up a secure gnome terminal session (this is from memory and i've surely messed up the name) and type "halt" to exit ubuntu.
i think i could work through this if i could just get the shutdown back in ubuntu.
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing
Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute
content, let us know.