How to change KDE to XFCE? Slackware 14.2
 

Hi guys, my default DE is KDE and I want to change it to XFCE. Anyone knows how to?

run xwmconfig in a terminal and choose the appropriate xinitrc. But this works only with slackware. Good luck.

I would start by backing up. Go through the install cd again, and select nothing except XFCE. Then uninstall all kde packages in runlevel 3. If your default is to boot to a DE, change the initdefault setting from 4 to 3 in /etc/inittab. If you're stuck in a DE, now you can change the setting and reboot but often 'sudo init 3' gets you out.

I ran it already and chose XFCE but still doesn't work.

That's puzzling. What runlevel do you use? Do you use runlevel 4 with a displaymanager (kdm)? Are you able to choose the xfce-session when you login using kdm? Or do you use default runlevel 3 and the command startx? Did you do a full install of slackware 14.2?

You could try Salix Linux. 100% compatible with Slackware, but with several hundred extra ready-to-run programs, useful configuration tools, and Xfce as the default desktop.

this will do it:
Assuming, that is, that you started in runlevel 3 (the Slackware default).

Further, you can start any of the DE/WM's in /etc/X11/xinit just by passing the path/file as a parameter to startx.

I've changed DEs/WMs many times with xwmconfig on Slackware and never had a problem. This is a shot in the dark, but did you run xwmconfig as user? If you run it as root, it will not affect user.

Otherwise, check /var/log, particularly messages and Xorg.0.log. There may be something there that sheds some light on this. Or run xwmconfig again as user and see whether it outputs any errors when you startx.

Yes, if the user has already picked a desktop.
However, whatever desktop root picked during installation is the system wide default and anytime thereafter when root runs xwmconfig and selects a different desktop that change becomes the new default.

Nice catch. I was thinking of running xwmconfig after installation was complete, but I don't think I've ever run xwmconfig as root once installation was complete, so I tried an experiment.

I have a VM of Slackware that I created in case I worked up the nerve to try LFS again. I started it up and logged in as root. I started X and it fired up XFCE, which I set as default upon installation.

I exited XFCE and ran xwmconfig, changed the environment to Fluxbox, then started X again. Root now had a Fluxbox interface.

I logged out as root, then logged in as user. User still had the default XFCE interface, but when user tried to log out of XFCE, it hung.

Then I crashed the VM, so I'll play with it more tomorrow.

Update, I played with it some more tonight: I got the VM going again. User still had XFCE, root still had Fluxbox, and everything seems to be functioning. So, in this case at least, running xwmconfig by itself as root does not seem to change the system default. Perhaps if you ran it from the installation "setup" script as root, it would change the system default. Anyway, it's a fun question to solve.

Now I'm going to read me some Nero Wolfe . . . .

Well, as previously mentioned, once root changes desktops by using xwmconfig that change becomes the default.
What I forgot to say was it does not change what an existing user has previously selected for a desktop.
Any new user will be given the default if they don't select one.

Thanks, cwizardone. Thanks to you, I learned something.

Learned
 

Thanx guys for sharing information....