Hi, kind of new at this and need some assistance if anyone is able to input about the best way of removing the GDE and GDM3 and still retain SDDM with KDE on Bullseye. My goal is to run only KDE using the SDDM at this point and previous attempts saw me breaking things terribly trying to remove GDM3... Learning fast however

Steps of this install so far:
Bullseye Gnome iso installed (install for some reason would not take on the kde version iso and not sure why)
Edit of /etc/apt/sources.list
APT Update && Upgrade
Installed kde-standard
Never booted GDE or used GDM3 in any capacity but it obviously exists
Using SDDM have only logged into the kde
Most things are OK but a couple of niggles I'm trying to iron out

Trawling the internet on how is diabolical, so I'm interested in your thoughts of the best first steps to achieve my goal. Be gentle, I'm not a Linux guru yet

Post the output of:That will tell you exactly what will happen if you remove gdm3 without actually running the command.

Alternatives:
First, you seem somewhat confused on several matters. Debian 11 has not been released yet so what you installed was probably a release candidate, RC2. In addition, you should not have to edit your sources.list to get a kde package. The standard debian repos will have both gnome, kde and several other desktop environments to choose from. If your sources.list edit resulted in you mixing debian 11 RC2 packages with the current debain 10.9 packages, you have a real mess on your hands and you're better off starting over.

Alternative 1: Debian 11 should be out pretty soon, so you can just wait a bit until its officially released. Your installation problems with kde may be fixed by then.

Alternative 2: If you want to try installing Debian 11 RC2 now go here:

https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/u...64/iso-hybrid/

and download this iso:

debian-live-blsy-DI-rc2-amd64-kde+nonfree.iso

It's a livecd of Debian 11 RC2 with kde that includes all the nonfree firmware that standard debian will not include in its official isos as a matter of principle. Run the livecd and see how it runs on your hardware. If it runs OK, you can try installing it.

Alternative 3: Debian is a great distro but it tends to lag with support for recent hardware. You have relatively recent hardware and you may need a more recent kernel than what debian typically provides. For a good kde distro you may want to try kubuntu:

https://kubuntu.org/getkubuntu/

It will have better support for recent hardware and will be generally easier to install and configure for someone new to linux. The isos in the above link are livecd installation media so you can give it try and see how it handles your hardware before installing.

First up thanks for your input, and for the --simulate idea, I have not heard that one yet, cool... For the rest, not really confused, I'll explain.

I understand Debian 11 has not been released yet and have very intentionally not installed RC2 as that also, will not take. The only thing I have managed to get to work is a "test" release, which uses the 5.10.0-6amd64 kernel. Don't ask me what is different about it, But I have tried RC1, RC2, 10.9 will not work with my hardware listed on my signature, nor any of the Ubuntu distros including Groovy Gorilla etc. I tried several others and only this test release works perfectly... So yeah, I can't wait until the RC gets the tick. Don't get me wrong, I am happy with it but do not want or need Gnome or GDM3. You are quite right, my hardware needs the later kernel, in this case 5.1.

I did need to edit the sources list in this case, as it was generating a lot of not found errors on apt update as you would imagine... It was more a case of setting it right so it would update looking at the right repositories. I understand he standard debian repos will have both gnome, kde and several other desktop environments to choose from, but as mentioned none of them would take, also leaving me a bit bemused as to why that was... But the exception was the Gnome flavoring of the selection. Hence, where I am now. But instead after an update and upgrade I'm now on 5.10.0-7 and the whole lot is magic!

Doesn't seem to be any mess on my hands right now, and have litterally, already just started over as mentioned. I have installed Bullseye GDE, put on KDE, and now simply wish to remove Gnome, but in a fashion where there are no remnants left of GDE or GDM3. Finally, as I say there is no way kubuntu will run on this, as I need the 5.1 kernel and totally happy with KDE over Bullseye. This is just a clean up job of some dead weight, and not quite sure how to correctly go about it. No issues happening with the install, it's happened already.

Oh and sorry, here is the output of --simulate

I did it correctly mostly last time, but screwed up removing GDM3 and broke it intensely, which I why I'm asking how to do it correctly this time around lol Simulate does suggest GDM will be removed, but a lot of remnants referencing to GDM3 still existed last time so went on a "remove" rampage breaking it all hahaha

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
fonts-symbola hyphen-en-us libliquid2d libreoffice-help-en-us libu2f-udev libwxbase3.0-0v5
libwxgtk3.0-gtk3-0v5 mythes-en-us soapysdr-module-all task-desktop x11-apps x11-session-utils xinit xorg
Use 'sudo apt autoremove' to remove them.
The following packages will be REMOVED:
gdm3 gnome gnome-core task-gnome-desktop
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 4 to remove and 6 not upgraded.
Remv gnome [1:3.38+3]
Remv task-gnome-desktop [3.67]
Remv gnome-core [1:3.38+3]
Remv gdm3 [3.38.2.1-1]

That tells you exactly what will happen if you run that command - i.e. you are going to remove gnome which is the result I think you want. As far as gnome "remnants" goes, don't worry about it unless it is causing problems; it is common to have gnome applications(gtk) on a kde installation which will necessitate having some gnome libraries being included. If you are unsure, do a full system backup before making any changes. You seem to like to tinker so you should learn how to do full backups and restore to bare metal. It takes the angst out of tinkering. Check out clonezilla for that:

https://clonezilla.org/

You don't specify what edits you made to your sources, so I can't help you there except to warn you that mixing debian stable and debian testing sources can, and usually does, result in problems down the line. Also note that Debian 11 will ship with kernel 5.10 when it finally releases:

https://www.debugpoint.com/2021/05/debian-11-features/

so you just may want to wait for that.

I assume that by "GDE" you mean gnome desktop environment. Most people would just say "gnome". KDE is just KDE or Plasma.

As far as kubuntu is concerned, you really can't go by the kernel number in any of the *buntus since ubuntu and its derivatives aggressively backport patches to their older kernels to support newer hardware. Your hardware will likely require a fairly recent kernel which will include a recent version of mesa to support your onboard graphics. Arch linux and its derivatives, like Manjaro, will have the most recent kernels of any distro.

Awesome! Thanks for the tips and knowledge, I figured it was telling me exactly what would happen and it looks pretty much exactly what I want. What about GDM3, I don't need it in there and I want it gone as a selection (and completely) from my session selection and system... and removal this way doesn't seem to achieve this? As far as gnome (thanks for the lingo update re GDE btw) "remnants" goes, I thought I hadn't done the job properly last time, good to know it won't cause confusion to my system and that it's common to have gnome applications(gtk) on a kde installation.

I probably tinker too much, but I'm trying to get familiar with Linux as this will be my daily driver, in fact all of my network very very soon will be sole Linux, I'm sold! I just don't know why I hadn't done it sooner, just love it! Sticking the middle finger up to the tyranny that is, just sick of the rubbish jammed down my throat from the likes of Google and MS. I have cottoned on to the back up thing already, and currently use Timeshift which seems epic so far. The hourly/daily things are great when you're changing things so much so often.

This is what my sources.list looks like now btw, do you think there is any potential cross over in this lot? Hasn't really been causing me problems, but maybe something I am not aware of? Debian 11 shipping with kernel 5.10 when it finally releases is why I'm so excited for the big tick, and tbh can't wait for it's release, literally, as I am already using this lappy as my daily I saw a command somewhere that would lock this kernel in place so apt wouldn't update it, I want to do that temporarily while I know it's working well, do you know what command I should use for that? Possibly might only be a feature of aptitude from memory?

GNU nano 5.4 sources.list
# See https://wiki.debian.org/SourcesList for more information.
deb https://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye main contrib non-free
#deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye main

#deb https://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye-updates main
#deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye-updates main

deb https://security.debian.org/debian-security/ bullseye-security main contrib
#deb-src http://security.debian.org/debian-security/ bullseye-updates main

I hear you with why I can't really can't go by the kernel number in any of the *buntus, but as far as finding an iso that installed at the time, and being quite new on the block, I was really clutching at straws trying to figure it all out. I really want to learn more about how to create my own setup with running multiple distros and using different kernels and the and the likes, how to muck about with all that, edit, and create custom kernels, but for now just too fresh off the boat to dive that deep... I'll get there. I just wanted a working system to begin with, it's been a ride but I have achieved something pretty awesome so far, in fact super awesome! And learned a butt ton!

Have not read about backporting yet, so I will look into how all that works and what it is and what it can do for me at a later date, does seem like something I need to know about and may come in handy in the future by the sounds of things. The other complication on install is my blasted shite Dell BIOS. It seems everything for me at this time in the cycle is made just that much more annoying with my fairly recent hardware (mainly this combo CPU/GPU), and I've not read about what mesa is yet (more reading to get done ). It will be interesting to see how it supports my onboard graphics, because none of the others I tried did. I did try quite a few distros, and kernels tried to date have been 4.15, 5.4, 5.8, even gave AntiX a go with 4.9.235, finally resting on 5.10 which works.

Thanks so very much for your input.