installing linux mint 17 with kde on a PC
 

Hi,

I'm new to Linux and this is my first post. I'd appreciate your help.

I installed Linux Mint 17 with a Cinnamon desktop a couple of months ago. I got on well with it but then I saw Plasma 5 had been released and was getting good reviews so I thought I'd give that a go. I installed it alongside Cinnamon. I much prefer Plasma 5 and now want to discontinue using Cinnamon. So far I've had no problems (that I know of!) running the two side by side but I have seen comments in some forums to the effect that running two desktops is not advised.

I have tried a completely fresh installation of mint 17 with a kde desktop but it keeps stalling. I downloaded the iso file and burnt it to a dvd. When I booted my PC and told it to boot from the dvd, the installation got as far as showing me a blue linux mint logo and then the screen went completely black. After a couple of seconds the screen was filled with white dots and nothing happened after that. After 20 minutes I ejected the dvd and rebooted the PC. It was still in the same configuration it as before I tried the re-installation - ie Mint 17 with both a Cinnamon and a Plasma 5 desktop.

I then tried the same exercise but this time from a usb stick. I downloaded a fresh iso file and put it on a usb stick using Unetbootin. The same thing happened again.

The hardware I'm using (as reported by Hardinfo) is:
-Computer-
Processor : 2x Intel(R) Pentium(R) D CPU 3.40GHz
Memory : 2063MB (1312MB used)
Operating System : Linux Mint 17 Qiana
Date/Time : Sat 30 Aug 2014 17:46:27 BST
-Display-
Resolution : 1680x1050 pixels
OpenGL Renderer : GeForce 7600 GS/PCIe/SSE2
X11 Vendor : The X.Org Foundation
-Multimedia-
Audio Adapter : CA0106 - CA0106
Audio Adapter : HDA-Intel - HDA VIA VT82xx
-SCSI Disks-
ATA ST3250824AS
ATA ST3500630AS
TSSTcorp CD/DVDW SH-S182D

My questions are:

1.Do I need to bother with a re-installation? Am I doing any harm having both Cinnamon and Plasma 5 on my PC but only using Plasma 5?

2. If it is advisable to remove Cinnamon, is there any way to do so without a re-installation?

3. If I do need to re-install, any ideas why the re-installations I have tried so far have failed?

Any and all advice gratefully received.

There is nothing wrong with having multiple desktops installed to a distro and switching among them.

Some persons will say you shouldn't have, for example, Gnome and KDE because it will install two sets of libraries and (gasp!) use hard drive space, but hard drives are so big these days that's really not a worry, not any more. If you are not using the libraries, they just sit there doing nothing; they don't get in the way.

Indeed, doing that allows you to use KDE programs under Gnome and vice versa.

On my Mint MATE machine, I normally use E17, but occasionally switch back to MATE from time to time.

Slackware comes with two desktops and four window managers out of the box. My Magiea install came with KDE and at least one other desktop, and I commonly use E17 on that.

Thank you
 

Frankbell, thanks for such a quick and helpful reply.