I installed KDE

• 1st via kde-full metapackage
• then uninstalled and installed it several times and then used kde-standard package

The issue is that when i try to run KDE, it tries to run GNOME giving me the GNOME shell and the GNOME's black top and bottom panels and even the side dock..Completely ignoring KDE.

I can't access KDE panels and and other things, although i can run both KDE and GNOME apps (exceptions to few GNOME windows .. such as power off window doesn't open) and i can add widgets as well as an overlay.

But it's like it is trying to run GNOME within KDE..why? .. importing from GNOME? No idea why?

I've tried reinstalling KDE several times via apt-get and even deleted ~/.kde many times to no avail.

Here are pics:

KDE tries to run GNOME


I can see KDE panels when logging out via KDE leave

Any solutions? Appreciate your help

Try this:
"You might want/need to uninstall the current display manager" (GDM?).

https://wiki.debian.org/KDE

Why cant I use gdm3 and kdm simultaneously? .. I mean co-existing on 1 sys... I can always use dpkg-reconfigure to choose the default 1.

And wanted to clarify: a display manager is concerned only with login or does it even handle window rendering after the DE has been started?

so can I apt-get remove gdm3 without breaking GNOME or KDE, and have KDE as login(kdm as default)?

I don't know, I don't use a display manager.

I was just quoting the wiki page I linked.