How to have multiple desktop environments in Ubuntu and derivatives?

XFCE

Today we will see how to have more than one desktop environment in our system. This article is aimed at newcomers and newcomers. who are interested in knowing the functionality as well as the installation of some desktop environments on the system.

Because a blog reader asked us how you can have more than one desktop environment on your system, well, here's how to do it without all the fuss.

Installing desktop environments

The first thing we have to know is what desktop environment we have and from there we can know the route to follow so as not to have problems with the dependencies later.

To know the desktop environment we have in use, it is enough to type the following command in the terminal:

env | grep DESKTOP_SESSION=

With which we will receive a response something similar to this (in my case it tells me that I am using XFCE):

DESKTOP_SESSION=xfce

From now on we are going to know which login manager we handle and it is something that we have to take into account since this package or its dependencies are usually broken.

So you have to say whether to install any of the ones that use a desktop environment or continue using the one you already have.

Personally, one of the ones I really like is SDDM or GDM. From now on you can start with the installation of any of the desktop environments of your liking. It is important that you bear in mind that almost all the desktop environments that you install will offer you the installation and activation of their login manager.

KDE installation

From here, the installation order is independent, I simply start with the ones that I like.
In my case I have XFCE and I am going to install KDE.

Here we have two possible facilities. The first is to install the "clean" environment so to call it since it will only install the "minimum necessary" packages for the operation of KDE in our system.

The installation is carried out by typing in terminal:

sudo apt-get install plasma-desktop

Now The second method is to install the KDE Plasma environment together with the Kubuntu customization settings, this method will install extra packages and applications with which we have a more personalized environment.

For this we must add the following repository:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kubuntu-ppa/backports

Once the repository has been added, we update our list of packages and repositories with:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt dist-upgrade
sudo apt install kubuntu-desktop

At the end of the installation, simply close the user session and select the environment with which you want to start your user session in the login manager. Although it is recommended to restart the system.

Cinnamon Installation

Another environment that you can install quite simply is Cinnamon which is the Linux Mint desktop environment.

You can install this by executing the following command in the terminal:

sudo apt install cinnamon-desktop-environment

At the end you close the user session or restart your system to start using it.

Gnome Shell Installation (Gnome 3)

Gnome Shell

If you are a user of a flavor of Ubuntu or a derivative with a different desktop environment. As you may know, Gnome Shell is the default desktop environment in the main Ubuntu branch.

Therefore, its installation can be done installed first:

sudo apt install tasksel

And later we install the desktop environment with:

sudo tasksel install ubuntu-desktop

During the installation of this you will be asked if you want to install and activate its GDM login manager.

Note: you should know that both Gnome Shell, Cinnamon and Mate are environments that were born from the Gnome code and that they share some dependencies. So when you go to uninstall any of these.

It is recommended that you have another desktop environment that does not use their dependencies. The recommendable ones can be KDE or XFCE.

MATE installation

Mate is a desktop environment that aims to preserve the functionality of Gnome 2, so many users who know this environment like it by using this environment.

To install it, just run in terminal:

sudo apt install tasksel
sudo tasksel install ubuntu-mate-desktop

During the installation of this you will be asked if you want to install and activate its Lightdm login manager.

LXDE Installation

LXDE

LXDE It is a lightweight desktop environment designed for the minimum use of resources in offering a clean and functional desktop, without neglecting accessibility and simplicity to the user.

Here we can choose two ways to install it.

Clean installation with its minimum components for its operation and customization is the responsibility of the user.

sudo apt-get install lxde

The other is with Lubuntu (Ubuntu flavor) configurations that include system customization tools.

sudo apt-get install lubuntu-desktop

XFCE Installation

XFCE

Finally, we can also install XFCE which is used in Xubuntu (Ubuntu flavor) and that like LXDE is one of the desktop environments that does not consume so many system resources.

In the same way we have a clean installation:

sudo apt install xfce4

Or installation with Xubuntu settings

sudo apt install tasksel
sudo tasksel install xubuntu-desktop

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  1.   Ricardo said

    Very good explanation. Thank you very much for the article.