Arch Linux

Spok

Member

Registered: 2017-12-08

Posts: 5

Change Desktop Manager on the fly (without re-entering my password)

As the title suggest, I would like to find a way to change my desktop manager on the fly, without having to reenter a password every time. I would like to switch between gnome and openbox for instance.
Ideally that would be from a command line.

Currently, I do it this way:

> sudo systemctl restart lightdm

But that requires me to select the other desktop manager (with the mouse, heaven forbid !), and reenter my user password.

(I use lightdm as my display manager, and would like to keep it that way if possible)

Last edited by Spok (2019-06-13 18:31:45)

Slithery

Administrator

From: Norfolk, UK

Registered: 2013-12-01

Posts: 5,776

Re: Change Desktop Manager on the fly (without re-entering my password)

I think you have your nomenclature confused...

Gnome is a DE (desktop environment) whereas Openbox is a WM (window manager). Neither of them are DM's (desktop managers).

Please rephrase your question to something understandable.

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Spok

Member

Registered: 2017-12-08

Posts: 5

Re: Change Desktop Manager on the fly (without re-entering my password)

When start lightdm I get a drop down containing the list of "environments" I can open after login:

Gnome
KDE
Openbox
I3
etc…

It seems like lightdm sees gnome and openbox as the same "thing". I installed both as standard Arch packages "gnome" and "openbox".
Let's say Desktop Environment

Last edited by Spok (2019-06-13 19:06:50)

seth

Member

From: Won't reply 2 private help req

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 77,762

Re: Change Desktop Manager on the fly (without re-entering my password)

You'd have to start some sort of "master session" (eg. an xterm) and run and stop the sessions found in /usr/share/xsessions/ from there.
However there'll likely be artifacts ie. processes from one desktop environment keep running with another.

Depending on the actual usecase, pam_timestamp might be of use (allows you to login w/o psasing creds if your last login is less than <time™> ago)

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Spok

Member

Registered: 2017-12-08

Posts: 5

Re: Change Desktop Manager on the fly (without re-entering my password)

Thanks for the help.
Actually, now that I have done more testing, I guess I meant window manager
I was able to achieve my goal with this kind of command :
killall gnome-shell && openbox
Which replaces the gnome wm with openbox.