Removing a desktop environment to build your own?

WithQuietEyes · 2019-12-14 11:10:29

Hi everyone! I'm still preparing to install (I'm trying to properly understand each step instead of just following a guide this time, so it's taking a while). I wanted to know how hard it is to take a desktop environment/file manager/window manager/etc. back off once it's been installed, to put in your own? I want to try building my own, but I also want to get Arch installed and working sometime this decade, and it'll probably take me a while to figure the whole thing out.
So for example, I'll run the install and use XFCE desktop, then do my research and building to work out what I'm doing and strip the installation back to this stage of the installation and build my own. Are there any pitfalls that make this a stupid idea?

Slithery · 2019-12-14 11:12:08

You don't even have to uninstall XFCE if you don't want to. You can have as many different WM/DE's installed as you want.

WorMzy · 2019-12-14 11:47:54

WithQuietEyes wrote:

I also want to get Arch installed and working sometime this decade

Well, you've got two weeks or so before the next decade arrives, but if you're reading the documentation thoroughly then that's not an unrealistic target.

Depending on how you install a DE, you can remove it in different ways.

If you installed a package, which brought in the rest of the DE as dependencies, you can (usually) just (-R)emove that package with pacman using the --recursive flag to remove the dependencies.

If you installed using a group, you can (-Q)uery which packages belong to that group on your system with pacman using the --group option. Then just remove those packages as usual.

ewaller · 2019-12-14 15:56:34

Case in point. On my system, I choose at runtime between i3wm, xfce4, Openbox, sway, an experimental use of emacs as a WM, or a spice viewer.

If I want to use sway, I merely use: WM=sway startx

Using the following .xinitrc

#!/bin/sh
#
# ~/.xinitrc
#
# Executed by startx (run your window manager from here)

if [ -d /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d ]; then
  for f in /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d/*; do
    [ -x "$f" ] && . "$f"
  done
  unset f
fi

setxkbmap -option ctrl:nocaps
autocutsel -fork &
autocutsel -selection PRIMARY -fork &


case $WM in
    openbox)
	exec  openbox-session
	;;
    emacs)
	exec dbus-launch --exit-with-session emacs -l "~/.emacswm"
	;;
    vnc)
	exec vncviewer :1 -fullscreen
	;;
    i3)
	exec i3 >~/i3log-$(date +'%F-%k-%M-%S') 2>&1
	;;
    xfce4)
	exec xfce4-session
	;;
    spice)
	exec remote-viewer spice+unix:///tmp/vm_spice.socket -f
		
	;;
    sway)
	exec sway
	;;
    *)
	exec i3
	;;
esac

Last edited by ewaller (2019-12-14 15:57:55)

Arch Linux

#1 2019-12-14 11:10:29

Removing a desktop environment to build your own?

#2 2019-12-14 11:12:08

Re: Removing a desktop environment to build your own?

#3 2019-12-14 11:47:54

Re: Removing a desktop environment to build your own?

#4 2019-12-14 15:56:34

Re: Removing a desktop environment to build your own?

Board footer