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HaitamKenwai

Member

Registered: 2022-04-20

Posts: 3

[SOLVED]Alternate two desktop environment

Hi everyone, posting here cause I feel this is a "Newbie" question,
atm I'm using KDE Plasma and I'm pretty happy with it but I'd like to use dwm as well.

The point is: is it possible to have two DE's (in this case Plasma and dwm, even if dwm is only a window manager but still) for a single user profile?
I'd like to share files between KDE and dwm and I'm not looking for using a different window manager INSIDE KDE.

Thanks in advance to everyone.

P.S.
If you point me to a post/solution/guide that solve everything that's cool;
but I kindly ask to provide me some docs or some explanations (in addition to the solution, if that already exists) on how those things works, I'm trying to learn but I admit that I'm a bit lost.
Thanks again.

Last edited by HaitamKenwai (2023-01-05 09:19:00)

ewaller

Administrator

From: Pasadena, CA

Registered: 2009-07-13

Posts: 20,181

Re: [SOLVED]Alternate two desktop environment

Absolutely.  Right now, I have Gnome, i3wm and Sway installed.  Right now, I happen to be using GDM, but earlier this week I was not using a Display Manager and was just using startx or Sway from the command line..   Last month I had Plasma installed along with SDDM.

Are you planning to use a DM (Display Manager) or just startx  ?

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Head_on_a_Stick

Member

From: The Wirral

Registered: 2014-02-20

Posts: 8,262

Website

Re: [SOLVED]Alternate two desktop environment

I use something like this at the end of ~/.profile:

case "$(tty)" in
   /dev/tty1) exec startplasma-wayland ;;
   /dev/tty2) exec startx
esac

So with that logging into TTY1 launches Plasma; TTY2 launches X with ~/.xinitrc (which would in turn call dwm).

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HaitamKenwai

Member

Registered: 2022-04-20

Posts: 3

Re: [SOLVED]Alternate two desktop environment

Many thanks for the quick response!

Rn I'm using sddm, but I wouldn't mind to switch to startx if necessary.

ewaller

Administrator

From: Pasadena, CA

Registered: 2009-07-13

Posts: 20,181

Re: [SOLVED]Alternate two desktop environment

SDDM is pretty simple.  Install multiple environments, SDDM will figure it out and give you a control that provides a drop down where you can choose your session type.

Bonus points, if you set up your xinitrc (either stand alone or if you want to use sddm) you can switch consoles awat from an existing session, log in from the console, and start a second session on that new console using startx,  So, you can have Plasma, for example, on tty1 and have dwm on tty2 -- and you can switch between them on the fly.

---

Nothing is too wonderful to be true, if it be consistent with the laws of nature -- Michael Faraday
Sometimes it is the people no one can imagine anything of who do the things no one can imagine. -- Alan Turing
---
How to Ask Questions the Smart Way

HaitamKenwai

Member

Registered: 2022-04-20

Posts: 3

Re: [SOLVED]Alternate two desktop environment

Thanks everyone, I think I'll stick with SDDM for now, I successfully installed dwm and works great.
Now I just have to change the default login screen, but that's another thing.

Thank again and closing this one as solved.