Arch Linux

virusso80

Member

From: Italy

Registered: 2007-03-09

Posts: 258

switch KDE - GNOME and viceversa

Hi all,
I was a kde-user some time ago, but after kde4 has been introduced, my life has been very hard. Then I switched to GNOME, because i never tried it, and i'd like to try.

I know that kde is always improving because of its super-active community. I'd like to switch back to it. What do I have to do?

I need to uninstall GNOME before to avoid some menu problems? I need to do everything stopping gdm?
I'll appreciate very much if you explain the procedure step by step.

Thanks in advance

heleos

Member

From: Maine, USA

Registered: 2007-04-24

Posts: 678

Re: switch KDE - GNOME and viceversa

The only menu "problems" you would get would be getting gnome apps in kde menus, and vice versa. There's really no harm in having both on your system. You can also start kde from GDM.

virusso80

Member

From: Italy

Registered: 2007-03-09

Posts: 258

Re: switch KDE - GNOME and viceversa

thanks for your answer. So no harm for having both, except for the duplicate application, but i think it's not very good because of the two different libraries: gtk and qt4.
If I want to switch to kde with a clean installation, how can i remove gnome? Do I've to exit gdm or not?

This is my real question, I'm sorry if before it was misunderstood.

Thanks in advance

mcmillan

Member

Registered: 2006-04-06

Posts: 665

Re: switch KDE - GNOME and viceversa

pacman -Rcsn gnome should get rid of just about everything that got installed with the gnome group. If you really want to be sure to clear everything gtk related you can use pacman -Qi gtk2 to see what needs it.

Though I'd recommend keeping them both installed at least until you're sure you want to dump gnome in favor of kde.  It doesn't hurt having some gtk libraries installed if you're not running anything that's using them at the time. There's even a few gtk apps I run even though I'm a KDE user, just because I like them better than any qt-based alternatives.

Last edited by mcmillan (2008-11-27 08:08:31)

hk2717

Member

From: China

Registered: 2007-09-13

Posts: 213

Re: switch KDE - GNOME and viceversa

You can completely remove Gnome when you are in Gnome, but this is not recommended. You can exit X environment and run 'pacman -R gnome' in console, then edit your /etc/rc,conf to remove gdm from auto-start daemons. (or edit /etc/inittab, depending on how you start gdm). Then you can install whatever you like.

For me it is almost impossible to install just one graphical kit. There are great apps in both qt4 and gtk2, and some of them are so good than their counterpart from 'the other world', E.G. smplayer(or vlc), qstardict, firefox, and zim, so why not install both and take advantage from all these excellent software?

zyghom

Member

From: Poland/Tanzania

Registered: 2006-05-11

Posts: 429

Website

Re: switch KDE - GNOME and viceversa

For me it is almost impossible to install just one graphical kit. There are great apps in both qt4 and gtk2, and some of them are so good than their counterpart from 'the other world', E.G. smplayer(or vlc), qstardict, firefox, and zim, so why not install both and take advantage from all these excellent software?

+1

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Zygfryd Homonto

ashunter

Member

Registered: 2007-06-16

Posts: 47

Re: switch KDE - GNOME and viceversa

I am too a kde user for a long time,but kde4 is not very complete now,i tried kde4.2 and found it's even better,but not very stable.KDE 4 has a light future and i just need to wait when it's been improved.I've tried Gnome many times but never like it.I used to use xfce as a replacement and now openbox.I am using openbox with pypanel,Terminal,pcmanfm,conky,and other gtk-apps(those do NOT need gnome,of course).Really like it, fast and need min resource.Good choice when you get tired of kde4 and wanna try something else.And of course i'll return to kde4 when it has more features.
PS:the new oxygen style in kde4.2 look really good.:P

virusso80

Member

From: Italy

Registered: 2007-03-09

Posts: 258

Re: switch KDE - GNOME and viceversa

thanks all for your useful answers. when i bought my new laptop i was trying to use fluxbox, but to get a usable environment maybe i needed to many settings. probably i didn't find a good wiki or i didn't understand how it should work. I'd like some de where i can give my personal appearance. I really don't care about two kinds of libraries, i was only worried about the stability etc. I'm agree with you when you say that we should take advantages of all good SW.

I think i didn't find my best de! I'll try openbox...or something else. I'm still using gnome, because kde4 was unstable and there too many features that i needed and were still not available or reacheable in a tricky way.

Thanks for ur suggestions.

Doehni

Member

From: Germany

Registered: 2007-05-19

Posts: 175

Re: switch KDE - GNOME and viceversa

Do you guys know KDEmod? Split KDE packages of KDE4 and KDE3.5...
http://www.kdemod.ath.cx/

trusktr

Member

From: Sacramento, CA

Registered: 2010-02-18

Posts: 894

Website

Re: switch KDE - GNOME and viceversa

Necropost, but still useful:

Over time, no matter whether you have Gnome or KDE, you might end up needing both gtk AND qt. For example, chrome needs GTK. So if you're on KDE, and want google chrome, then you need GTK.

I'm in Gnome, but I need QT for a game called Hedgewars and a music production app called qTractor, and a few other things.

With the power and capacity of computers nowadays, having both is really no big deal.

Switching between KDE and Gnome is no big deal. It's just a matter of adding and removing apps. At one point I had both Gnome AND KDE installed at the same time, to test both. Then I just removed the one i didn't want and all the apps designed for it....

BUT, i could easily have chosen to keep all the apps for both desktops. For example, having QT apps and a Gnome desktop will result in having many KDE apps in your application menu. That's all. No biggy. If you don't want 'em, remove them with pacman

ngoonee

Forum Fellow

From: Between Thailand and Singapore

Registered: 2009-03-17

Posts: 6,717

Re: switch KDE - GNOME and viceversa

Necropost, but still useful:

Over time, no matter whether you have Gnome or KDE, you might end up needing both gtk AND qt. For example, chrome needs GTK. So if you're on KDE, and want google chrome, then you need GTK.

I'm in Gnome, but I need QT for a game called Hedgewars and a music production app called qTractor, and a few other things.

With the power and capacity of computers nowadays, having both is really no big deal.

Switching between KDE and Gnome is no big deal. It's just a matter of adding and removing apps. At one point I had both Gnome AND KDE installed at the same time, to test both. Then I just removed the one i didn't want and all the apps designed for it....

BUT, i could easily have chosen to keep all the apps for both desktops. For example, having QT apps and a Gnome desktop will result in having many KDE apps in your application menu. That's all. No biggy. If you don't want 'em, remove them with pacman

How exactly is this post useful to the discussion? KDE vs Gnome and qt vs gtk is not the same thing. Closing, please do not necrobump in this manner.

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