How to remove my Dekstop Environment and install a Window Manager

FlatEarthGary · 2021-02-13 20:23:38

Hello there!

I've been using KDE (Plasma I think) since I started using Arch, roughly a two months ago or so. I don't really like how everything is set up and so on this desktop environment so I've been looking at some window managers to replace my desktop environment with.

So my question is, how do I fully remove/uninstall my desktop environment and install a window manager in its place? Is it possible and safe or do I have to reinstall the whole system?

Thank you and have a great day!

jasonwryan · 2021-02-13 20:31:20

I'd install one (or more) window managers alongside KDE and work out which one(s) you want to stick with. Then just uninstall the KDE packages. You can either start X on a separate TTY with the WM, or just boot into it.

Note that with a pure WM, you'll need to find utilities to replace a lot of the functionality that a DE provides.

FlatEarthGary · 2021-02-13 20:44:38

jasonwryan wrote:

I'd install one (or more) window managers alongside KDE and work out which one(s) you want to stick with. Then just uninstall the KDE packages. You can either start X on a separate TTY with the WM, or just boot into it.
Note that with a pure WM, you'll need to find utilities to replace a lot of the functionality that a DE provides.

Ohh, okay I didn't know you could do that! Is it safe to just install one on top of KDE?

Then in the future is there a way to uninstall all KDE packages instead of just going through all of them and uninstalling them.

Could you explain what you mean with "You can either start X on a separate TTY with the WM, or just boot into it.", I'm rather new so I don't know all the lango haha .

Thank you so much for responding!

jasonwryan · 2021-02-13 21:10:07

1. Is it safe? They are just additional packages, if you have room on disk, then there is no issue.

2. KDE comes in a group, doesn't it?

3. Read the xinitrc wiki page: you can start a second WM on a different TTY.

FlatEarthGary · 2021-02-13 21:12:06

jasonwryan wrote:

1. Is it safe? They are just additional packages, if you have room on disk, then there is no issue.
2. KDE comes in a group, doesn't it?
3. Read the xinitrc wiki page: you can start a second WM on a different TTY.

Okay I will look into it. I really appreciate you helping me out, thank you and have a great day!

twelveeighty · 2021-02-14 15:23:12

FlatEarthGary wrote:

Then in the future is there a way to uninstall all KDE packages instead of just going through all of them and uninstalling them.

The effort/pain involved depends on if you would like to keep some utilities such as Dolphin and just run them on your other WM / DE and if you used the Meta package or package group when you installed KDE. But, you could just remove them all and then cherry-pick the packages you wish to install again individually after that.

FlatEarthGary · 2021-02-14 15:33:04

twelveeighty wrote:

FlatEarthGary wrote:
Then in the future is there a way to uninstall all KDE packages instead of just going through all of them and uninstalling them.
The effort/pain involved depends on if you would like to keep some utilities such as Dolphin and just run them on your other WM / DE and if you used the Meta package or package group when you installed KDE. But, you could just remove them all and then cherry-pick the packages you wish to install again individually after that.

Hi, thank you for your response, I really appreciate it!

I'd like to just wipe all the KDE software/desktop environment so I get back to just the commandline interface you get when you first install Arch. From there I want to be able to cherry-pick what to be installed, for example the window manager.

How do I remove all of the KDE software?

Thank you so much, have a great day!

jasonwryan · 2021-02-14 17:02:56

FlatEarthGary wrote:

How do I remove all of the KDE software?

You reverse the operation you did to install it. Read /var/log/pacman.log to refresh your memory.

FlatEarthGary · 2021-02-14 17:05:52

jasonwryan wrote:

FlatEarthGary wrote:
How do I remove all of the KDE software?
You reverse the operation you did to install it. Read /var/log/pacman.log to refresh your memory.

Ohh, okay! I didn't know you could do that! I'll have a look, thank you so much!

Trilby · 2021-02-14 17:32:53

FlatEarthGary wrote:

I'd like to just wipe all the KDE software/desktop environment so I get back to just the commandline interface you get when you first install Arch.

Those are two very different goals. I suspect you only want the former. But if you really want the latter, just 1) mark all packages installed as dependencies, 2) mark all of the base group (and kernel, or anything else you pactstrap'ed) as explicitly installed, 3) remove all orphan packages.

I'd write out the three commands to do this, but I suspect it's not what you really want.

FlatEarthGary · 2021-02-14 17:45:02

Trilby wrote:

FlatEarthGary wrote:
I'd like to just wipe all the KDE software/desktop environment so I get back to just the commandline interface you get when you first install Arch.
Those are two very different goals. I suspect you only want the former. But if you really want the latter, just 1) mark all packages installed as dependencies, 2) mark all of the base group (and kernel, or anything else you pactstrap'ed) as explicitly installed, 3) remove all orphan packages.
I'd write out the three commands to do this, but I suspect it's not what you really want.

I'm sorry I'm really new to this so please excuse my ignorance!

I haven't really installed that many things onto my system in the sense of changing the UI, therefore if I uninstall KDE I should get back to just the command line, I think at least. So that's what I want to do, as when I'm there I can install a Window Manager for example and then build up from there.

GaKu999 · 2021-02-15 01:08:45

I suggest you first disable the systemd service for sddm, if you are using that to get into the DE, that is literally enough for booting into a tty. You can do that in the tty[2-6] so you don’t actually need to reboot after you stop/disable the service.

From there if you want to play it safe, start removing unwanted packages being careful not to get rid of something important as a dep by accident.

...

As for a WM purist setup, choose X11 or Wayland and play with the ones available until you find one that hits the spot and you are good to go.

And lots lots of reading the wiki, the purist path is one full of reading. And manual pages too.

Last edited by GaKu999 (2021-02-15 01:10:37)

Arch Linux

#1 2021-02-13 20:23:38

How to remove my Dekstop Environment and install a Window Manager

#2 2021-02-13 20:31:20

Re: How to remove my Dekstop Environment and install a Window Manager

#3 2021-02-13 20:44:38

Re: How to remove my Dekstop Environment and install a Window Manager

#4 2021-02-13 21:10:07

Re: How to remove my Dekstop Environment and install a Window Manager

#5 2021-02-13 21:12:06

Re: How to remove my Dekstop Environment and install a Window Manager

#6 2021-02-14 15:23:12

Re: How to remove my Dekstop Environment and install a Window Manager

#7 2021-02-14 15:33:04

Re: How to remove my Dekstop Environment and install a Window Manager

#8 2021-02-14 17:02:56

Re: How to remove my Dekstop Environment and install a Window Manager

#9 2021-02-14 17:05:52

Re: How to remove my Dekstop Environment and install a Window Manager

#10 2021-02-14 17:32:53

Re: How to remove my Dekstop Environment and install a Window Manager

#11 2021-02-14 17:45:02

Re: How to remove my Dekstop Environment and install a Window Manager

#12 2021-02-15 01:08:45

Re: How to remove my Dekstop Environment and install a Window Manager

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