Arch Linux

artwheat

Member

Registered: 2023-09-27

Posts: 14

[SOLVED] Is reinstall needed 2 switch from Budgie DE 2 something else?

ORIGINAL TITLE: Is a re-install needed to switch from Budgie DE to something else?

Noobie with a fresh install. Coming from Pop OS. Didn't like the outdated packages in an LTS but liked their built in window tiling.

Went with Budgie for my first install. It's beautiful but...
I miss the tiled window manager. Currently looking at i3 or KDE w/tiling manager addon. 

Do I need to re-install Arch to switch to a different Desktop Environment or Tiling Window Manager?

I'd like to ask some opinion questions about them, but am also doing my best to be respectful and follow the bikeshed rules. Is there a place I can ask for opinions on the forum?

Always grateful for any help from the community!

Last edited by artwheat (2023-10-03 20:26:22)

snakeroot

Member

Registered: 2012-10-06

Posts: 176

Re: [SOLVED] Is reinstall needed 2 switch from Budgie DE 2 something else?

Do I need to re-install Arch to switch to a different Desktop Environment or Tiling Window Manager?

No

Is there a place I can ask for opinions on the forum?

"Topics Going Nowhere"

jocheem67

Member

Registered: 2009-11-09

Posts: 250

Re: [SOLVED] Is reinstall needed 2 switch from Budgie DE 2 something else?

I think it's a fair question. I've had to make that decison lots of times.

No

is true. One can install desktop environments alongside each other. But if bloat is a problem for you, then you can do a reinstall.
Heck, I've done reinstalls just for understanding linux better...
Didn't search for it, but there might be a pacman command that leaves you with a basic install. That might be an option. Or go virtual..

And as you state, it' s a very personal viewpoint/opinion on what to do when you 're not happy with what you' re working with. Actually, this question and answers to it is most probably already floating around on this forum somehwere.

seth

Member

From: Won't reply 2 private help req

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 76,087

Re: [SOLVED] Is reinstall needed 2 switch from Budgie DE 2 something else?

TGN isn't punitive, it's because asking "what's the best DM" is only slightly less flame-war prone than "vim or emacs" (and that debate has been settled when we figured that emacs doesn't have a text editor )

Budgie, like gnome and all its derivates, it highly integrated w/ its WM
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Budgie … ow_manager

There's a couple of extensions for Mutter (Gnome WM) to implement this, see eg. https://aur.archlinux.org/packages?O=0& … -pop-shell
But whether they work w/ Budgie is anyones guess.

You also might explore other "fancy" desktop shells that work along i3/sway (KDE and the "smaller" DEs like xfce and lxde/lxqt usually allow to exchange the WM) - as for wayland compositors, hyprland is currently errr… hyped and certainly looks fancy.

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Awebb

Member

Registered: 2010-05-06

Posts: 6,688

Re: [SOLVED] Is reinstall needed 2 switch from Budgie DE 2 something else?

Do I need to re-install Arch to switch to a different Desktop Environment or Tiling Window Manager?

Just remove anything related to Budgie. No need to reinstall the whole thing. Time to learn basic pacman operations. Start by listinging every explicitly installed package with pacman -Qe and then read the manpage to understand, what that means. Proceed with uninstalling everything you think you don't need and keep notes. Keep an Arch usb installer ready in case you kill something critical. You can install even single packages from the installer shell, so in case you break anything by uninstalling something, repairs are rather trivial.

The only time you'll ever need to re-install Arch is when you break it so hard that fixing it would be a waste of time. That doesn't mean you shouldn't from time to time. Going back to square one is one learning method. At some point, graduate to fixing things.

However, there is one thing about desktop environments: They fill up your home folder with configs and whatnot, often influencing other programs and desktops. If you try something new, either try a fresh Linux user or delete unneeded dotfiles and "dotfolders" in your home folder, like things in .config and other hidden folders in home.

"Topics Going Nowhere"

Thanks for nothing. You can't create threads there and OP is aware of bikeshedding.

Last edited by Awebb (2023-10-02 06:23:08)

ewaller

Administrator

From: Pasadena, CA

Registered: 2009-07-13

Posts: 20,643

Re: [SOLVED] Is reinstall needed 2 switch from Budgie DE 2 something else?

As a general note, Awebb and Seth have made correct statements about Topics Going Nowhere.   Users cannot start topics in TGN,  Moderators use TGN as a tool to keep topics out of search engines -- it is not necessarily punitive.

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artwheat

Member

Registered: 2023-09-27

Posts: 14

Re: [SOLVED] Is reinstall needed 2 switch from Budgie DE 2 something else?

TGN isn't punitive, it's because asking "what's the best DM" is only slightly less flame-war prone than "vim or emacs" (and that debate has been settled when we figured that emacs doesn't have a text editor )

Budgie, like gnome and all its derivates, it highly integrated w/ its WM
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Budgie … ow_manager

There's a couple of extensions for Mutter (Gnome WM) to implement this, see eg. https://aur.archlinux.org/packages?O=0& … -pop-shell
But whether they work w/ Budgie is anyones guess.

You also might explore other "fancy" desktop shells that work along i3/sway (KDE and the "smaller" DEs like xfce and lxde/lxqt usually allow to exchange the WM) - as for wayland compositors, hyprland is currently errr… hyped and certainly looks fancy.

Thank you. I decided to try KDE with bismuth. Still working on getting things setup.

Now I need to figure out how to uninstall Budgie without breaking my system. I'd prefer not to have extra bloat lying around and unused software on the computer that will one day be out of date and have the potential  to be a security risk if an exploit were ever found and not patched.

artwheat

Member

Registered: 2023-09-27

Posts: 14

Re: [SOLVED] Is reinstall needed 2 switch from Budgie DE 2 something else?

Do I need to re-install Arch to switch to a different Desktop Environment or Tiling Window Manager?

Just remove anything related to Budgie. No need to reinstall the whole thing. Time to learn basic pacman operations. Start by listinging every explicitly installed package with pacman -Qe and then read the manpage to understand, what that means. Proceed with uninstalling everything you think you don't need and keep notes. Keep an Arch usb installer ready in case you kill something critical. You can install even single packages from the installer shell, so in case you break anything by uninstalling something, repairs are rather trivial.

The only time you'll ever need to re-install Arch is when you break it so hard that fixing it would be a waste of time. That doesn't mean you shouldn't from time to time. Going back to square one is one learning method. At some point, graduate to fixing things.

However, there is one thing about desktop environments: They fill up your home folder with configs and whatnot, often influencing other programs and desktops. If you try something new, either try a fresh Linux user or delete unneeded dotfiles and "dotfolders" in your home folder, like things in .config and other hidden folders in home.

"Topics Going Nowhere"

Thanks for nothing. You can't create threads there and OP is aware of bikeshedding.

Good advice. I'll keep a scratch pad and get to work removing Budgie with pacman.

artwheat

Member

Registered: 2023-09-27

Posts: 14

Re: [SOLVED] Is reinstall needed 2 switch from Budgie DE 2 something else?

As a general note, Awebb and Seth have made correct statements about Topics Going Nowhere.   Users cannot start topics in TGN,  Moderators use TGN as a tool to keep topics out of search engines -- it is not necessarily punitive.

That makes total sense. I never thought about stuff like that impacting a users ability search and actually find what they were looking for and I can see how easy it would be to start a flame war with just the example someone else gave of vim vs. emacs, lol. Thank you for expanding my knowledge and wisdom.

loqs

Member

Registered: 2014-03-06

Posts: 18,928

Re: [SOLVED] Is reinstall needed 2 switch from Budgie DE 2 something else?

See Pacman#Removing_packages in respect to removing budgie.  If you did not follow the second note from Pacman#Installing_packages when installing optional dependencies they will need to be handled manually assuming they are no longer needed after your DE switch.

artwheat

Member

Registered: 2023-09-27

Posts: 14

Re: [SOLVED] Is reinstall needed 2 switch from Budgie DE 2 something else?

I think it's a fair question. I've had to make that decison lots of times.

No

is true. One can install desktop environments alongside each other. But if bloat is a problem for you, then you can do a reinstall.
Heck, I've done reinstalls just for understanding linux better...
Didn't search for it, but there might be a pacman command that leaves you with a basic install. That might be an option. Or go virtual..

And as you state, it' s a very personal viewpoint/opinion on what to do when you 're not happy with what you' re working with. Actually, this question and answers to it is most probably already floating around on this forum somehwere.

I agree, having to reinstall is not the worst thing in the world. Mostly just time consuming when one wants to move on to actually using the computer vs. setting it up. In the two years since I switched to Linux, I've probably formatted and started over 4 times with Pop OS simply because I installed & tried so many different things and probably corrupted a few config files, a fresh start just made sense. It's all been good practice. Thanks for reminding me that those challenges and lessons were a positive thing and not just a pain in the ___________.

artwheat

Member

Registered: 2023-09-27

Posts: 14

Re: [SOLVED] Is reinstall needed 2 switch from Budgie DE 2 something else?

See Pacman#Removing_packages in respect to removing budgie.  If you did not follow the second note from Pacman#Installing_packages when installing optional dependencies they will need to be handled manually assuming they are no longer needed after your DE switch.

I installed Budgie during initial install, not from pacman. Both links are good to know. Thank you for the tips, that was helpful!