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#1 2010-11-19 17:52:20

655321
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From: Costa Rica
Registered: 2009-12-08
Posts: 412
Website

Purge system from gnome and install another DE

Hi! I know this has been discussed a lot but I cant find what I am looking for, so I better ask here.

I want to uninstall gnome but keep all my configuration in case I want to reinstall it later, but I want to remove all apps that came preinstalled with it, and leave only the ones I installed manually, like gnome do or audacious, this is because I want to test all the DE out there, I want to install LXDE, KDE, XFCE and so on, comparing them and ultimately leave only one on my system. Having 2 or more installed would make my menu very, very bloated and annoying,

How can this be done?

In case I want to reinstall gnome, will all the packages be in the cache so I won't have to download all the DE again?

cheers and thanks for the help


Linux user #498977
With microsoft you get windows and gates, with linux you get the whole house!
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#2 2010-11-19 18:27:47

drcouzelis
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From: Connecticut, USA
Registered: 2009-11-09
Posts: 4,092
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Re: Purge system from gnome and install another DE

Your GNOME settings are safe. Unless you personally delete hidden configuration files and directories from your home directory, none of your GNOME settings will change.

I recommend you do NOT uninstall GNOME while you try other desktop environments. Just install one you want to try, make a change in your xinitrc file, and try it out. If you don't like it, just change xinitrc back to GNOME. Small changes are almost always better than large extreme changes.

If you uninstall and reinstall packages, you do not have to download them again. (unless it's from the AUR)

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#3 2010-11-19 19:37:37

655321
Member
From: Costa Rica
Registered: 2009-12-08
Posts: 412
Website

Re: Purge system from gnome and install another DE

Hi, yeah thats what I am doing at this time, I have both KDE and GNOME at the moment, I am amazed of how the KDE project has advanced over the years, really didnt expect that much features!

One thing I had to do is disable compiz to try KDE out, because the settings are tweaked for gnome and I dont want to mess that up, also the desktop behaves odd If I have it enabled.

And by "your gnome settings are safe" you mean If I uninstall with pacman -Rs ? I guess pacman -Rsc will delete all settings, right?


Linux user #498977
With microsoft you get windows and gates, with linux you get the whole house!
My Blog about ArchLinux and other stuff

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#4 2010-11-19 20:09:29

drcouzelis
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From: Connecticut, USA
Registered: 2009-11-09
Posts: 4,092
Website

Re: Purge system from gnome and install another DE

655321 wrote:

One thing I had to do is disable compiz to try KDE out, because the settings are tweaked for gnome and I dont want to mess that up, also the desktop behaves odd If I have it enabled.

I forgot about that. I had to do that too when I switched from GNOME to KDE. hmm

655321 wrote:

And by "your gnome settings are safe" you mean If I uninstall with pacman -Rs ? I guess pacman -Rsc will delete all settings, right?

No, pacman will never delete your settings. Your settings are in your home directory. ("/home/username") Pacman never makes changes to your home directory.

Also, pacman won't delete file you created or changed even if it's NOT in your home directory. Pacman is very kind.

By the way, I gave up using desktop environments. I went back to my original love, Window Maker. wink

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#5 2010-11-19 20:12:30

655321
Member
From: Costa Rica
Registered: 2009-12-08
Posts: 412
Website

Re: Purge system from gnome and install another DE

drcouzelis wrote:

No, pacman will never delete your settings. Your settings are in your home directory. ("/home/username") Pacman never makes changes to your home directory.

Also, pacman won't delete file you created or changed even if it's NOT in your home directory. Pacman is very kind.

By the way, I gave up using desktop environments. I went back to my original love, Window Maker. wink

Things like this is what makes pacman the BEST package manager I have ever tried, and I have used a lot of distros big_smile


Linux user #498977
With microsoft you get windows and gates, with linux you get the whole house!
My Blog about ArchLinux and other stuff

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