[SOLVED] How to switch desktop environments without a display manager

Temoshee · 10-01-2021, 03:21 PM

Hello. I am using Debian 10 with an XFCE desktop and I would like to switch to a GNOME desktop environment. I can see that I successfully installed both desktop environments but I cannot get to the display manager screen because if I log out it just goes blank. This is because I am on a remote server accessed via Apache Guacamole. Is there a way to invoke the display manager without logging out? Or otherwise, can I change the desktop environment directly from the command line? Thanks for any ideas. Best regards.

mrmazda · 10-01-2021, 05:44 PM

This is an example of what I use in openSUSE:

Code:

WINDOWMANAGER=/usr/bin/icewm startx

In other distros I use, the following works:

Code:

startx /usr/bin/icewm

I never use XFCE without a DM. I never use Gnome. Mostly I use TDE, KDE3 & KDE Plasma.

frankbell · 10-01-2021, 08:40 PM

You may want to look into configuring xinitrc files. I think that they would be useful in such an effort. It's been a while since I set one up, but my recollection is, in the absence of a display manager, you can use one to properly start the environment of your choice.

Temoshee · 10-02-2021, 09:12 AM

It looks like I can try these suggestions in the shell console for my account. Thank you both!