Switching desktop environments
With all the opinions on desktop environments, it begs the question (at least from a beginner like myself!), how easy is it to switch desktops, and can it be done on the fly? Can you run them at the same time?
On Tuesday 21 January 2003 16:17, Matt Stamm wrote:
With all the opinions on desktop environments, it begs the question (at least from a beginner like myself!), how easy is it to switch desktops, and can it be done on the fly? Can you run them at the same time?
This question also interests me. I know that I can exit to kdm (or gdm if I'm running that...) and select any of the other Desktop managers or Window Managers that I previously installed, but this raises questions about what is being loaded. If I load Enlightenment or Ice or fvwm2 (etc.) from kdm, am I also running a bunch of KDE structure that would NOT be present if I were to boot into xdm and start the same window manglers from there?? Similarly, what's supposed to happen if I boot into xdm and start (say...) Blackbox, and then launch KMail? And, what about when I quit KMail... is there a lot of K stuff still loaded/active? Is there a difference in what's loaded/running if I invoke Ice from kdm, versus from gdm? What about if GNOME is running when I launch Ice? Does some GNOME stuff shut down? or is it all still there behind the Ice curtain? Finally, what about starting GNOME from kdm or KDE from gdm? Silly? Possible problems? Any difference from using xdm? I assume that the major desktops are best started from their respective managers, but what's the functional difference? I'll shut up now... :-) /kevin
On Tue, 2003-01-21 at 22:39, Kevin McLauchlan wrote:
On Tuesday 21 January 2003 16:17, Matt Stamm wrote:
With all the opinions on desktop environments, it begs the question (at least from a beginner like myself!), how easy is it to switch desktops, and can it be done on the fly? Can you run them at the same time?
This question also interests me.
I know that I can exit to kdm (or gdm if I'm running that...) and select any of the other Desktop managers or Window Managers that I previously installed, but this raises questions about what is being loaded.
If I load Enlightenment or Ice or fvwm2 (etc.) from kdm, am I also running a bunch of KDE structure that would NOT be present if I were to boot into xdm and start the same window manglers from there??
No
Similarly, what's supposed to happen if I boot into xdm and start (say...) Blackbox, and then launch KMail? And, what about when I quit KMail... is there a lot of K stuff still loaded/active?
Yes At least for a while. The kde daemons will die when the last client has exited, but there is a timeout before that happens.
Is there a difference in what's loaded/running if I invoke Ice from kdm, versus from gdm?
That depends on how it's set up. The *fact* of kdm or gdm won't make a difference, but they are different programs with different configurations. They will load what they are told.
What about if GNOME is running when I launch Ice?
I wonder if it's possible to "run" Gnome without a window manager. I don't think so. And you can't run two window managers at the same time. Having said that, it's a part of the documentation of garnome that to switch from sawfish to the new metacity you should killall sawfish; sleep 1; metacity & I guess something similar could be done to swap in icewm.
Does some GNOME stuff shut down? or is it all still there behind the Ice curtain?
The curtain would be held by Gnome in this case. Ice would sit quietly in the background and maybe draw a window title bar or two. There is a big difference between Desktop Environments and window managers. Check out http://freedesktop.org for a brief description.
Finally, what about starting GNOME from kdm or KDE from gdm?
No problems.
Silly? Possible problems? Any difference from using xdm?
Yes, in xdm you can't really select anything. You have to edit config files manually. That's why kdm, gdm, wdm, elogind etc etc etc were written.
I assume that the major desktops are best started from their respective managers, but what's the functional difference?
None.
Their respective environments will have config tools for them, so it
might be a good idea to have them installed, but apart from that there's
nothing tying kdm to kde. Look'n'feel on the login screen and config
tools, that's all.
--
Anders Johansson
On Tuesday 21 January 2003 17:07, Anders Johansson wrote: [...]
Yes, in xdm you can't really select anything. You have to edit config files manually. That's why kdm, gdm, wdm, elogind etc etc etc were written.
True. I did that for a while, last year when I had a different X-ish problem on 8.0. I soon got tired of re-editing the file each time I wanted to tell xdm what wm to load. So then I tried making nearly-identical copies of the file and re-naming every time I wanted a change. That was actually worse, because I let the files get out of sync when I blinked at the wrong time...
I assume that the major desktops are best started from their respective managers, but what's the functional difference?
None.
Their respective environments will have config tools for them, so it might be a good idea to have them installed, but apart from that there's nothing tying kdm to kde. Look'n'feel on the login screen and config tools, that's all.
Ok, thanks. But that contradicts what (IIRC) somebody told me a week-or-three ago when I was trying to sort out my recent crashing-X problem. I said that I wanted to eliminate KDE as a possible culprit, so I'd tried running GNOME instead -- and still had the crash occur. The other person said that if I had merely started GNOME in place of KDE from kdm, then I was still using some K-guts and had not given myself a clean GNOME for the test. He said that I should use gdm to launch GNOME, to be sure I was not invoking any part of KDE. But, you presented your version more convincingly, so I'll believe you. <grin> It must be that white hat... /kevin
On Wed, 2003-01-22 at 04:01, Kevin McLauchlan wrote:
Ok, thanks. But that contradicts what (IIRC) somebody told me a week-or-three ago when I was trying to sort out my recent crashing-X problem. I said that I wanted to eliminate KDE as a possible culprit, so I'd tried running GNOME instead -- and still had the crash occur. The other person said that if I had merely started GNOME in place of KDE from kdm, then I was still using some K-guts and had not given myself a clean GNOME for the test. He said that I should use gdm to launch GNOME, to be sure I was not invoking any part of KDE.
Well, that's not completely the same thing. kdm uses the kdelibs and qt to display its screens. If there's a bug in, say, qt that causes X to crash, I would say it's good advice to try starting without it completely. If there's a bug in there, the damage could already be done when qt draws the login screen. If, on the other hand, kdm/kde/qt work as they should, they should be out of your way when gnome is running.
But, you presented your version more convincingly, so I'll believe you. <grin> It must be that white hat...
white hat?
--
Anders Johansson
The 03.01.21 at 23:07, Anders Johansson wrote:
don't think so. And you can't run two window managers at the same time.
Well... maybe not exactly. But you may run two complete sessions, and one may be kde and the other gnome. From a console, try "startx -- :1". You will get a completely new session on "console" 8 (ctrl-alt-F8). I'm unsure how to specify the sesion type from the command line, though. -- Cheers, Carlos Robinson
On Thu, 2003-01-30 at 00:13, Carlos E. R. wrote:
The 03.01.21 at 23:07, Anders Johansson wrote:
don't think so. And you can't run two window managers at the same time.
Well... maybe not exactly. But you may run two complete sessions, and one may be kde and the other gnome. From a console, try "startx -- :1". You will get a completely new session on "console" 8 (ctrl-alt-F8).
Well, yes, but the question was about *switching* DE, not running another.
I'm unsure how to specify the sesion type from the command line, though.
WINDOWMANAGER="blackbox" startx -- :1
or
startx blackbox -- :1
--
Anders Johansson
participants (5)
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Anders Johansson
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Carlos E. R.
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Kevin McLauchlan
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Kevin McLauchlan
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Matt Stamm