#helpdesk Ubuntu 18.04 gnome issues thinking of switching DE

Software & Operating Systems Linux
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#helpdesk
Hey everyone this is kinda of a continuation of Gnome desktop no longer working

1.I don’t know if I should of just updated that one I’m kinda new to using forms for getting help so sorry if did it wrong.

  1. Anyway so my issues with gnome have gotten worse to the point where it is unusable so I was thinking 9f switching to another DE. I want to stay on Ubuntu as that’s what I am most familiar with and has the most support ( which apparently I definitely need) , but I have heard it’s generally not recommended to change your DE on an existing install.

3.Should I do a clean install of Ubuntu? Is there a version of Ubuntu with deppin as default?

4.Also I was watching a tutorial on YouTube to do this and I saw you get to choose between lightdm and gdm which should I use? I like eye candy effect so is compiz supported?

  1. Lastly what I’ll miss most from gnome is the extension specifically gsconect to get notifications from my phone.

6.Sorry for so many questions it’s just I’m kinda of at a lost of what I should do. If anyone as any recomindations please let me know I am open to trying other distribution and DE to I just choose Ubuntu with deppin because to me it has the most support and deepin looks nice😅

2

You could try KDE / Kubuntu: KDE connect does a good job with phone notifications.

What problems are you having with GNOME, could help us advise another DE.

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The problem I have with gnome is that I login and am sometimes I will get an indefinite black screen. Sometimes it will just randomly crash. Othertimes it I will be able to login but I can’t click on anything the mouse moves but I can’t click on anything and have to navigate with my keyboard. There have been others who apparently have had issues with gnome. See https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-settings-daemon/+bug/1764417
And I guess kde could be an option as it has kdeconnect which gsconect is based on. Should I just do a clean install with Kubuntu or should I install kde on top of Ubuntu?

It’s just that I saw deepin and it looked pretty cool :sweat_smile:

4

I would say to install KDE first, ain’t nothing to loose by trying to too see if you like it.

After that if you experience problems you can do a reinstall, but installing another DE shouldn’t cause problems.

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Oh ok so it won’t matter that I have done gnome specific thing like the extensions installed? I also have some GTK apps installed

6

Well install KDE, if you encounter a problem with an extension you can solve it then but there shouldn’t be any big ones. Basically you should have 2 options when logging in and that is it.

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7

Cool thanks. Will try when I get home later.

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8

I have heard it’s generally not recommended to change your DE on an existing install.

Whoever told you that was incorrect.

The experience sometimes gets a little weird having multiple desktop environments installed at once, but it’s because different desktops do things differently.

When you search for “Files” with Gnome, you get one or two results. Do that with a few other desktops installed and you start getting 5 icons popping up in your search bar. That’s because you have multiple file managers. Feels less polished, a bit more cluttered, but it’s not an issue for your system itself. If the clutter bothers you, you can selectively remove duplicated tools and keep things minimal.

But Debian does a solid job of allowing multiple desktops to exist on the same system, and Ubuntu inherits those capabilities. Installing a new desktop environment is nothing more to your system than adding another taskselect option and installing a metapackage. Basic package manager functionality.

Also I was watching a tutorial on YouTube to do this and I saw you get to choose between lightdm

Use whichever one you like. There’s also sddm, which is based on Qt and will integrate more cleanly with a KDE setup.

My personal preference is LightDM. Add the lightdm-gtk-greeter-settings package for a GUI that gives you more config tweaking options.

Is there a version of Ubuntu with deppin as default?

Not yet, but Deepin packages started working their way into Ubuntu with the 19.04 release. You’ll need to use a PPA to get a full Deepin desktop on Ubuntu (for now).

what I’ll miss most from gnome is the extension specifically gsconect to get notifications from my phone.

If you play around with KDE, check out KDE Connect. It works on other desktop environments as well, but integrates best with KDE.

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