FreeBSD and Linux changing Desktop Environments/login manager

Posted by Vivek Gite [Last updated: December 30, 2005]

Asked by Christopher

Q. I have both FreeBSD and Red Hat Linux desktop computers. I would like to change KDE to GNOME or vice versa. Under FreeBSD X windows is working but without KDE/Gnome desktop, I am using Intel Celeron computer can I run or install kde?

Changing Desktop Environments under Red Hat
Use utility called switchdesk, open terminal, and type

# switchdesk

Select desktop you would like to use, click Ok.
OR
From System Setting select > Switch desktop tool
OR
Modify /etc/sysconfig/desktop file

# vi /etc/sysconfig/desktop

Setup/modify variable DISPLAYMANAGER:

If you want Gnome Desktop setup it to DISPLAYMANAGER="GNOME"
If you want KDE Desktop setup it to DISPLAYMANAGER="KDE"

Note: Debian user can need to modify file /etc/X11/default-display-manager and need to put full path of desktop manager. Therefore, if you are using Gnome use path /usr/bin/gdm, for Kde use path /usr/bin/kdm.

FreeBSD Desktop system
Since you are using low end Celeron I recommend using xfce desktop (you can use Gnome too but it will be little bit slow). It is a desktop environment based on the GTK+ toolkit used by GNOME, but is much more lightweight and simple.

To install xfce, type following command as root user: