This tip is submitted by reader Zacharie:
switchdesk is the command to switch from KDE to GNOME or viceversa. This command provides a simple method of choosing between the various desktop environments available under Fedora Core, Cent OS and Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
If X Windows is running, switchdesk will bring up a dialog box which allows the user to choose between the available desktops installed on the system.
Task: To switch from GNOME to KDE, use the command
$ switchdesk kde
Task: To switch from KDE to GNOME, use the command
$ switchdesk gnome
Please note that file ~/.Xclients, ~/.Xclients-default stores the currently selected desktop.
A note about other distros/BSD
switchdesk is RedHat and friends only command. If you are using different Linux distribution or FreeBSD, open ~/.xinitrc file and type full path to your desktop manager. For example, to use xfce4 desktop:
$ vi .xinitrc
Append following line (your path may be different use, which command to get exact path):
/usr/X11R6/bin/startxfce4
Save and close the file. Enjoy new desktop.
While login you will see option for different desktops (provided that all of them are installed). Usually this is located below Username / password box or lower left button. Just select appropriate desktop (KDE/XFC4 etc).
Load KDE while running Gnome
You can load KDE while running Gnome desktop (thanks to sweta for pointing it out):
Just open your gnome terminal and type the command:
$ startkde &
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{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
excellent tip. I am using fedora core 5 and switch desk is good for swithing desktops
any way this can be used on any of the UBUNTU variants?
great tip…but it’s “X Window” isn’t it?
Foul! Doesn’t work! Command isn’t found and can’t be installed via “apt-get”. Not a standard X command!
I’d like to see Gnome and KDE Running at the same time using XGL – imagine ctrl and the desktop swizzles round in all its XGL glory with a different desktops on different faces of the cube. That would be really sweet!
once using the startkde command, how do I close kde and return to gnome?
also it doesn’t close gnome, as i can still see and use the gnome-panel
also, would it even be possible to have kde on one face of the cube, and gnome on the other?
Well, I know this is a little late and wrong, but the answer to quitting kde after you start it with the startkde command is:
> kdeinit_shutdown
you didnt answer all the questions and problems, I also dont have the switchdesk command on my system
Thanks! worked perfectly!
The problem I have is that Fedora 10 is telling me:
bash: switchdesk: command not found
John Doe: as root, run: yum install switchdesk
Press “Y” when you get asked to install packages…
Then you will have switchdesk :)
How to know through command line which GUI i m in linux ..
Like If i am using KDE, it should say it
thank you so much for this article , it helped me a lot in my school work
@ Homericious
Same thing happening over here.
i have redhat5. how can i install vlc player
i can’t quit kde using de command kdeinit_shutdown. it says: Warning: connect() failed: : No such file or directory
Error: Can’t contact kdeinit!
what should i do?
really its nice…
the command switchdesk gnome didnt worked correctly what should i do?