Quick way to switch from KDE to GNOME or viceversa

last updated in Categories CentOS, Howto, Linux, Linux desktop, Linux distribution, Linux laptop, RedHat/Fedora Linux, Tips

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 &

Posted by: Vivek Gite

The author is the creator of nixCraft and a seasoned sysadmin, DevOps engineer, and a trainer for the Linux operating system/Unix shell scripting. Get the latest tutorials on SysAdmin, Linux/Unix and open source topics via RSS/XML feed or weekly email newsletter.

18 comment

  4. Foul! Doesn’t work! Command isn’t found and can’t be installed via “apt-get”. Not a standard X command!

  5. 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!

  6. 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?

  7. 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

  11. John Doe: as root, run: yum install switchdesk
    Press “Y” when you get asked to install packages…

    Then you will have switchdesk 🙂

  16. 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?

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