Alternative DE install?

Ask Fedora
1

I use Gnome most of the time because it’s practical, but would like to try something different for a change now and then .

I tried to install the KDE desktop with sudo install @kde-desktop-enviroment and the same command without the sudo, but neither worked.

I just want to switch desktop from time to time and use the standard Gnome one most of the time.

2

Hi,

https://www.server-world.info/en/note?os=Fedora_31&p=desktop&f=2

Thanks Tom.

3

Thanks, I found that other method on Fedora docs, must be outdated.

4

See this thread :)

– Yes, i’m remember: KDE.

5

I really like the standard Gnome desktop, not because of how it looks but how it works. You just find things easily because of the large icons.

I just want to try out LXDE or LXQT, in case I buy a cheap, low spec laptop and want to install Fedora on it.

That’s why I want to try installing just the environment and not the Fedora Spin. That would also use less of my mobile data.

Only problem is I have found conflicting commands from various sources. The one was in Fedora Documents, that I mentioned before, but that doesn’t work.

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6

Hi,

I can confirm this works:

sudo dnf install @lxqt

Thanks Tom.

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7

   Then this can be solved step-by-step. There just should be a way to install not “KDE”, but “plasma”, or “kde-basic” or something alike.  Just to not change a “edition”, but add a menu-entry for GDM.

8

Can you just install the plasma desktop package?

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9

Thanks, I will try that one, the other one with desktop environment seemed to long to me anyway.

I tried it and it works! I was just shocked at the minimalist after using Gnome for so long. Now I know I can switch to LXQT if my graphics card breaks and I have to rely on my APU only.

I’ll study it for a while to see if it’s just as stable as LXDE, that I used long ago with Lubuntu 18.04.

How do I uninstall LXQT if I want to?

2 Likes
10

I am not sure. I have only used Fedora for about a week and can’t remember what I did in Zorin. Maybe sudo apt install kde or whatever the case might be. When I forgot commands I usually resorted to Synaptic package manager and searched for what I wanted.

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11

You can, but I am not sure how. Don’t know where to look in Fedora documentation. Something like “sudo dnf @” and then the right name after the @ symbol. kde-desktop-enviroment didn’t work.

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12

sudo dnf install plasma-desktop

the @ is for groups

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13

Okay I see, that’s easy enough. I just installed LXQT and it uses 500 MB less RAM than Gnome.
That’s 1 GB for LXQT and 1.5 GB for Gnome while just Firefox and the System Monitor in open.

I wonder which of the lighter desktop environments are most supported by people who maintain them?

14

You should probably take a look here:
https://spins.fedoraproject.org/

Updated ISO’s here:
https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/alt/live-respins/

If you really wanted to go minimal you could install from the everything iso and do a custom install.
https://alt.fedoraproject.org/

Have fun and good luck.

1 Like
15

Thank you very much for all the information. I installed LXQT and it works great, but it’s overly minimal.

I think it only uses a little less RAM than KDE/Plasma anyway. We I live the cheapest laptops or desktops have 2 GB and some dual core processor. I think KDE will work on that, because it has become lighter on RAM in it’s latest versions.

I am using a 4 core APU and 7.8 RAM. Fedora with Gnome works well.

I was just doing a bot of research, I case I needed I lighter DE.

The Plasma desktop is probably a better second choice on my system. I will try it out once I figured out how to uninstall LXQT.

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16 
# they are not so scarry as apt's
man -k dnf
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17

The :fedora: Magazine has a plenty of them and howto intall it:

Fedora’s gaggle of desktops

Regards.,

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18

LXQT is very, very light if one needs something really light. Very good.

19

I read through the comments and feel like nobody has given you a pretty solid answer, so I’ll throw in my 2 cents:

  • If you run sudo dnf groups list it will list all available and installed package groups.
  • For me using the @ group name like you are trying to do never works correctly. Instead I use the group name from the previous command in quotes. So instead of:
dnf group install @kde-desktop-enviroment

Instead do:

dnf group install "KDE Plasma Workspaces"
  • As far as memory goes, XFCE seems to have the smallest memory footprint and not feel as bare as LXDE / LXQT.
  • According to this article, KDE Plasma is actually getting down the memory footprint and is getting pretty close to XFCE so you might want to consider this as well.
  • If you decide to remove Gnome, it will remove GDM. You will need to make sure you install LightDM or SDDM and then uses systemctl to enable the new one you want to use.
  • Final tip (for now), do all this from a Virtual Terminal (Ctrl + Alt + F2 … F12) because removing a WM / DE will exit that environment.
3 Likes
20

I installed LXQT with sudo dnf install @lxqt, like tjdoyle explained. It works well and I even have Openbox as a choice now.

Anyway, while I’m having three tabs open and some podcast playing sound I’m using 1.5 Gig, while I use 1.6 Gig while being in the Gnome environment. That’s a bit confusing! I guess one has to take into account how many cores the CPU or in my case the APU has too. It probably also depends on the graphics card, mine is a 2 Gig DDR3 Radeon card.

So, there is no drastic noticeable performance increase from Gnome to LXQT on my desktop system.

I was just testing, what Fedora Spin will work best on a entry level laptop with Celeron and 2 or 4 Gig RAM. I guess Openbox, but then I should learn how to use it first.

For now I will just keep the standard Fedora Workstation and use the LXQT from time to time. The only disadvantage with the standard one, is that Gnome sometimes crashes but quickly restarts or recovers some way. It also hangs sometimes for a few minutes. Maybe it has nothing to do with the desktop environment at all. I’ll use LXQT this week to see if it has fewer hiccups.

I have enough time until April or so when Fedora 32 comes out, to decide which to use. I’ll probably stay with the standard Gnome desktop, unless LXQT turns out to be more reliable. I don’t mind that it’s uglier.

Thank you for all the good advice about Fedora, I have been using it for just over a week and have never tried it before. Used Zorin for years and then I try something else, just to return to Zorin again because it’s easy to use and reliable.

Fedora is very good so far, very user friendly, not too demanding at all.