Linux - Display Managers

Display managers

1. lightdm
2. gdm
3. lxdm
4. sddm

Changing Display Managers on an existing installation of a distribution

e.g. Changing from i3 to KDE on endeavouros

https://discovery.endeavouros.com/desktop-environments/removing-a-desktop-environment/2021/03/

1. Uninstall old Desktop: eos-packagelist "XFCE4-Desktop" > xfce followed by: sudo pacman -Rc - < xfce4
2. Install new Desktop: eos-packagelist --install "GNOME-Desktop"
3. Make sure base system is intact: eos-packagelist --install "Desktop-Base + Common packages"
4. Start Display Manager:
   1. Change Display Manager: sudo systemctl -f enable GDM (some linux desktop environments use GDM)
   2. If that doesn’t work: sudo systemctl -f enable SDDM (KDE uses SDDM)
   3. How to figure out which one to run?

      sudo systemctl | grep -i display; sudo systemctl get-default
      

      If successful, it should return something like this:

      gdm.service    loaded    active    running GNOME Display Manager
      graphical.target
      

      If you see this output, it means that the computer is missing both GDM and SDDM services.

      graphical.target
      

      Install SDDM

      sudo pacman -S sddm