Removing a Desktop Environment

If you have changed to another DE (Desktop Environment) after initially installing the offline edition (XFCE4) or you just decided to move over to your freshly discovered DE, you might want to remove the unused one.

In most cases, this isn’t easy to do, especially when you switch from GTK to QT, or vice-versa, there are still some dependencies you might need.

So I try to give an example here, the best practice is to update your system first:

sudo pacman -Syu

Then install the desired DE. See this article, then reboot into the DE you’ve just installed.

Open the terminal and uninstall the unwanted DE, if it is the default EndeavourOS XFCE4 offline or online install you want to remove, this will work for you:

sudo pacman -Rs arc-gtk-theme-eos endeavouros-skel-xfce4 endeavouros-xfce4-terminal-colors blueberry file-roller galculator gvfs gvfs-afc gvfs-gphoto2 gvfs-mtp gvfs-nfs gvfs-smb network-manager-applet parole ristretto thunar-archive-plugin thunar-media-tags-plugin xdg-user-dirs-gtk xed xfce4 xfce4-battery-plugin xfce4-datetime-plugin xfce4-mount-plugin xfce4-netload-plugin xfce4-notifyd xfce4-pulseaudio-plugin xfce4-screensaver xfce4-screenshooter xfce4-taskmanager xfce4-wavelan-plugin xfce4-weather-plugin xfce4-whiskermenu-plugin xfce4-xkb-plugin

In this stage an error message may occur, in that case, you probably have some additional packages installed you need to remove also, just add them to the list.

Uninstalling Xfce packages like this must be made very carefully, because you may uninstall something that is needed by your new DE (GNOME and Cinnamon which are GTK-based too). If that happens, then you may have to reinstall the new DE packages using the pacman option --needed to avoid installing already existing packages.

Desktop installer helper script eos-packageslist:

We have little helper script for handling DE/WM installs eos-packageslist that makes the handling more convenient for you:

example:

eos-packagelist --install "GNOME-Desktop"

more options on the tool: eos-packagelist --help

usage: eos-packagelist [-h] [--list] [--arch ARCH] [--install] [profile …]

The EndeavourOS package list handler gets package information from the current installer files and allows you to optionally install them

positional arguments: profile The name of the profile you want to see packages for

options: -h, --help show this help message and exit --list Lists the available options --arch ARCH Only include packages available on ARM --install Install the packages on the list using pacman instead of just listing them

example: eos-packagelist "Awesome Edition"

A trick to uninstall per example a fresh offline XFCE4 after you installed an alternative Desktop:

create packages list for default xfce4:

eos-packagelist "XFCE4-Desktop" > xfce4

remove packages from that list:

sudo pacman -Rc - < xfce4

But check exactly what will get removed here too dependencies can be a hell 😉

And you can find the lists in this GitHub Repo:

reinstall DE commands at GitHub

So choose your new DE and copy and paste the command in your Terminal:

In this example I use GNOME:

git clone https://github.com/endeavouros-team/EndeavourOS-packages-lists.git

cd EndeavourOS-packages-lists

ls
will list the files

sudo pacman -S --needed - < gnome

If you like to change your DM, login manager, to the one default for the new DE, in this case, GDM, you can easily change this using the welcome app:

Or if you prefer using the terminal:

sudo systemctl -f enable GDM

To uninstall lightdm:

sudo pacman -R lightdm lightdm-slick-greeter

Unfortunately, there isn’t a full-proof way to do this, so always take a look at the exact terminal output, and be careful you do not uninstall certain system relevant packages or packages you have installed manually like a preferred browser or other apps.

If you remove an DE make sure to enable the new DM (LoginManager) before rebooting the system or you will boot into TTY without graphical login like this: