How to install Desktop Environments next to your existing ones

by Bryanpwo

I’ve already told you how to install a group, in this section I’m going to give you the specific commands you need to enter to install a specific Desktop Environment and also remove an installed Desktop Environment.

Gnome

sudo pacman -S gnome

This installs the basic Gnome DE, for the extra’s like games etc. install

sudo pacman -S gnome-extra

The reason why I didn’t put it behind the first command is that you might want to choose which extra packages you want to install on your system. Doing it this way you have a clear overview of which packages you want, without worrying to select a must-needed package by accident. If you don’t mind having the complete extra’s, you can put the two groups in one command. (with a space between the two groups.)

If you want to exclude packages from the DE group you can do so by the following.

Enter a selection (default=all): 1-15 20

In this case, it will install packages 1 through 15 and package number 20.

Enter a selection (default=all): ^5-8 ^15

This will install everything that belongs to the DE group, except packages 5 through 8 and package number 15.

For the last two steps, I’m going to refer to this one in the other DE sections.

Xfce

sudo pacman -S xfce4

This will install the basic XFCE4 DE if you desire the extra packages as the Whisker menu, then do the this

sudo pacman -S xfce4-goodies

If you don’t want to install all the goodies, you can select the desired apps by following the steps described in Gnome.

Deepin

sudo pacman -S deepin deepin-extra

For selecting packages in the deepin-extra group see Gnome.

Budgie

sudo pacman -S budgie-desktop

Budgie doesn’t have an extra package, but it is recommended that you install the Gnome group as well for a better experience.

sudo pacman -S gnome

Cinnamon

sudo pacman -S cinnamon system-config-printer gnome-keyring blueberry cinnamon-translations

The install packages I give you for Cinnamon are recommended, but in my opinion it’s almost mandatory to have a better DE experience.

Mate

sudo pacman -S mate mate-extra system-config-printer blueman

Like Cinnamon the packages I added are recommended, but for a better experience it’s almost mandatory. (my opinion)

KDE Plasma

Installing KDE differs a bit from the other DE’s, since there are a few choices to install it the way you like it.

For a minimal Plasma desktop install

sudo pacman -S plasma-desktop

For a full Plasma desktop install

sudo pacman -S plasma

or

sudo pacman -S plasma-meta

for the extra packages install

sudo pacman -S kde-applications

or

sudo pacman -S kde-applications-meta

And remove qt5ct (tool to configure qt apps in gtk environments)

sudo pacman -R qt5ct

remove the configuration:

sudo nano /etc/environment

comment the line:

QT_QPA_PLATFORMTHEME=qt5ct

to look like this

#QT_QPA_PLATFORMTHEME=qt5ct

save the file with [Ctrl+X]

To use the Discover installation tool install

packagekit-qt5

Removing an installed DE

To remove a Desktop Environment and its extra group simply use this command.

sudo pacman -Rs package_group_name package_group_name-extra

More detailed help on uninstalling an unneeded DE completely is provided here:

Removing a desktop environment

Install DE/WM like it would be installed from the ISO on installed systems:

We have a package in the EndeavourOS repo called eos-packagelist that can provide you with a list of packages we use for a particular edition. To list available editions use this command:

eos-packagelist --list

Then to list the packages for that edition, for example Openbox Edition:

eos-packagelist "Openbox Edition"

Finally to install an edition, use the --install option.

eos-packagelist --install "Openbox Edition"