I notice that when installing EOS I can check multiple DE’s and it will let me. I’ve never tried, but can you install multiple DE’s and login to either at login time? I see complications because KDE uses sddm and Cinnamon uses lightdm, and gnome uses gdm.
Maybe using a DE with a window manager like i3 would be possible?
Hi @jfabernathy
It is absolutely not recommended to install more than one desktop for the same user.
Though you may create another user for each other desktop and never log in to a desktop as another user used with another desktop.
This is what I learnt from the experts here.
The experts her might say better not install more than one desktop anyway. I hope they comment on this.
But just out of curiosity, why you need several desktops?
the reason for multiple DE’s is to test issues. For example I’ve recently had problem where Google Chrome could not play Youtube videos at 1080P on the Cinnamon DE but could play them with Firefox. No issues with Gnome on the same hardware. I’ve also had freezing videos with multiple apps on Plasma (X11)
on EOS, but not Gnome EOS (Wayland).
It doesn’t matter which Distro I use there will be video issues with certain apps with certain DE’s.
I’ve also found that EOS-XFCE4 can’t do 200% scaling on my 4K TV so I can’t use that.
I guess if everything I tried worked, life would be boring. I’d need a new hobby.
You can install multiple DEs. Just be aware, there are often minor conflicts and having multiple DEs installed will often cause little issues all over the place.
As far as the DM goes, you don’t need to use the matching one. In other words, you can use sddm with Cinnamon.
I am on KDE Plasma… working perfectly…
May be u need to “fix” it somehow.
Maybe you start list the issues you have with KDE Plasma. I am sure experts here can help.
If I were you, I would do a fresh install with KDE Plasma only and see how things go.
I understand what you are saying. I have been distrohopping for a year before I settled here with the best ever distro and the best ever community.
If I have to do this, I add a user for the testing DEs to avoid messing with the config files of my main user.
I was using KDE Plasma on EOS when I started having my video Freeze up problem. See issue freeze up issue
It might be worth a new install of EOS -KDE and see if I still have the problem. It might be safe to include i3 as well so I can test the same applications without the overhead of KDE to see what’s going on. I did get it working with EOS Cinnamon fine.
Re boredom: I might be banned from here for trying to divert you towards playing with another Arch descendant as well: Arco-extended
It facilitates changing DE-s/WM-s by backing up .config in Arch Tweaks Tools
Installing i3 and xfce is not an issue and they work very well together. I would not recommend installing any others together. I have been using Eos KDE since the beginning with no issues.
This I think may be a good start.
Then you can list any problems you have and sort it out.
If I were you I would install only KDE Plasma.
Just curious about your machine. My humble knowledge you may have problems if your machine is too old or too new. Your issues might be because of not enough RAM? I believe 8 GB would be sufficient, less can be a bit problematic.
Maybe if you post the results of
inxi -Fxxx
it can help to know your hardware.
Can you describe the difficulty you are having with scaling? I use XFCE with a 4K monitor and an oddball, and I have separate scaling enabled on each - with no problems. Perhaps we can ‘fix’ that?
[jim@den-pc ~]$ inxi -Fxxxz
System:
Kernel: 6.0.12-arch1-1 arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 12.2.0
Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 5.26.4 tk: Qt v: 5.15.7 wm: kwin_x11 vt: 7
dm: LightDM v: 1.32.0 Distro: EndeavourOS base: Arch Linux
Machine:
Type: Desktop Mobo: ASRock model: NUC-TGL serial: <superuser required>
UEFI: American Megatrends LLC. v: P1.60 date: 10/31/2022
Battery:
Device-1: hidpp_battery_0 model: Logitech M570 serial: <filter> charge: 100%
rechargeable: yes status: discharging
CPU:
Info: quad core model: 11th Gen Intel Core i7-1165G7 bits: 64 type: MT MCP
smt: enabled arch: Tiger Lake rev: 1 cache: L1: 320 KiB L2: 5 MiB L3: 12 MiB
Speed (MHz): avg: 400 min/max: 400/2701 boost: enabled cores: 1: 400
2: 400 3: 400 4: 400 5: 400 6: 400 7: 400 8: 400 bogomips: 44864
Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
Graphics:
Device-1: Intel TigerLake-LP GT2 [Iris Xe Graphics] vendor: ASRock
driver: i915 v: kernel arch: Gen-12.1 ports: active: HDMI-A-1 empty: DP-1,
DP-2, DP-3, HDMI-A-2 bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:9a49 class-ID: 0300
Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.5 compositor: kwin_x11 driver: X:
loaded: intel unloaded: modesetting alternate: fbdev,vesa dri: i965
gpu: i915 display-ID: :0 screens: 1
Screen-1: 0 s-res: 3840x2160 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 1016x571mm (40.00x22.48")
s-diag: 1165mm (45.88")
Monitor-1: HDMI-A-1 mapped: HDMI1 model: Sony TV 30 serial: <filter>
res: 3840x2160 hz: 60 dpi: 68 size: 1440x810mm (56.69x31.89")
diag: 1651mm (65") modes: max: 3840x2160 min: 640x480
API: OpenGL v: 4.6 Mesa 22.2.3 renderer: Mesa Intel Xe Graphics (TGL GT2)
direct render: Yes
Audio:
Device-1: Intel Tiger Lake-LP Smart Sound Audio vendor: ASRock
driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 00:1f.3 chip-ID: 8086:a0c8
class-ID: 0403
Sound API: ALSA v: k6.0.12-arch1-1 running: yes
Sound Server-1: PulseAudio v: 16.1 running: no
Sound Server-2: PipeWire v: 0.3.63 running: yes
Network:
Device-1: Intel Ethernet I219-V vendor: ASRock driver: e1000e v: kernel
port: N/A bus-ID: 00:1f.6 chip-ID: 8086:15fc class-ID: 0200
IF: eno1 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Device-2: Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX200 driver: iwlwifi v: kernel pcie:
speed: 5 GT/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 59:00.0 chip-ID: 8086:2723 class-ID: 0280
IF: wlan0 state: down mac: <filter>
Device-3: Intel Ethernet I225-LM vendor: ASRock driver: igc v: kernel
pcie: speed: 5 GT/s lanes: 1 port: N/A bus-ID: 5a:00.0 chip-ID: 8086:15f2
class-ID: 0200
IF: enp90s0 state: down mac: <filter>
Bluetooth:
Device-1: Intel AX200 Bluetooth type: USB driver: btusb v: 0.8 bus-ID: 3-9:3
chip-ID: 8087:0029 class-ID: e001
[jim@den-pc ~]$ inxi -Fxxxz
System:
Kernel: 6.0.12-arch1-1 arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 12.2.0
Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 5.26.4 tk: Qt v: 5.15.7 wm: kwin_x11 vt: 7
dm: LightDM v: 1.32.0 Distro: EndeavourOS base: Arch Linux
Machine:
Type: Desktop Mobo: ASRock model: NUC-TGL serial: <superuser required>
UEFI: American Megatrends LLC. v: P1.60 date: 10/31/2022
Battery:
Device-1: hidpp_battery_0 model: Logitech M570 serial: <filter> charge: 100%
rechargeable: yes status: discharging
CPU:
Info: quad core model: 11th Gen Intel Core i7-1165G7 bits: 64 type: MT MCP
smt: enabled arch: Tiger Lake rev: 1 cache: L1: 320 KiB L2: 5 MiB L3: 12 MiB
Speed (MHz): avg: 978 high: 2701 min/max: 400/2701 boost: enabled cores:
1: 2701 2: 400 3: 2700 4: 400 5: 400 6: 400 7: 400 8: 423 bogomips: 44864
Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
Graphics:
Device-1: Intel TigerLake-LP GT2 [Iris Xe Graphics] vendor: ASRock
driver: i915 v: kernel arch: Gen-12.1 ports: active: HDMI-A-1 empty: DP-1,
DP-2, DP-3, HDMI-A-2 bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:9a49 class-ID: 0300
Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.5 compositor: kwin_x11 driver: X:
loaded: intel unloaded: modesetting alternate: fbdev,vesa dri: i965
gpu: i915 display-ID: :0 screens: 1
Screen-1: 0 s-res: 3840x2160 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 1016x571mm (40.00x22.48")
s-diag: 1165mm (45.88")
Monitor-1: HDMI-A-1 mapped: HDMI1 model: Sony TV 30 serial: <filter>
res: 3840x2160 hz: 60 dpi: 68 size: 1440x810mm (56.69x31.89")
diag: 1651mm (65") modes: max: 3840x2160 min: 640x480
API: OpenGL v: 4.6 Mesa 22.2.3 renderer: Mesa Intel Xe Graphics (TGL GT2)
direct render: Yes
Audio:
Device-1: Intel Tiger Lake-LP Smart Sound Audio vendor: ASRock
driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 00:1f.3 chip-ID: 8086:a0c8
class-ID: 0403
Sound API: ALSA v: k6.0.12-arch1-1 running: yes
Sound Server-1: PulseAudio v: 16.1 running: no
Sound Server-2: PipeWire v: 0.3.63 running: yes
Network:
Device-1: Intel Ethernet I219-V vendor: ASRock driver: e1000e v: kernel
port: N/A bus-ID: 00:1f.6 chip-ID: 8086:15fc class-ID: 0200
IF: eno1 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Device-2: Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX200 driver: iwlwifi v: kernel pcie:
speed: 5 GT/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 59:00.0 chip-ID: 8086:2723 class-ID: 0280
IF: wlan0 state: down mac: <filter>
Device-3: Intel Ethernet I225-LM vendor: ASRock driver: igc v: kernel
pcie: speed: 5 GT/s lanes: 1 port: N/A bus-ID: 5a:00.0 chip-ID: 8086:15f2
class-ID: 0200
IF: enp90s0 state: down mac: <filter>
Bluetooth:
Device-1: Intel AX200 Bluetooth type: USB driver: btusb v: 0.8 bus-ID: 3-9:3
chip-ID: 8087:0029 class-ID: e001
Report: rfkill ID: hci0 rfk-id: 0 state: down bt-service: disabled
rfk-block: hardware: no software: no address: see --recommends
Drives:
Local Storage: total: 1.82 TiB used: 122.02 GiB (6.5%)
ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: Western Digital model: WD Blue SN570 1TB
size: 931.51 GiB speed: 31.6 Gb/s lanes: 4 type: SSD serial: <filter>
rev: 234110WD temp: 29.9 C scheme: GPT
ID-2: /dev/sda vendor: Samsung model: SSD 860 QVO 1TB size: 931.51 GiB
speed: 6.0 Gb/s type: SSD serial: <filter> rev: 1B6Q scheme: GPT
Partition:
ID-1: / size: 931.22 GiB used: 13.6 GiB (1.5%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2
ID-2: /boot/efi size: 299.4 MiB used: 608 KiB (0.2%) fs: vfat
dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1
ID-3: /home size: 931.22 GiB used: 13.6 GiB (1.5%) fs: btrfs
dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2
ID-4: /var/log size: 931.22 GiB used: 13.6 GiB (1.5%) fs: btrfs
dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2
Swap:
Alert: No swap data was found.
Sensors:
System Temperatures: cpu: 48.0 C mobo: N/A
Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A
Info:
Processes: 242 Uptime: 11h 2m wakeups: 10 Memory: 14.97 GiB
used: 3.18 GiB (21.2%) Init: systemd v: 252 default: graphical Compilers:
gcc: 12.2.0 Packages: pm: pacman pkgs: 1265 Shell: Bash v: 5.1.16
running-in: konsole inxi: 3.3.24
[jim@den-pc ~]$
I’ve installed EOS XFCE4 on a old Macbook Pro in the past and it works great there and I’ve used it on a Raspberry Pi 4 with good results, but on my Den PC which is connected to a Sony X90CK 65" 4K TV XFCE is too big for the screen when I select Scaling 200%. With KDE, Cinnamon, and Gnome It defaults to 3840x2160 and I use 200% to make the DE function as 1080 but allows UHD playback in video applications. The scalling makes the taskbar/panel slide off the screen partially
FWIW/FYI, adding -z flag to inxi would hide some identifiable info of the system.
-z, --filter Adds security filters for IP/MAC addresses, serial numbers,
location (-w), user home directory name, host name.
good to know, but probably not an issue for this PC.
I did install KDE Plasma and also checked the box for i3.
The Default DE on the first login was KDE and it’s working fine. I tested playing a 1080P video on Youtube and it didn’t freeze up with in the 30 minutes of that video and I built Mythtv and playing Live OTA TV for extended time also didn’t freeze as it did a few weeks ago. So maybe this is fixes.
I did try to login to the i3 session and It would need the display configured before I could use it, so all I did was logout and go back to KDE and do all the stuff I mentioned above
I personally wouldn’t have done that. I would only keep KDE Plasma.
I see your hardware is more than perfect and you have enough RAM.
I wonder if you really need the i3?
Maybe another fresh install without it would be better?
If I’m in your place I would do a fresh install with KDE Plasma only, (my personal taste and thinking), better than uninstalling i3 or keeping it installed and not used.
I guess and hope everything is working OK now?
It is up to you of course.
XFCE handles the scaling ‘backwards’ compared to most DE
s (no idea why). Go on in there, and try Custom 50%, and see how it fits. Here’s my secondary monitor at 1.5 - but .5 (or whatever you like ) would work too.
Of course, it is possible to have multiple desktop environments side by side, but it is not recommended, rather only for the bravest, those who do not shy away from putting up with minor conflicts in return.
Thanks for a XFCE4 eos install I chose custom scale factor and made both x and y 0.5 and got what KDE would call 200%.
