After taking a look on new features on KDE Plasma and setting up fonts, I closed the session and switched on my Gnome session (my daily-driver DE), but after this, if I want to set fonts in Gnome I have to change it from Plasma! Not only, the possibility to change font dimension is disappeared.
Yeah donāt run both on the same system. You will continue to have issue. If you need both then use a VM for each.
Mark it solved!
I donāt understandā¦
why for some applications both gtk and qt can ālive toghetherā on a system and why for desktop environments/display managers could not be the same?
Before this last period, I never had any problem with them. I always kept a huge amount of desktop environment on my system and - settings apart - I never had any problem.
So, what is changed? How libraries and DE and / or settings are shared into the system?
I use to check the arch documentation but sometimes I am not able to search what I ignore for just ignoranceā¦
There are many many reports of issues with people running multiple DEās Iām not going to look any up as you can do that on your own. Many here in the forum. The option to install more than one was remove during install do to the fact there are always issues. Just because youāve been lucky until now doesnāt mean anything changed other than your luck.
Anyway, it sounds strange to me.
I am quite ignorant about it but using EndeavourOS for almost two years, starting as almost total ignorant about the linux world, I was able to use it, installing and unistalling stuff, getting my system full of things that I will never use, changing settings like tomorrow never comes (and noā¦ is not this the main problem! If something goes wrong I reset what I changeā¦), and the system is still stable!
I know that gtk donāt follow some rules about retro-compatibility for older versions of itself, so I guess that a combination in the qt/gtk environment (and nvidia!) could be to blame.
For instance, I am still trying to set properly gdm (instead sddm works well on gnome but now it seems that it cannot read the main graphic theme as before), so now the problem is to set gdm listing wayland sessions (here, shame on nvidia). Iām trying to follow the arch wiki, kernel parameters are ok, but it wonāt works properly. So, here there are a lot of things that could cause this. I donāt think it is just because āIām luckyā (anyway, never been!)ā¦
So, If Plasma modify settings for the Gnome Desktop Environment, what component is causing this behaviour?
(In the screenshot above, I am in a gnome sessionā¦ the window is white because is following the Plasma themeā¦)
Since I use neither KDE or GNOME I donāt know what you could be having issues with. I do know that KDE 6 was recently released and it now defaults to Wayland.
@Flusso_Canalizzatore, this is the correct answerā¦
I understand that this doesnāt correct the issues your having, bit it does describe why youāre having issues. Years ago I learned my lesson while using XFCE and KDE on the same install. Things just didnāt mix well. Iāve never revisited that mistake again.
Itās a far better idea to choose the one you like best and stick with that as you sole DE. Test others in a VM, as already mentioned.
I always put them on different partitions
I only tried multiple DEs on the same install once and it was a mess
At the very least, you should have a separate user account for each different DE. Youāll still have the problem of having a ton of redundant apps in your user session through but at least it wonāt cause issues like youāre currently experiencing.
GTK and Qt applications generally depend on the libraries and modules provided by the respective GTK and Qt toolkits/frameworks and dependencies (unless perhaps theyāre installed as a Flatpak); however, things get more complicated when dealing with co-existing DEs, probably due to some shared or conflicting config files and the like.
Or install in separate partitions.
There are many reasons why this would happen. You have to thing about all of the things that desktop environments do. For example allowing you to set scaling options, fonts, and in the case of plasma it even allows you to and attempts to theme gtk apps to make them fit into the desktop environment. All of these things can be thought of as global settings. Settings that effect all applications. If one desktop environment is trying to configure and manage all of those things and another desktop is trying to configure and manage all of those things. You start to see some breakage.
When running Gnome2 many years ago, I decided to try a different desktop. I was banging my head against it for nearly a week trying to work it out - you might think you understand half the problems that can arise, but there are also a few surprise onesā¦ so in the end we say āNever Again!ā.
It messed up all the defaults and a reinstall was the only way I could solve it.
There are solutions for the initiated - but always with deep knowledge and robust precautions because itās extremely complex.
Plasma/KDE is probably the very worst choice of toys to throw into this mix with Gnome.
At the very least, you should have created a completely separate user account for the job - but for sure also you should have a robust backup and snapshot regime, so nothing lost - right?
[quote=āBen, post:14, topic:53134ā]At the very least, you should have created a completely separate user account for the job - but for sure also you should have a robust backup and snapshot regime, so nothing lost - right?
[/quote]
Separate user account, simply no. Do a separate install if you really must have any other desktop environment.
Thereās another thing that I donāt realizeā¦ is there no possibility to coding a desktop environment to be installed in a separated āzoneā just to avoid conflicts or influences with/on other DE?
And why no one has already make the possibility to save different configuration (wallpaper, fonts, icons, etcā¦) for the running desktop environment? What are the obstacles to make this possible?
They have its called a VM
these are mostly stored in the users home folder a simple drag and drop is enough to ābackupā and the ones that are in system folders are generally apart of the OS and are stored in the ISO.
with drag and drop there is rsync, cp and several backup programs out there for one to use.
Maybe you mean something else?
Yes.
About this:
I mean to make possible installing any DE a user want locally (so, no VM) just coding some instruction inside the DE that avoid the sharing of its resources and configuration files with other DEā¦
About this:
Basically, what I noticed is that infos about the DEās settings (wallpaper, icons and so onā¦) are stored in a simple text file (but I could be wrongā¦ as I often say, Iām not an expert at all, Iām just trying to learn how the linux environment works). So, why no one as made the possibility to save different files for each configuration, to recall easily when a user wish yet in GUI? I guess it is not so abstract as idea. If a user want to change settings, he/she needs to reset again the whole thing and this is boringā¦
Itās enough to have a user for each
Itās not that simple, thatās why the major DEs donāt work for this, since manpower is not enough even for current bugs, or planned features.
In short, there are shared features which each DE needs to use (adjust/change configuration/settings), as well as many applications. For example, GTK2, GTK3, Qt5, Qt6 settings and variables.
Also, your request (point of view) is not a common POV for every other user. There are other users that prefer something else. DEs cannot satisfy every user, so they select their direction by personal or other preference.
If a user wants a PC for using it, he can choose a DE and that is all.
If someone wants more (testing, gaining knowledge), it is fair to say that he should do the extra work.
IMHO, there is a situation that justifies users to demand a solution for the topic, and that is the frequent breakage, or bugs with every major release of DEs (Gnome, KDE, or more). Then, when a normal user needs to use the PC, he has to change DE and would expect no significant change of his workflow and habbits. These cases are common on rolling/bleeding edge distributions, like Arch and a couple others. The easy solution is āDonāt use a rolling distroā. Else, they have no other option than to learn how to overcome the issues, through reading and experimenting, on their own time.
I am one of them and I am using my own custom DE, while I develop a project for a custom modular DE, consisting of existing elements (apps/utilities), something like a wrapper, with exclusive and shared settings. Bash developers with free time are welcome to contribute. 
