Using Gnome instead of KDE

[TheRepublican]

Hello, I was wondering how hard it would be to replace kde on knoppix with gnome. It is not so much an issue with kde, it's that I just prefer gnome to kde. I looked into gnoppix, but I would like to examine the software included on the disk before downloading it, so I know how it differs from knoppix 3.4 which I just spent 2 hours downloading. Their site is extremely unhelpful in this regard, and they have no local mirrors. I was intending on remastering the iso anyhow, so I don't think it will be too much effort to replace the desktop.

Also, is there a so called 'kick list' for knoppix 3.4 anywhere? It would be nice to know what software depends on kde so I can replace it with the gnome alternative. Or, won't all these packages work if I just keep qt?

[mzilikazi]

Piece of cake. Do a knoppix-type install, boot into it.
apt-get update
apt-get install gnome gdm gdm-themes
edit /etc/X11/Xsession.d/45xsession
OR
/etc/init.d/knoppix-autoconfig
to set gnome as the default window manager.

You'll need to remove some symlinks (like for gdm)
update-rc.d -f remove gdm

There are still a few issues I'm trying to work out on a Kanotix Bug Hunter 06 remaster like the Knoppix & Kanotix menus, Launchers and other minor details.

I chose not to have the desktop hd icons used (look in /etc/X11/Xsession.d/45xsession). Instead I prefer the more compact approach of one window fo rall drives. Simply launch nautilus as root like so:

sudo nautilus --browser computer:///

That gives you access to all the drives in one window instead of a new window for every drive plus the drives are mounted rw - no need to right click each drive and change rw mode.

Make sure you also edit /etc/X11/Xsession.d/45xsession and get all the gnome specific stuff from /etc/skel into /home/knoppix

I intend on puttting this all into documentation one of these days.

[TheRepublican]

Great, this helps alot! However, I want this to fit into a bootable cd, and I assume your guide expects a hd install. I want to remove kde and many kde apps. What can I safely remove to accomplish this? I read the remastering howto and the link to the o'reilly howto says something about a 'kick list', however I can't find one for 3.4.

Also, are these the only config files I need to update?

Thanks for the help!

Edit: I checked out this kanotix site, and downloaded the package list. I'm going to try a remaster using this list as a guide to what I can safely install/remove. I also have the gnoppix pkg list as a reference. Thanks, this has been most helpful.

[mzilikazi]

Great, this helps alot! However, I want this to fit into a bootable cd, and I assume your guide expects a hd install. I want to remove kde and many kde apps. What can I safely remove to accomplish this? I read the remastering howto and the link to the o'reilly howto says something about a 'kick list', however I can't find one for 3.4.

Well you won't find a kicklist - you create it yourself. You can however nearly remove all of KDE in one fell swoop.

apt-get remove libarts1

Realize tho that this will also remove kdelibs4 (and dependencies) and knx-installer. I suppose you could pin those packages but it's also quite easy to simply reinstall them.

If you're remastering Kanotix then you'll need to remove a few more apps besides KDE. Gnome (and all that comes with it) is a bit large.
Just don't remove anything from the Knoppix section (use Synaptic) and you should be fine. Also don't concern yourself with libs. You can get the unneeded ones w/ deb-orphan.

I usually select all the packages I want to remove w/ Synaptic then save the selections to a text file and create a kicklist from that. Not very useful for the first time around but very handy for future remasters.

You should only have to do minor editing of config files. What you will need to do however is make sure that you have added entries for Gnome specific stuff in 45xsession so that rsync puts it in /home/knoppix.

Maybe if I'm not too tired (or abused) after work today I'll post some config files as reference.

5 star tip-o-the-day.

To see if your 45xsession file is working and your desktop changes will survive across a reboot you do NOT need to reboot, instead:
1) Make sure all releveant files/directories are in /etc/skel
2) Make sure 45xsession has an rsync entry for each file/directory you want copied to /home/knoppix
3) Don't reboot simply change run levels to see the changes.

For example:
mv /home/knoppix /etc/skel
mkdir /home/knoppix
chown -R knoppix:knoppix /home/knoppix

OR you can simply cp or mv those directories to /etc/skel so that they overwrite the existing ones and then delete everything in /home/knoppix like so
cd /home/knoppix
pwd
(just to make sure )
rm -rf * .*

The simplest way I've found is to create a script that does this automatically then change run level like so:

init 3

That kills the Xserver. From there do:

init 5

That of course restarts the X server and executes 45xsession which in turn puts everything in /home/knoppix

Having problems debugging 45xsession?

bash -x /etc/X11/Xsession.d/45xsession

[TheRepublican]

Great! Thanks mzilikazi, you've been a big help! I do think I'll need to learn a bit more about the debian package manager first, though, before I start a remaster (Big Slack Fan). From what I've seen, it sure is helpful to have that knowledge. I'm going to try a fresh install of Sarge now, and put this on hold. I also have been working on my own package manager (for an LFS system), so it'd be nice to know about the debian system.