On Tue, 2017-05-02 at 14:54 -0700, Andrew Komornicki wrote:
> Hi,
> 
>  as a long time user of Scientific Linux I would like to explore using
> desktops other than Gnome.  Am currently running Gnome on SL 6.9.
> I found that Xfce is already installed on my system; i also did a
> yum groupinstall of KDE desktop and all went well.
> 
> In the preferences menu we can chose which desktop to use, so I checked
> off KDE, rebooted my system and I still get the usual Gnome desktop.
> Why does this option make no difference ??
> 
> that sent me to check various postings and i find several possibilities.
> the first that I found on line is to create a file
> /etc/sysconfig/desktop enter the line DESKTOP="KDE", or DESKTOP="XFCE"
> and things should work. Have also found suggestions that I should create
> a file .xinitrc in my home directory and things might also work.   Am
> still not clear what to put in the .xinitrc file.
> 
>  May I ask is there a preferred way to do this, if so what do people
> suggest.  I would also like to easily change desktops.  Ultimately,
> am hoping to migrate to SL 7.x.  However the thought of using Gnome3
> is more than i can bear, so am trying to explore my options.


Hi Andrew,

Assuming you are using the GDM login screen then a list of available
desktops should appear in a widget at the bottom of the screen *AFTER*
entering your username. You should select one of these.

As far as I know, this list is generated from the list of *.desktop
files which reside in /usr/share/xsessions so if they don't appear to
match then something is possibly wrong on your system.

I hope this helps.

(BTW, I tried replying privately but it bounced.)

-- 
Mark Whidby
System Administrator/Operations
IT Services