short version:
just wanted to let members know that it's possible to convert from
ubuntu to kubuntu by installing "kubuntu-desktop" and deinstalling
"gnome-desktop". the reverse is also true...
long version:
i had an old installation of ubuntu (4.05 warty warthog?) laying around
on a machine i rarely use. one of the reasons i rarely use it, is that
i've decided i don't like ubuntu's interface.
mad scientist time! i tried to upgrade that to the current release, 5.10
breezy badger, in one fell swoop (without first upgrading to hoary
hedgehog) by changing the name of the distribution in the repository
section of synaptic. that was spectacularly unsuccessful & i wound up
wiping the disk and reinstalling from cd. it seems (via google) that
other people have run into the same problem trying to go from warty to
breezy.
i grabbed what i thought was a kubuntu 5.10 install cd, but turned out
to be an ubuntu 5.10 install cd. the tip off was the brown color scheme
upon reboot!
i had read that you could turn an ubuntu installation into a kubuntu
installation just by downloading 1 thing. i used the synaptic package
manager to download the "kubuntu-desktop" package. that's a dummy
package that downloads all the kde packages needed (about 200?). during
the download, you're asked whether you want kdm or gdm to be your
default. i selected kdm & thought that was all i'd need to do. upon
reboot, i got the blue kubuntu startup screen but once i logged in, the
brown gnome/ubuntu desktop reasserted itself. kde apps were added to
ubuntu's drop down menus, though.
i then went into synaptic and searched for "gnome-desktop", checked the
two installed packages it found and selected them for removal. all the
gnome and gome dependent packages were removed. this time upon reboot,
the kubuntu desktop was left.
a bonus of doing a kubuntu install this way, instead of off of a kubuntu
cd, is that programs that were a part of ubuntu but not gnome dependent
stick around after the kubuntu desktop install.
now i've got a kubuntu install and the synaptic package manager, which i
like better than adept, kubuntu's package manager.
it occurs to me you could probably get the same result by installing
kubuntu off of cd and then selecting synaptic from kubuntu's package
manager, but i haven't tested if synaptic shows up as a package in adept.
my firefox installation has the same bookmarks and startup group because
it *is* the same installation of firefox, just the desktop manager changed.
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