MLS Tidbits – Blog

To Many Desktop Environment to Choose From

Sat, 02 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The Choice/Customization Doesn’t Sale

Linux has a desktop environment problem and that is there are too many to choose from with even more configurations to choose from. This can be overwhelming for new users who are trying to find the right desktop environment for their needs. And to be honest, it can be overwhelming for experienced users as well.

So why is the big push for using Linux as a desktop operating system all about the choices and customization? If this is not why most people that switch to Linux in the first place. Case in point the majority of users don’t even change the default settings of their desktop environment. They just use it as is.

Desktop Environment	Base Features	Best Use Cases
GNOME	Modern UI, extensions, Wayland support, search	General use, productivity, accessibility
KDE Plasma	Highly customizable, widgets, performance	Power users, customization, multitasking
XFCE	Lightweight, fast, simple interface	Older hardware, minimal setups
LXQt	Ultra-lightweight, modular, low resource usage	Very old PCs, resource-limited systems
Cinnamon	Traditional layout, user-friendly, applets	Windows switchers, ease of use
MATE	Classic GNOME 2 feel, stability, simplicity	Legacy hardware, GNOME 2 fans
Budgie	Sleek design, Raven sidebar, notifications	Modern look, simplicity, Solus users
Pantheon	Elegant, macOS-like, minimal distractions	Elementary OS users, design focus

That is only about half of the desktop environments that are available for Linux. There are many more that are not listed here, and each one has its own unique features and benefits. This can make it difficult for users to find the right desktop environment for their needs. And it doesn’t help that the ones you need to spend a day researching how to configure it and then another day or two to actually configure it to your liking.

I’m talking about you Arch Linux users.

How Did We Get Here?

The desktop environment problem in Linux has its roots in the early days of the operating system. When Linux was first created, it was primarily used by developers and enthusiasts who were comfortable with command-line interfaces. As Linux grew in popularity, especially among desktop users, the need for user-friendly graphical interfaces became apparent.

The first DE to be widely adopted was KDE and if it stopped there we would not have the problem we have today. However, GNOME soon followed, and with it came a wave of new desktop environments. Each new DE was created to address perceived shortcomings in existing ones, leading to a proliferation of options.

In someways this is what led to Windows and macOS being so popular and caused Linux distributions to be so fragmented.

Is There a Solution?

In my opinion, there is no fix because the problem has been around for so long that it is now part of the Linux ecosystem. The best we can do is to try to make the choice easier for users by providing clear information about each desktop environment and its features.

This can include things like:

Comparison charts that highlight the key features of each desktop environment.
User reviews that provide insights into the strengths and weaknesses of each DE.
Guides and tutorials that help users get started with their chosen desktop environment.
Community support that can answer questions and provide assistance with configuration and customization.

The true is KDE Plasma is the best desktop environment for Windows users looking to switch to Linux; and Pantheon is the best desktop environment for macOS users. However, the choice of desktop environment ultimately comes down to personal preference. Some users may prefer the simplicity and speed of XFCE, while others may prefer the modern look and feel of GNOME. The important thing is that users have the freedom to choose the desktop environment that works best for them.

Although, because GMOME is so customizable and has so many extensions it can be configured to look and feel like any other desktop environment. But there are so few distributions that ship with GNOME configured this way–only Pop!_OS and Zorin OS come to mind–that it is not a viable option for most users.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the desktop environment problem in Linux is a complex issue that has its roots in the early days of the operating system. While there is no easy solution, we can make the choice easier for users by providing clear information about each desktop environment and its features. Ultimately, the choice of desktop environment comes down to personal preference, and users should have the freedom to choose the one that works best for them.

One of the biggest thing is that all DE’s use significantly less resources than Windows and macOS to some degree. This means that even hardware that is 15 years old can run a modern desktop environment with ease. This is one of the biggest selling points of Linux as a desktop operating system.

The only time that a user may need more current hardware is if they are using the system for video, photo, or audio editing: Not including gaming.

How to Install Kubuntu the Arch Way

Fri, 20 Dec 2024 15:46:40 -0700

Introduction

Over the last few years, 15 years give or take 3 year when I was forced to use Windows. I’ve tried a number of different Linux distributions. Starting with Ubuntu, then tried Arch Linux, but I’ve gone back to Ubuntu mostly because I like having to not fight setting up a all-in-one printer/scanner.

I did however like installing by way of the commandline so I started installing Ubuntu the same way and that is how I installed Kubuntu 24.04. So in this post I will show you how I installed Kubuntu using the commandline and how I create a custom BTRFS partition subvolume layout. This became a necessity because the installer does not support BTRFS subvolumes properly, this is especially true for Ubuntu new installer.

This guide well be using UEFI and GPT partition table for the installation mostly because that is default for most computers for the last 10 years. If you are needing to install using BIOS and MBR the grub installation will be different.

Preparing the Installation

Just like GNOME the KDE desktop environment is a full featured desktop environment. This means that it will require more resources than a lightweight desktop environment like XFCE or LXDE.

Minimum of 4GB of RAM (8GB recommended)
50GB of free disk space
Internet connection (for downloading packages and updates)
A USB drive with at least 16GB of space
A computer with a 64-bit processor (dual-core that is less than 10 years old at the minimum)

Download the Kubuntu 24.04 ISO

One of the things that I like about official Ubuntu flavors is that is easy to find the ISO file for the latest version. You can download the Kubuntu 24.04 ISO from the Kubuntu website.

Create a Bootable USB Drive

In most case you will need to create a bootable USB drive to install Kubuntu 24.04, unless have a DVD drive in your computer that is. Either way you may need to change the boot order or enable booting from USB in the BIOS/UEFI to boot from the USB drive. Doing so will differ depending on the manufacturer of your computer, but repeatedly pressing the F2, F12, or Delete key during boot up will usually get you into the BIOS/UEFI.

On Linux

There are a number of ways to create a bootable USB drive. You can use Balena Etcher, Rufus, or the dd command. I will show you how to create a bootable USB drive using the dd command. If you are using a Ubuntu based distribution installing Startup Disk Creator is the easiest way to create a bootable USB drive.

On Windows

If you are using Windows you can use Balena Etcher is the best way to create a bootable USB drive. Downloading from the website or using winget to install it. Winget is somewhat like apt or dnf, but less intuitive and powerful so do be surprised if you get errors.

winget install --accept-package-agreements --id Balena.Etcher

Flash the ISO to the USB drive using Balena Etcher is pretty straight forward. Just select the ISO, select the USB drive you want to flash it to, and click the flash button.

No matter what method you use or what operating system you are using you will need to boot from the USB drive to install Kubuntu 24.04.

Installing Kubuntu 24.04

After booting from the USB drive you will be presented with the grub boot menu. The default option is to “Try Kubuntu/Install Kubuntu”. You can select this option to try Kubuntu before installing it or you can select the “Install Kubuntu” option to start the installation process.

The installer may be the first thing you see, if so just ignore it because we are going to install Kubuntu 24.04 using the commandline. To do this press Ctrl+Alt+T to switch to a terminal. You will be presented with a terminal window. From here we well need switch to a root shell by typing the following command sudo -i to make things easier.

Partitioning and Formatting

There are a number of ways to partition the disk, but I have found that the easiest way is to use the parted command to create the partitions. As it turns out parted requires less typing than fdisk or gdisk. The following is the partition layout I used: This may differ depending on the type of drive you have. I have a 1TB NVMe drive which shows up as /dev/nvme0n1; if you have a SATA drive it will show up as /dev/sda.

Without SWAP partition:

/dev/nvme0n1p1 - 1024MB - EFI System Partition
/dev/nvme0n1p2 - rest of the disk - BTRFS

With SWAP partition:

/dev/nvme0n1p1 - 1024MB - EFI System Partition
/dev/nvme0n1p2 - 8192MB - Linux Swap
/dev/nvme0n1p3 - rest of the disk - BTRFS

Why I chose to install with a SWAP partition is because I have more then 32GB of RAM setup ZSWAP and ZRAM to use as the SWAP partition. Installing with a SWAP partition is not advised as some applications may require a SWAP partition to function properly such as transpiler and/or compilers.

Create the Partitions

The ‘X’ is either going to be the drive letter or the drive number. If you have a SATA drive it maybe /dev/sda and for NVMe /dev/nvme0n1.

parted /dev/<sdX|nvme0nX> -- mklabel gpt \
  mkpart primary fat32 1MiB 1025MiB set 1 esp on \
  mkpart primary btrfs 1025MiB 100%

With SWAP partition:

parted /dev/<sdX|nvme0nX> -- mklabel gpt \
  mkpart primary fat32 1MiB 1025MiB set 1 esp on \
  mkpart primary linux-swap 1025MiB 9217MiB \
  mkpart primary btrfs 9217MiB 100%

If you run into problems with the parted there maybe either a MBR or GPT partition table already on the drive. First list the partitions on the drive with parted /dev/<sdX|nvme0nX> print. If there are partitions on the drive you will need to remove them with the rm command starting with the last partition and working your way to the first partition.

parted /dev/<sdX|nvme0nX> -- rm <partition number>

Now try running the parted command again.

Format the Partitions

Now that the partitions have been created we need to format them. The EFI System Partition will be formatted as VFAT

mkfs.vfat -n EFI /dev/<sda1|nvme0n1p1>
mkfs.btrfs -L ROOTFS /dev/<sda2|nvme0n1p2>

With SWAP partition:

mkfs.vfat -n EFI /dev/<sda1|nvme0n1p1>
mkswap -L SWAP /dev/<sda2|nvme0n1p2>
mkfs.btrfs -L ROOTFS /dev/<sda3|nvme0n1p3>

Create the BTRFS Subvolumes

Mount the BTRFS partition mount /dev/<sda2|nvme0n1p2> /mnt and create subvolumes for mounting to the required directories.

for subvol in @ @home @cache @log @snapshots @tmp; do
  btrfs subvolume create /mnt/$subvol
done

When finished umount with umount /mnt and mount @ subvolume first.

mount -o subvol=@ /dev/<sda2|nvme0n1p2> /mnt

Next create the directories for the other subvolumes and the EFI System Partition.

mkdir -p /mnt/{home,var/{cache,log},.snapshots,tmp,boot/efi}
mount /dev/<sda1|nvme0n1p1> /mnt/boot/efi
mount -o subvol=@home /dev/<sda2|nvme0n1p2> /mnt/home
mount -o subvol=@cache /dev/<sda2|nvme0n1p2> /mnt/var/cache
mount -o subvol=@log /dev/<sda2|nvme0n1p2> /mnt/var/log
mount -o subvol=@snapshots /dev/<sda2|nvme0n1p2> /mnt/.snapshots
mount -o subvol=@tmp /dev/<sda2|nvme0n1p2> /mnt/tmp

Install Kubuntu 24.04

The installation is done by unsquashing the filesystem from the ISO/USB drive to the BTRFS partition. This is done with the unsquashfs command.

unsquashfs -df /mnt /casper/filesystem.squashfs

If you are installing the default Ubuntu with GNOME desktop you will need to unsquash the two different filesystems that I well not go into here. However, for installation of systems using anything other the Subiquity installer the above command is all that is needed.

Setting and Configuring the Installation

This is where the fun really begins in setting up the installation the way you want. But in order to do this we need to make sure that the system as internet access by copying the resolv.conf file to the new system.

cp /etc/resolv.conf /mnt/etc/resolv.conf

Now mount the necessary directories for begin.

for dir in dev dev/pts proc sys ; do
  mount --bind /$dir /mnt/$dir ; mount --make-rslave /mnt/$dir
done

The /dev/pts is needed to prevent an error about the /dev/pts not being mounted. The --make-rslave is needed to prevent the /proc and /sys from being mounted as read-only.

Note: Not doing this most likely will not cause any problems, but it is better to be safe than sorry.

Working Inside the Installation

Now that the necessary directories have been mounted we can chroot into the installation. chroot -s /bin/bash /mnt will change the root directory to the installation and start a bash shell.

Step 1: Purge Unneeded Packages

Because we unsquashed the filesystem which is the same one that was booted from the USB drive we need to remove the casper, ubiquity and anything that as to do live booting.

apt purge --autoremove -y casper calamares calamares-* user-setup kubuntu-installer-prompt

The above command will trigger the removal of of none specified packages that is okay so don’t worry about it.

Step 2: Set the Locale and Timezone

Setting the locale and timezone is different then it is on Arch Linux which is done by editing the /etc/locale.gen and /etc/timezone files. On Ubuntu based distributions it is done by running the dpkg-reconfigure command.

dpkg-reconfigure locales

This will bring up a dialog box where you can select the language and locale that you require. Sense I’m in the U.S. I selected en_US.UTF-8. This will bring up another dialog box where you can select the default locale. I selected en_US.UTF-8 again. In most cases you will want to avoid anything that has to do with ISO unless you know that you require it.

To setup the timezone is much the same way as the locale. All you need select the Continent and then the City.

If you are in the U.S. and that as an option then select it and then select the City that is closest to you. If you are not in the U.S. then select the Continent and then the City that is closest to you.

dpkg-reconfigure tzdata

I’m am in the U.S. so I selected America and then Boise because that is the closest city to me. You may see a separate option for the state of Arizona. This is because Arizona does not observe Daylight Savings Time.

By doing this first you will avoid any problems that may arise when installing and updating packages.

Step 3: Update the System

You may be able to get away with not updating the system, but I would recommend doing so to avoid breaking any required packages that may be installed.

apt update && apt upgrade -y

Step 4: Installing GRUB and the Kernel

The next step is to install the GRUB bootloader and the kernel. The kernel is required to boot the system and the GRUB bootloader is required to boot the system.

apt install -y linux-generic-hwe-24.04 \
  linux-headers-generic-hwe-24.04 \
  linux-generic linux-headers-generic grub-efi-amd64 shim*

You we see a bunch of packages that are going to be installed, depending on the system this may take a while so get a snack or cup of coffee. For me it took about 5 minutes to install all the packages.

grub-install /dev/<sda|nvme0n1>

Regenerate the initramfs and update the GRUB configuration. Because we are using UEFI we need to update the GRUB configuration file in the EFI System Partition.

update-initramfs -c -k all
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/efi/EFI/ubuntu/grub.cfg

Edit the /usr/sbin/update-grub file to reflect the correct path to the GRUB configuration file.

sed -i 's|/boot/grub/grub.cfg|/boot/efi/EFI/ubuntu/grub.cfg|' /usr/sbin/update-grub

Check to see if git is installed which git if it is not installed install it with apt install -y git, then clone the gen-fstab repository.

git clone https://github.com/MichaelSchaecher/gen-fstab.git

Change into the gen-fstab directory and open up the gen-fstab script and edit using either nano or vim and replace $(btrfs su list /mnt | grep 'level 5' | awk '{print $9}') with $(btrfs su list / | grep '@' | awk '{print $9}'). If you planning on using a ZRAM as a SWAP partition then replace then comment out the line that has SWAP in it as well. Not doing so well cause the system to hang on boot making you think that the system is broken.

Your /etc/fstab file should look like this:

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>

# EFI boot partition
UUID=15B9-1CB4 /boot/efi vfat defaults 0 1

# Mount btrfs subvolumes
UUID=3da1f02b-c913-401d-8d8b-38ac885ac19d / btrfs ssd,noatime,space_cache=v2,compress=lzo,subvol=@ 0 0
UUID=3da1f02b-c913-401d-8d8b-38ac885ac19d /home btrfs ssd,noatime,space_cache=v2,compress=lzo,subvol=@home 0 0
UUID=3da1f02b-c913-401d-8d8b-38ac885ac19d /var/cache btrfs ssd,noatime,space_cache=v2,compress=lzo,subvol=@cache 0 0
UUID=3da1f02b-c913-401d-8d8b-38ac885ac19d /var/log btrfs ssd,noatime,space_cache=v2,compress=lzo,subvol=@log 0 0
UUID=3da1f02b-c913-401d-8d8b-38ac885ac19d /tmp btrfs ssd,noatime,space_cache=v2,compress=lzo,subvol=@tmp 0 0
UUID=3da1f02b-c913-401d-8d8b-38ac885ac19d /.snapshots btrfs ssd,noatime,space_cache=v2,compress=lzo,subvol=@snapshots 0 0

# Swap
#UUID= none swap defaults 0 0

Of course the UUID is going to be different then mine.

Step 5: Setting the Hostname

Edit the /etc/hostname file and set the hostname to what you want it to be. Since I lack imagination I set mine to ‘dell-laptop’.

echo "dell-laptop" > /etc/hostname

To make the hostname change take effect in the shell prompt run hostname -f /etc/hostname.

Step 6: Creating the User

The use that needs to be created here most have administrative privileges to make changes to the system, this means that the user must be added to the sudo group. Just be sure to replace <username> with the username you want to use.

useradd -m -G sudo -s /bin/bash <username>
passwd <username>

groupadd -r allow-sudo
echo "%allow-sudo ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL" > /etc/sudoers.d/allow-sudo

At this point if you wish you exit and reboot the system with exit and reboot or you can continue on below.

Post Installation (Optional)

The following are optional steps, but help into make the system more usable as a daily driver and can be done at any time. If you still here then I am assuming you’re still in the chroot environment.

Step 1: Setting Up ZRAM and ZSWAP

If you have more then 32GB of RAM then you may want to setup ZRAM and ZSWAP to use as the SWAP partition. This is done by creating a systemd service file and enabling it. I like to do this by creating the file in /usr/lib/systemd/system/ directory instead of the /etc/systemd/system/ directory. This is because the /usr/lib/systemd/system/ directory is where the default systemd service files are located and disabling the service with systemctl disable well not remove the service file only the symlink to it.

Create the file /usr/lib/systemd/system/zram-swap.service and add the following to it:

[Unit]
Description = Create compressed swap in RAM on boot up.
After = local-fs.target

[Service]
Type = oneshot
Environment = "COMPRESSOR=lz4"
Environment = "SWAP_SIZE=2G"
ExecStartPre = /sbin/modprobe zram
ExecStart = /usr/bin/bash -c "zramctl --size $SWAP_SIZE --algorithm $COMPRESSOR --find ; \
  mkswap /dev/zram0 ; \
  swapon /dev/zram0"
RemainAfterExit = yes

[Install]
WantedBy = multi-user.target

Now enable the service with systemctl enable zram.service. This will create a 2GB ZRAM device and use it as the SWAP partition. If you want to change the size of the ZRAM device then change the SWAP_SIZE variable to the size you want.

Step 2: Enable Booting from BTRFS Snapshots

With the help of grub-btrfs you can boot from BTRFS snapshots. This is done by installing the grub-btrfs package by cloning the repository. Cloning the forked well help you avoid having to edit the config file. Before you do something need to be installed: apt install -y build-essential inotify-tools.

git clone https://github.com/MichaelSchaecher/grub-btrfs.git
cd grub-btrfs
make install

Enable the grub-btrfs service with systemctl enable grub-btrfsd.service.

Step 4: Create and Manage Snapshots

There are a few tools to help with, like snapper and timeshift. Snapper takes some configuration to get it to work properly and even then it may not work as expected. Timeshift is a GUI application that is easy to use, but it is not compatible with non Ubuntu way of either no subvolumes or just the @ and @home subvolumes which make to app useless.

What I did was create a script that keeps no more then 10 snapshots and deletes the oldest one when the limit is reached. This is done by creating a script in the /usr/local/bin/ directory called btrfs-snapshot-manager and adding the following to it:

#!/bin/env bash

source /etc/os-release

# Set the number of snapshots to keep
SNAPSHOTS="10"

SNAPSHOT="$NAME-$(hostname)-$(date +%Y-%m-%d-%H-%M-%S)"

SNAPSHOT_DIR="/.snapshots"

test "$(id -u)" -eq 0 || { echo "Must be root to run this script"; exit 1; }

btrfs subvolume snapshot / "${SNAPSHOT_DIR}/${SNAPSHOT}"

test "${?}" -eq 0 || { echo "Failed to create snapshot"; exit 1; }

echo "Total snapshots: $(ls -1 "${SNAPSHOT_DIR}" | wc -l)"

# Delete snapshots exceeding the total to keep
while [ "$(ls -1 "${SNAPSHOT_DIR}" | wc -l)" -gt "${SNAPSHOTS}" ]; do

    OLD_SNAPSHOTS=$(ls -1 "${SNAPSHOT_DIR}" | sort -r | tail -n 1)

    btrfs subvolume delete "${SNAPSHOT_DIR}/${OLD_SNAPSHOTS}"

    test "${?}" -eq 0 || { echo "Failed to delete: ${OLD_SNAPSHOTS}"; exit 1; }

done

echo "Total snapshots: $(ls -1 "${SNAPSHOT_DIR}" | wc -l)"

exit 0

Make the script executable with chmod 755 /usr/local/bin/btrfs-snapshot-manager and create a systemd timer and service file to run the script every day. The service should also create a snapshot before running the script.

[Unit]
Description = BTRFS Snapshot Manager

[Service]
Type = oneshot
ExecStart = /usr/local/bin/btrfs-snapshot-manager

[Install]
WantedBy = multi-user.target

Create the timer file /etc/systemd/system/btrfs-snapshot-manager.timer and add the following to it:

[Unit]
Description = Run BTRFS Snapshot Manager

[Timer]
OnCalendar = daily
WakeSystem = true
RandomizedDelaySec = 1h

[Install]
WantedBy = timers.target

Have the timer wake the system up if it is in sleep mode and enable the timer with systemctl enable btrfs-snapshot-manager.timer. This also has the added benefit cause other services to run that may have been missed otherwise.

Exit and Reboot

exit the chroot environment and unmount the necessary directories and reboot the system.

exit
umount -R /mnt
reboot

You well be asked to remove the USB drive and press enter to reboot the system. After the system reboots you well be presented with the GRUB boot menu with the new installation of Kubuntu 24.04 press enter and login with the user you created. You well be presented with the KDE desktop environment.

Welcome to your new installation of Kubuntu 24.04.

If you have any questions or comments please leave them below and I well get back to you as soon as I can. Thank you for reading and I hope you have a great day.