Desktop session ubuntu

This comes in useful when needing to switch between desktop environments on a Ubuntu 20.04 server, when using it as a remote desktop.

Objective

In this tutorial well switch between multiple desktop environments from the command line, on a machine running a Debian based Linux distro.

Prerequisites

• A machine running a Debian based Linux distro with multiple desktop environments installed. [Im using Ubuntu 20.04]

Switching Between Desktop Environments

To switch between desktop environments on a Debian based distro run the following command:

sudo update-alternatives --config x-session-manager

Then you should be presented with the desktop environments you have installed on your system so you can choose one of them:

There are 9 choices for the alternative x-session-manager [providing /usr/bin/x-session-manager]. Selection Path Priority Status ------------------------------------------------------------ * 0 /usr/bin/gnome-session 50 auto mode 1 /usr/bin/gnome-session 50 manual mode 2 /usr/bin/lxsession 49 manual mode 3 /usr/bin/mate-session 50 manual mode 4 /usr/bin/openbox-session 40 manual mode 5 /usr/bin/startlxde 50 manual mode 6 /usr/bin/startlxqt 50 manual mode 7 /usr/bin/startplasma-x11 40 manual mode 8 /usr/bin/startxfce4 50 manual mode 9 /usr/bin/xfce4-session 40 manual mode Press to keep the current choice[*], or type selection number:

Then you can fill in the number corresponding to the desktop environment that you want and press enter.

Then you can logout and log back in, and the desktop launched should be the one that you selected.

Switching to Ubuntu Budgie Desktop Environment

The above method doesnt seem to work with Ubuntu Budgie.

What does work, however, is editing the /etc/xrdp/startwm.sh file, by commenting out the last 2 lines, and adding budgie-desktop at the end.

To edit the file run:

sudo nano /etc/xrdp/startwm.sh

And comment out the last two lines and add budgie-desktop at the end:

# test -x /etc/X11/Xsession && exec /etc/X11/Xsession #exec /bin/sh /etc/X11/Xsession budgie-desktop

Restart xRDP:

sudo systemctl restart xrdp

Now when you log in again you should be using Ubuntu Budgie.

Switching Between Desktop Environments From the Command Line for Chrome Remote Desktop

To configure Chrome Remote Desktop to use a different desktop environment, then run the following command, replacing CHOSEN_DESKTOP_ENVIRONMENT with the desktop environment that you want.

sudo bash -c 'echo "exec /etc/X11/Xsession /usr/bin/CHOSEN_DESKTOP_ENVIRONMENT" > /etc/chrome-remote-desktop-session'

For example, to configure Chrome Remote Desktop to use XFCE you would run:

sudo bash -c 'echo "exec /etc/X11/Xsession /usr/bin/xfce4-session" > /etc/chrome-remote-desktop-session'

Im not sure of a clean way of listing the paths for each desktop environment, at the moment, but you can run the following command and to see the path for each desktop environment:

sudo update-alternatives --config x-session-manager

As mentioned above, youll be shown something like the following, where you can see the executables for the desktop environments installed on your system under Path.

There are 9 choices for the alternative x-session-manager [providing /usr/bin/x-session-manager]. Selection Path Priority Status ------------------------------------------------------------ * 0 /usr/bin/gnome-session 50 auto mode 1 /usr/bin/gnome-session 50 manual mode 2 /usr/bin/lxsession 49 manual mode 3 /usr/bin/mate-session 50 manual mode 4 /usr/bin/openbox-session 40 manual mode 5 /usr/bin/startlxde 50 manual mode 6 /usr/bin/startlxqt 50 manual mode 7 /usr/bin/startplasma-x11 40 manual mode 8 /usr/bin/startxfce4 50 manual mode 9 /usr/bin/xfce4-session 40 manual mode Press to keep the current choice[*], or type selection number:

And youll use the Path for the desktop environment that you want, replacing /usr/bin/CHOSEN_DESKTOP_ENVIRONMENT with it.

sudo bash -c 'echo "exec /etc/X11/Xsession /usr/bin/CHOSEN_DESKTOP_ENVIRONMENT" > /etc/chrome-remote-desktop-session'

Switching to Ubuntu Budgie Desktop Environment for Chrome Remote Desktop

The path to Budgie is /usr/bin/budgie-desktop so to switch to it you can run:

sudo bash -c 'echo "exec /etc/X11/Xsession /usr/bin/budgie-desktop" > /etc/chrome-remote-desktop-session'

Im not clear on how to find the path to Budgie in a clean command, however you can switch to it, right now. But the above command should work.

Switching Between Desktop Environments From the Command Line for VNC Server

To see how to switch between desktop environments from the command line for VNC, please visit our related article on installing and configuring a VNC server on Ubuntu 20.04, in the Configuring VNC to Use Other Desktop Environments [And Switching Between Them] section.

We cover this exact topic in detail in that section.

Conclusion

I hope this article helps you in changing between desktop environments from the command line.

If youre having any issues, or have any feedback, wed love to hear from you in the comments or via the channels on our contact us page.

Resources & Acknowledgements

Alternative way of switching to Ubuntu Budgie Desktop Environment adapted from:

• Froth and Java Ubuntu Budgie and xRDP

Revisions & Updates of this Article

[Mar 23 2021]: Added workaround to switch to Budgie, along with acknowledgements.