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Linux Desktop Hacking

Change from Ubuntu/Gnome to KDE

Kubuntu is my desktop of choice. However, certain security software (Jumpcloud, I'm looking at you) insists on Ubuntu, despite the fact that KDE uses all the same repos. To convert Gnome to KDE, you can literally just uninstall one desktop and install the other; the package manager takes care of the details. Follow the process here:

https://askubuntu.com/questions/1390779/how-do-i-safely-switch-from-gnome-to-kde-plasma

• Starting point: Ubuntu 21.10, with the GNOME desktop (ed: tested with 24.04)
• Update everything: sudo apt update; sudo apt upgrade
• sudo apt-mark minimize-manual
• Add KDE (via Kubuntu's meta-package): sudo apt install kubuntu-desktop
• Uninstall the GNOME meta-package: sudo apt remove ubuntu-desktop (Depending on your installation type, remove ubuntu-desktop-minimal, or ubuntu-desktop-raspi too)
• Log out and log into a KDE session!
• Clean up packages that aren't needed: sudo apt autoremove
• This is when GNOME actually gets removed. Warning: Be extra careful at this step:
• Review the packages proposed to be removed
• If there's one you want to keep, abort the command, and mark the package(s) explicitly installed via: sudo apt install ...
• Then try sudo apt autoremove again

At this point, you're pretty much done. However, there might be some leftover GNOME packages. Check what's installed In my case, there were 3: sudo apt remove gedit evince firefox; sudo apt autoremove Done. Everything works, even the boot logo has been changed to Kubuntu's

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Last updated : 01 July 2025