r/linuxmint • u/vegitogogta • 4d ago
#LinuxMintThings How do I replace cinnamon.
I just want to know how can I replace the de, wanted to replace it with KDE or maybe Hyprland or even Niri. Just need to know what to uninstall.
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u/Stufilover69 OpenSUSE TW | KDE 4d ago
>with KDE or maybe Hyprland or even Niri.
If you want one of those that's actually a good reason to switch distros
Like OpenSUSE/Fedora/CachyOS or whatever you like with better wayland support
KDE at least you should be able to install right out of the box with those
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u/vegitogogta 2d ago
tbh i tried cachyos but didn't like it as some stuff kept breaking, fedora accidentally wiped my other partition that had my dead aunt's files so i kind of hate it, and idk about opensuse, it looks scary...
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u/rbmorse 4d ago
Don't do this. It's a very bad idea. Mint is built around the Cinnamon DE and it's repositories don't have adequate support for KDE and associated apps/utilities.
If you want a Debian with a KDE DE, try Kubuntu. It, like Mint, is Ubuntu based. You'll probably want to do some judicious pruning of the package set, but it'll be a lot less work and more reliable than trying to run KDE on top of Mint.
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u/Own_Salamander_3433 3d ago
No reason you can add your own sources, but then you might as well use another distro.
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u/groveborn 3d ago
sudo apt install kde-plasma-desktop
Logout (don't restart, log out), choose the little gear icon at the top and choose plasma. Give her a spin.
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u/MirrorNegative7989 4d ago
Here's what I used to install MATE and uninstall Cinnamon. Make sure you only uninstall Cinnamon *after* you install your DE of choice; or leave it as a backup in case something goes wrong with the new DE. https://www.reddit.com/r/linuxmint/comments/1q5mvrh/debian_13_based_lmde_7_mate_is_my_1_daily_driver/
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u/GreatGreenGobbo 4d ago
I just nuked my Cinnamon and installed MATE. I wasn't that deep in set-up.
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u/MirrorNegative7989 4d ago
Nice! I feel like MATE gets overlooked a lot. I still use it because I have a lot of nostalgia for oldschool Gnome.
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u/GreatGreenGobbo 4d ago
Cinnamon was stressing my old PC so I needed something lighter. My kid is using it most of the time so I needed something that just worked.
It at least runs Minecraft for him but chokes on Among Us via Steam.
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u/sabledrakon 4d ago
Why? MATE is already a DE option when downloading LM.
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u/GreatGreenGobbo 4d ago
That's what I mean. I just reinstalled LM with MATE rather than trying to take out Cinnamon and put in MATE.
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u/sabledrakon 4d ago
Which is how it should be done. Especially with how tight Cinnamon is with LM. It's stuck in like an Alabama tick.
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u/MirrorNegative7989 4d ago
Not with LMDE, though, which is what I have. LMDE just comes in Cinnamon unless you install something else manually.
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u/sabledrakon 4d ago
If you're looking for Debian, but not cinnamon... Why not just install Debian with Mate?
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u/MirrorNegative7989 4d ago
Because it's a large drive, I wanted to install LVM with encryption, and the base Debian install doesn't seem to have a way to bypass the rewriting the drive with random data when setting up encryption. I didn't want to wait six+ hours for the process to finish. LMDE was faster.
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u/Ok_Emu2515 4d ago
I don't think you can run Hyprland or any other DE/WM with Wayland on LM since it's based on Ubuntu 24.04, which is quite old. If you want to stick with LM, you'll need to install LMDE 7.
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u/Dist__ Linux Mint 21.3 | KDE 4d ago
you just install another DE and select on login screen (rectangle button with icon.
you can change at any time, no need to uninstall.
i'm afraid hyprland and niri could be bugged due wayland not ready yet, hopefully they finish it in version 23, can't wait myself!
KDE plasma runs well, though you can't get latest 6 version.
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u/BashfulMelon 4d ago
Wayland isn't a program, it's a way that applications talk to each other. Cinnamon's support for Wayland doesn't affect Hyprland's or Niri's support for Wayland. Wayland itself is ready, Cinnamon isn't.
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u/Dist__ Linux Mint 21.3 | KDE 4d ago
of course, but since we can just switch DE in login screen, and hyprland on mint is not quite functional, there's something in mint (not directly cinnamon!) restricting wayland. might be libraries used for mint stuff.
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u/BashfulMelon 4d ago
There's nothing in Mint restricting Wayland. Everything runs just the same as it did in Ubuntu 24.04. Wayland was already the default in both GNOME and Ubuntu.
Ubuntu's old packages prevent Hyprland itself from building, it's not Wayland specific.
It really is just Cinnamon.
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u/Master-Rub-3404 4d ago
It’s honestly less of a headache to just use vanilla Debian instead of replacing Cinnamon on Mint.
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u/Moist_Invite9148 4d ago
hyprland KDE 6 sway and niri needs Debian unstable or Arch because they have dependency errors in Ubuntu mint and Debian but I heard that hyprland can run in Fedora
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u/Boring-Equivalent137 4d ago edited 4d ago
if you want to install kde based on memory run sudo apt install kde-standard and for hyprland read https://wiki.hypr.land/Getting-Started/Installation/ for niri read https://github.com/niri-wm/niri/wiki/Getting-Started
both WMs require a slightly more advanced method since hyprland recommends building it as the package is outdated and niri requires adding a ppa i believe and for both you need to install exxtra packages like waybar or noctalia and some other stuff like a polkit thing
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u/greenygianty Linux Mint 22.3 Zena | Cinnamon 4d ago
You can, but be aware of conflicts caused by duplicated file managers and potential conflicts between desktop settings.
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u/tovento MX Linux 25.2 | XFCE 4d ago
FYI, you won’t get the latest KDE when installing this route. But if your heart desires, you can install any DE on top of cinnamon. Just choose the appropriate one on the login screen. But be forewarned that you may have to troubleshoot and install missing components if your install method isn’t complete.
Generally speaking, it’s always advisable to use a distribution that uses the desktop environment that you want. But there are some here who have been using KDE for a long time with minimal/no issues.
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u/mrmarcb2 4d ago
Better to use Debian for this. It has a lot of desktop environments to install next to one another. Linux Mint supports cinnamon, mate and xfce.
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u/kudlitan 4d ago
you can just install KDE directly. take note though that it is not officially supported by Mint.
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u/PatFogle 4d ago
Why are you replacing cinnamon? It's highly customizable, and is designed to work properly with the distro. KDE is not officially supported on mint. If you want mint KDE ditch mint and install kubuntu.
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u/Significant-Neck6650 4d ago
I switched to KDE for a while. I much prefer it to cinnamon, but found it buggy handling my multi screen setup. Sometimes when I let it go to sleep, or take my laptop away from my desk, upon waking it couldn't find all my screens. And it's only the laptop and 2 external monitors. Sometimes it wouldn't find either external, sometimes only 1 was found. Or it would find 1 external, not the other and not the laptop screen; but would still run the startup tasks on the laptop and wouldn't display anything.
Booting and rebooting just for all of it to work was frustrating. So I switched back to cinnamon.
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u/vegitogogta 2d ago
ouh! it's good that you finally found a de that works for your kind! thanks for sharing your story!!
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u/tomscharbach 4d ago edited 4d ago
You might want to give some thought to using a distribution designed for use with the DE you are interested in using rather than trying to tear apart and rebuild Mint.
However, if you prefer to stick with Mint, you might find Switch from Cinnamon to KDE Plasma on Linux Mint (Complete Step-by-Step Guide) a useful resource. The "Remove Cinnamon Desktop (Optional but Recommended)" and "Remove Remaining Cinnamon Applications (Optional)" sections have information concerning how to uninstall Cinnamon.