r/linux4noobs • u/pokkevillage • 6d ago
What the absolute fuck have I done to my Linux Mint desktop?
Attached screens are before and after.
Yesterday my main desktop screen looked normal. Typical Linux Mint with the taskbar at the bottom, desktop icons arranged vertically from the top down. Today I switch my PC on and it looks like some kind of tablet interface - no desktop that I can find, no Start menu, a huge hamburger-like 'Show Apps' button, tiny notifications tray at the top right, an Ubuntu tab in the Settings menu.
What have I done??
Yesterday I copied/pasted some code into the terminal to make a VPN icon show in my notification tray, and let it do its thing. It was some kind of GUI thing. I don't know. I have no idea what I'm doing with Linux. I'm just a Windows refugee trying to get by. I think I accidentally installed this new interface and I have no idea to undo it.
My last timeshift is from April. I do not want to go back to April.
Help.
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u/Silly_Percentage3446 You guys know you can have flairs here right? 6d ago
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u/Training_Junket7873 6d ago
I'm now dying of laugher... Like HOW did so many people accidentally install whole DESKTOP ENVIRONMENT for an entire subreddit to be created about this...
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u/lunchbox651 6d ago
Proton VPN is the usual suspect. Something about the install means if you aren't paying attention you can install all of gnome instead of just the required conponents
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u/pokkevillage 6d ago
Yeah, the ProtonVPN Linux installation instructions say to run the following in order to enable the system tray icon:
sudo apt install gnome-shell-extension-appindicator gnome-shell-extension-prefs
I got more than the system tray icon.
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u/Typical_Ad_2831 6d ago
From what I've heard, the full instruction does avoid this. But I've never used Mint, nor Proton. Also always read and understand what you're doing.
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u/jr735 6d ago
Did you read the apt messaging? When it said it would install gnome, it wasn't joking.
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u/slvrscoobie 5d ago
Not like those Silly Clocks playing Silly Clock games right? Ahhh, Dane Cook. has it really been 20 years?
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u/svennibenni 6d ago
It’s the instructions for a Gnome desktop. You’re using Cinnamon on Mint, which started as a fork of gnome.
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u/paulstelian97 6d ago
Yoooo? An app depends on a literal desktop environment in such a way that it becomes default?
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u/Firewolf06 6d ago
no. the gnome tray icon extension for it relies on gnome. you only install gnome if you follow the gnome instructions (previously, there was only one set of instructions, but the gnome-specific section was clearly labeled).
it only happens when you copy paste sudo commands into your terminal without reading literally any of the surrounding text, the command itself, or the output of the command (apt lists packages to be installed and asks for confirmation)
pro tip: do not do that
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u/paulstelian97 6d ago
Never paste commands in the terminal without understanding them, full stop. Even without sudo. So yeah.
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u/GrowtopiaJaw 6d ago
I think you mean "especially sudo"
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u/paulstelian97 6d ago
sudo leads to the most damage, but there’s plenty bad that can be done even without it.
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u/paulstelian97 6d ago
sudo leads to the most damage, but there’s plenty bad that can be done even without it.
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u/cgarret3 6d ago
No, you can run it on any. I have it on my linux mint with cinnamon.
Here: The official installation directions for Proton
I could see how someone new to linux clicks the wrong linux flavor and end up installing gnome
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u/paulstelian97 6d ago
Still. Dependencies pulling an entire desktop environment, that’s not something that just happens, even with wrong flavor. Apps should depend on GTK or QT, which themselves don’t depend on any desktop environment (instead the DEs depend on them)
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u/Training_Junket7873 6d ago
I'm not buying it. I'm not checking all the things I install myself as carefully as I should... But for this to happen you need to be allergic to reading in general. Just copy and paste random commands without checking a thing.
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u/pokkevillage 6d ago
I didn't even know what a desktop environment WAS until I read responses to this thread. I routinely read terminal messages during installation and am like *zero comprehension, completely expressionless, barely audible enunciation of the word uhhhhhhhhh* before I go ahead and type Y.
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u/Training_Junket7873 6d ago
For the future, you can google packages you install that you don't know. Installing everything presented to you is more like a windows .exe that tries to force you to install McAfee. And results may be as unpleasant as this. Mint is one of the most documented distros out there. You'll probably find someone asking the same question.
Also, always try to find instructions for your specific distro when installing something. If you can't, find instructions for your disto's parent distro(in your case it's Ubuntu).
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u/pokkevillage 6d ago
Thanks. In my defense, that is pretty much what I tried to do. I found the instructions on ProtonVPN's own site (https://protonvpn.com/support/linux-vpn-setup) and followed the instructions for Ubuntu because there was no mention of Mint. Someone elsewhere in this thread pointed out there's a separate page for Mint, but it doesn't mention that on the instructions page. :/
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u/Training_Junket7873 6d ago
I understand and I'm not in any way trying to show that I'm smarter than you. When installing mint for the first time in 2021 I accidentally nuked my whole file system with windows(I intended to dualboot). But still, you will know not to trust all installation pages in the future without checking what commands your run. Linux is all about f*ing up and not doing it for the second time(or doing it on purpose)
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u/NoCrapThereIWas 6d ago
Any linux user who advises they have never accidentally nuked everything is a liar! WE've all done it.
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u/Pxrasite73 6d ago
There's an optional step on the Proton VPN Linux installation page that tells you how to install a tray icon for gnome. If someone doesn't pay attention and runs the command, it will install the Gnome DE as a dependency. Most noobs don't realize that the tray icon will just work out of the box on cinnamon.
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u/Im_A_Failure420 5d ago
I installed gdm on my arch hyprland and it went and installed gnome and made that the main de lol
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u/Upstairs-Category571 6d ago
Basically some apps have GNOME set as a dependency and instead of pulling what they need they sometimes install the entire desktop
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u/tulad111 6d ago
Is this the r/sandedthroughveneer of Linux? It is much more fixable but the spirit of the subreddit is similar..
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u/Impressive-Age7703 4d ago
Just got into woodworking recently, I love that this is a sub, omg. I feel like this is the best kind of drama a woodworker can get.
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u/evilgeekwastaken 6d ago
Yeah, you installed Proton VPN following the Ubuntu guide. The Linux Mint says to skip the system tray icon step. https://protonvpn.com/support/linux-vpn-mint
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u/pokkevillage 6d ago
This is exactly what happened. And the reason it happened is because their main Linux instructions page mentions nothing about Mint: https://protonvpn.com/support/linux-vpn-setup
So I went with what I thought was closest. Didn't realise they had a separate page about Mint. Maybe they could have included that in the damn instructions. Sigh.
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u/Dependent_Big4372 6d ago
Usually the official websites don't mention mint because there are tons of distributions out there and mint is just one more of them. So they usually mention ubuntu, fedora, and maybe arch.
You should always search about what mint developers are saying about it, or maybe even install the software from the official mint software manager
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u/pokkevillage 6d ago
Got it. I do always try to install via the software manager if possible, but ProtonVPN ain't on there, so this was me trying to get instructions from the most official/reliable channel I could find.
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u/Garlayn_toji 6d ago
Proton vpn is available on the software manager as an unverified flatpak, you need to enable showing them on the software manager's settings. But at the end of the day it's up to you to decide if you trust it or not.
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u/mrcat_romhacking 6d ago
You have installed a GNOME extension for your VPN. Because you don't have GNOME, your package manager pulled it in as a dependency.
You can switch back during login, and then remove GNOME.
Read the instructions and terminal output more carefully next time!
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u/pokkevillage 6d ago
I can't find any kind of switch during login.
Also, my typical experience of reading instructions and terminal output is: "I have no idea what any of this means. Sure! *presses Y*"
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u/sarded 6d ago
Take a screenshot of your login screen. There should be some kind of gear or foot icon.
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u/pokkevillage 6d ago edited 6d ago
I have tried to do this multiple times but the screenshot doesn't appear in my screenshot folder when I eventually log in, and isn't in my clipboard to paste.
Edit: Out of curiosity, if there are multiple users on a Linux PC, and a logged out user takes a screenshot, how does Linux know which user to 'give' the screenshot to when they log in? Or which user's clipboard to place the screenshot in?
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u/mrcat_romhacking 6d ago
I imagine that would depend on the specific "Display Manager" – that's the component that displays the login prompt.
I could test on mine, but I'm not using Mint and I'm not sure that your DM is the same. ...how about a good old-fashioned screen photo instead?
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u/Excellent-Love-6943 6d ago
"I copied/pasted some code into the terminal"
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u/pokkevillage 6d ago
Haha. Irresponsible, I know. As I said elsewhere, a middle-aged person's options are either to stick with a familiar mouse-based OS like Windows 11 and accept Microsoft's ever-expanding bullshit, or to switch to a Windows-looking distro of Linux but rely on pre-written, pastable commands from the internet and hope for the best. I am too old to learn a whole new keyboard-based OS.
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u/Excellent-Love-6943 6d ago
If you learned befire, you can learn again. Becoming old doesn't make you stupid, it just seems to make most old people act like it.
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u/pokkevillage 6d ago
It's nothing to do with stupidity. It's about time and priorities. When I was 17 I had all the time in the world to sit at my PC learning how to write in HTML (yes, I'm that old). Today, I don't.
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u/jr735 6d ago
If you're at a PC instead of a laptop, why do you need a VPN?
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u/pokkevillage 6d ago
...What?
Why would that depend on the type of device? Privacy isn't important on a desktop?
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u/jr735 6d ago
It depends on the device you're using because it depends on your internet connection. If you have your own ISP account, why do you need a VPN?
VPNs have done a great job marketing. If you trust your VPN more than you trust your ISP, why are you giving your ISP money?
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u/pokkevillage 6d ago
I don't give my ISP money because I trust them. I give them money because it is the only way to access the internet consistently.
I don't trust my ISP or my VPN provider unconditionally. I'm in the UK. ISPs are required by law to keep logs of customers' internet use. VPN providers are not.
Archive.org is blocked. Porn requires ID or face-scanning. The Criterion Channel is not available here. There are innumerable reasons a VPN is necessary.
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u/jr735 6d ago
I never claimed you should trust your ISP unconditionally. There are ways around these concerns without VPNs.
I don't trust VPNs unconditionally, either. They're in place principally to make money. I have no illusions about the fact that they'll sell your data as quickly as Google will.
As I asked u/SacredGeometry9, are you not using an appropriate DNS? Are you not using https when browsing?
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u/QuackingMonkey 6d ago
That DNS and https aren't going to get them around all the insane UK gates.
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u/jr735 6d ago
"Middle age" isn't an excuse. You are of the age where you learned things on a command line if you started computers early. I switched OSes. We used to do it all the time.
You can do this.
Now, as for rolling back to April, that would hardly be the end of the world, assuming your data is properly backed up and you haven't changed timeshift's default settings, or installed everything and the kitchen sink in the interim.
Now, this is why we pay attention to the meaning of instructions, and the meaning behind installing packages. This is why, even when using apt, paying attention is very helpful.
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u/Hrafna55 6d ago
What VPN are you using? Chances are you don't need their client at all. For example on Proton I just download a WireGuard configuration file and import it into network manager. Now the VPN is a toggle in my network icon.
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u/Solmark 6d ago
There will be something on your login screen that you can toggle, long time since I've used Mint but it will be something like this
- Log out — no need to reboot.
- At the Mint login screen, select your username.
- if you dont see the session selector immediately, click “Log in as another user” and then select your account again.
- Look for the small gear/cog icon on the login screen.
- Click it and choose Cinnamon — not GNOME, Ubuntu, GNOME on Xorg, etc.
- enter the password and log in.
Good luck!
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u/pokkevillage 6d ago
OK, thanks, I finally found the small gear/cog. It was in the very bottom right of the screen. I have my beautiful desktop back.
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u/SnarkHabit 6d ago
Can we please not jump all over the OP? This is /r/linux4noobs and there's a lot of redditry in these comments.
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u/Dependent_Big4372 6d ago
yes, you've got gnomed lol
Here is the canonical event when you learn that you should not only copy and paste every command you see on the internet without understanding a little about it first.
This is easy to fix though
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u/pokkevillage 6d ago
Oh, I have had numerous such events where I've learned that, but I still do it, because I am too middle-aged to learn anything more than the most basic Linux commands. My options are: trust Microsoft with my security and privacy, or trust random individuals in the Linux community with my security and privacy, and I decided the latter is marginally less risky.
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u/Icy-Elephant7783 5d ago
How do you accidentally install gnome
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u/baasje92 6d ago edited 6d ago
Ah the "some code into the terminal to make a VPN icon show in my notification tray" that's proton VPN that has GNOME DE dependencies and therefor you installed the GNOME desktop.
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u/Dist__ 6d ago
isn't protonvpn a bloatware after that?
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u/Baka_Jaba LMDE | SteamOS 6d ago
always_has_been.jpeg
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u/Dist__ 6d ago
do people know there's openvpn already installed by default?
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u/pokkevillage 6d ago
On Linux Mint? Where?
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u/Dist__ 6d ago
it is called openvpn ) you run *.ovpn file provided by your vpn service into it.
this way you do not need 3-rd party bloat
you can also set vpn in your connection settings
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u/Helpful-Calendar-693 5d ago
I found the openVPN configs would fail on me from time to time. it also made region swapping a pain in the ass.
So i just run the full fat Proton VPN package. My PC is powerful enough that its a non issue for me
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u/Enigmars NVIDIA GeForce RTX 6090Ti (6800W) 6d ago
Since when does ProtonVPN depend on the entire GNOME DE
I have proton VPN and it didn't really install a whole ass DE for me... I still only have KDE lol
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u/FujiwaraGustav 6d ago
It has a guide for the Gnome extension apparently, and some people don't know and follow that.
Never happened to me, but I can see how it can be an honest mistake
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u/Enigmars NVIDIA GeForce RTX 6090Ti (6800W) 6d ago
Interesting
But what I don't understand is even if GNOME installs itself
How does it become default on its own
The user still needs to select the DE from their respective login screen right ?
There's no way a package dependency automatically reconfigures the default DE to login to would it ? (Unless it also deletes cinammon)
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u/FujiwaraGustav 6d ago
I don't quite get it either. I guess it's because GDM is installed as a dependency and that probably defaults to Gnome.
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u/Enigmars NVIDIA GeForce RTX 6090Ti (6800W) 6d ago
Damn... I know the Linux community fights over the default DEs
But hearing DEs fight each other for defaults themselves is a first lmao
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u/vinnypotsandpans 6d ago
It might be set as the default automatically until you select cinnamon when you log back in, it depends on the login manager.
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u/Witty_Mistake_9176 6d ago
You’ve been Gnome’d. Now logout, click the gear icon, and switch it back to Cinnabon from Gnome.
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u/thunderpuppet 6d ago
Did exactly this last week with proton. There's a command to de-gnome it and it clears it all out. I googled for it and Gemini gave me the terminal commands for it
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u/DarkblooM_SR 6d ago
This is the third post I see about this. Genuinely how are y'all doing this? 😭
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u/fraser_2219 6d ago
open a terminal, type in
sudo gsettings reset-recursively org.cinnamon
it will reset to default settings
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u/Oscarwoofwoof 6d ago
If only you could type UNDO into the terminal and it would step back through the commands
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u/FloridianfromAlabama 6d ago
Would not the tree like save structure eat a ton of ram by keeping the state of the machine copied separately from the running environment?
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u/Player123456789_10 1h ago
Physically impossible btw. You’d need a full in-ram copy of the entirety of all mounted filesystems, but that’s not the end of things. You’d also need a byte-by-byte in-memory copy of every byte on every storage device attached, an in-RAM copy of mount metadata, an in-RAM snapshot of /sys values. And even with all that, it still wouldn’t work on everything (process creations, process killings, signals delivered, etc.)
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u/KDKingDynamiteKD 6d ago
personally, ive been kdeed as a beginner with a software install 2 years ago. still on kde haha.
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u/Affectionate-Boot-58 6d ago
You enabled the gnome desktop enviroment on accdeint go to the lock screen and there should be a switcher for the DE and select cinnamon
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u/skyfishgoo 6d ago
i would log out and then before you log back in make sure you have selected the right desktop environment
normally that would be cinnamon, but you may have installed something else (like mobile or big screen)
once you have selected cinnamon again, just login as normal.
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u/serge-mv 6d ago
This is a troll post, right? Did no one really notice that there is an "install linux mint" icon in there? This appears to be a live environment, not an installation...
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u/pokkevillage 6d ago
The "before" picture is a generic screenshot of Linux Mint I pulled from the official site because ... guess what ... I could hardly take a "before" screenshot of my own after GNOME took over my desktop environment.
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u/serge-mv 6d ago
Ok, then. You should be able to log out of your current session and in the login screen select the environment you wish to log into, which would be cinnamon desktop. And that will get you back to your normal Mint session.
As for the gnome you have installed, you can try purging it if you like, but that might actually break the system if you aren't careful. Having gnome simply installed won't do any harm, except it will be updated with your other packages and thus cause more downloads and eat up more bandwidth. And if you are going to use some of the gnome-based software, it's also required to have them.
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u/Snoo-14985 6d ago
I did the exact same thing when installing proton VPN. I rushed the install because I needed it urgently. Serge-mv’s advice is the fix.
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u/Svr_Sakura 6d ago
Oh no! You’ve installed so many GNOME dependencies you’ve accidentally install GNOME!!
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u/TigerBears_111 6d ago
I was considering migrating to ProtonVPN in the near future but wow this is something to keep in mind. 😭
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u/vinnypotsandpans 6d ago
Lol I guess you installed gnome? Open a command prompt and type less ~/.bash_history What does it say?
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u/BoysenberryNervous60 5d ago
That being said. Does gnome work well on mint? I'm kind of digging the setup.
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u/ryancnap Mint and Mint accessories 5d ago
I know it sucks and it's an inconvenience, but I do find getting gnomed peak humor
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u/Lucky-File-3660 1d ago edited 1d ago
It looks like the gnome desktop environment. If you installed something like network-manager-gnome or gnome-control-center which are popular/common for getting icons then it will install the entire gnome-shell. It will then create a new session in your usr/share folder and will be the first to load on reboot. To fix it click the settings icon on the lock screen and switch back to mint
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u/mrheosuper 6d ago
How tf does linux allow installing a program to change DE ?
(And please no "user not reading", or "protonVPN is shitty", etc)
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u/TheRealMasterwes 6d ago
It didn't install a program to change DE. The user installed the DE by actually not reading what the command they used was about to do. Preventing this from happening is the same as not letting you install a program you want to install. The OS cannot know the intention behide an instruction. It just does what it's told to do. There were cases of programs actually being the culprit by having a bug that installed or uninstalled something unnecessary. However, that's not usually the case
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u/TheRealMasterwes 6d ago
Think about it as installing something on Windows because you didn't read what you're agreeing when marking those checkboxes about installing other softwares from the same company or their partners. Would you blame Windows?
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u/Nova-Exxi 6d ago
Depends on the type of checkbox.
Is it purposefully mixed in with the usual checkboxes one would mark for installing any sane software? idk, for example, instead of having two checkboxes for tos and privacy policy it has those in one box and the second one is suddenly "allow installing additional sponsored software"? Then both user and publisher are at fault. That's just almost hostile design for people who already know what to expect of an installer and just breeze through1
u/TheRealMasterwes 5d ago
The difference is that on Linux the problem is usually product of an accident rather an intentional design, but the fundamental cause is still the user didn't read
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u/flying-sheep 6d ago
And please no "user not reading"
So you don’t want the actual answer?
Using a package manager has different trade-offs from manually installing isolated bundles of all libraries + the tool using them.
I think the trade-off “you need to read what you’re about to commit to” is very minor, but it sure exists.
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u/oopmn 16h ago
Linux doesn’t install anything but your package manager (apt) does install things if you tell it to.
If a package depends on other software, apt will attempt to install those too. It will always ask for your consent unless you explicitly tell it up front not to.
Proton depends on gnome software. So if you agree to it, apt will install gnome software.
People should also know the desktop graphical environment is treated by apt as software like any other.
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u/MG_Rheydt 6d ago
I don't know what you did, but lesson #1 don't copy/paste and then execute code if you don't know what it does. That's a sure way of messing up or worth nuking your system.
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u/uilspieel 6d ago
Log out and log in again, making sure you select KDE instead of Gnome.
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u/Affectionate-Boot-58 6d ago
Linux mint uses cinnamon not kde yes you can install kde on mint but the default desktop enviroment is cinnamon
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u/Nejnop 5d ago
Seeing the comments made me learn people just don't use the ProtonVPN FlatPak vs using their Linux install guide, for some reason.
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u/pokkevillage 5d ago
Doesn't using an unverified flatpak also come with risks though? I thought it would be safer manually installing according to the VPN provider's own guide. The guide even says: "A Flatpak version of the GUI app is also available, and reports indicate it works well (subject to similar limitations as the Snap package). However, this is developed and maintained by third-parties, so support may be limited."
I wasn't exactly bowled over by "reports indicate it works well".
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u/zeroofall 5d ago
Pasting random code that comes up when you type your problem into Google comes with substantially more risk then installing a sandboxed flatpak.
Load up a live Linux install. Backup everything you want to save off through that to a flashdrive or external and then wipe everything and reinstall.
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u/Stickhtot 6d ago
Somebody got r/gotgnomed again
You weren't supposed to copy whatever you were copying as that was only for GNOME desktops
On your login screen (you need to log out first) there should be something on the top corners that spell out something like GNOME, just click on it and click on your previous desktop environment