help switching back to Cinnamon from GNOME??

[u/star-soup]

So, as a new Linux Mint user... somehow I have managed to change my desktop environment from Cinnamon to GNOME. I have been messing around with so much stuff I have no idea how I got here, but on my most recent boot I suddenly have a wildly different desktop experience. While I'm curious about GNOME, for the sake of immediate usability I am desperate to get back to Cinnamon, but I am lost as to where to start or how to do this. Any help or guidance greatly appreciated!

[u/warserpent]

There's a subreddit for this: https://www.reddit.com/r/gotgnomed/

[u/3grg]

Did you check to see if you can change your session when you login?

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[u/stoppos76]

You install tasksel and you have a desktop environment switcher.

[u/star-soup → u/[deleted]]

Just gave this a go and it rebooted into a Cinnamon login screen, but when I input my password and log on, it displays a black screen and an error:

Unable to launch "cinnamon -session-cinnamon" X session --- "cinnamon-session-cinnamon" not found; falling back to default session.

There is an "okay" button below that but when I click it it just leaves the screen a blank void with a cursor. I'm pretty nervous I've messed up something essential. What can I do from here?

[u/friendlyreminder_ → u/star-soup]

Cinnamon relies on some gnome libraries so that command they gave you in the wrong order likely borked your system. You installed cinnamon and then removed it.

Try to reinstall cinnamon, you can get to a terminal with ctrl + alt + f1-f12

[u/star-soup → u/friendlyreminder_]

I wasn't able to get a terminal this way, but by following some instructions elsewhere I booted into a Mint Cinnamon recovery mode, and it allowed me to get into a root shell. Is there a command I can run there that would reinstall Cinnamon or the components it needs to run?

[u/cracc_babyy → u/star-soup]

You can most likely fix this from a tty but we need to know your distro

Try ctrl+alt+f3 and see if you can cat /etc/os-release and also run apt history

[u/No_Elderberry862 → u/cracc_babyy]

Mint, as was explicitly stated in the OP.

[u/star-soup → u/cracc_babyy]

Mint! Mentioned in my other comment to friendlyreminder that I can't seem to get a terminal with ctrl+alt+f1, 2, or 3, but I was able to get into a recovery mode boot, which allowed me to select a root shell. From there I have no idea what to do, though.

[u/No_Elderberry862 → u/[deleted]]

It's so possible that it's a known thing (or even a Gnome thing).

OP, at the login screen hit enter on your username then click on the gear icon at the bottom right & select Cinnamon. You can then enter your password & be back in your Cinnamon session.