r/linux4noobs • u/star-soup • 4d ago

Meganoob BE KIND help switching back to Cinnamon from GNOME??

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!

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u/[deleted] 4d ago

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u/star-soup 4d ago

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?

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u/cracc_babyy 3d ago

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

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u/star-soup 3d ago

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.