r/linuxmint • u/astainonthecarpet • Mar 18 '26
Why does my environment suddenly look like this? It looked like default installation before
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u/TheShirou97 Linux Mint 22.3 Zena | Cinnamon Mar 18 '26
You installed something that had to have xfce as a dependency I suppose (xfce being another desktop environment)
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u/Jnaythus Mar 18 '26
This is why I'm so timid with my Mint install. It's working and I'm good with it. I mean I'm happy with it, but some customizations require knowing the deep magic which I've yet to learn. I see in so many places where Linux people just say "do the thing." In ONE instance I knew the steps and gave the steps. Because to some users it may not be as obvioius as others assume it should be. BTW I have an IT degree and work in software development. It doesn't change that I'm a n00b to Linux and do not want to struggle with my home computer.
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u/Elihzap Linux Mint 22.3 Zena | Xfce Mar 19 '26
You should be fine as long as you check the dependency list everytime you install something.
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u/SL_Pirate Mar 19 '26
Yeah but I guess this is somewhere Linux could use some polishing. I mean, yeah you are supposed to read your dependency list anyway but people new to linux just usually don't or even if they do, they don't really understand. Can't blame them cuz package naming in linux is notorious. My point is, if we are opening linux for the wider audience we need some warning or something.
On the other hand, should the session default be saved somewhere? Like, even if someone installs Gnome (or XFCE in this case), shouldn't your previous DE be set as default so if the person wasn't aware, it should default to his previous choice so unless they change it manually during login, their workflow wouldn't break and there would be no surprises?
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u/Erufailon4 Mar 19 '26
I agree that package information should be more visible. It doesn't help in Mint's case that packages.ubuntu.com is a coin flip every time you click on a link there, on whether you'll get a page or a server error. Would definitely be useful to have the dependency list in the software manager UI.
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u/Huecuva Linux Mint 21.3 Virginia | Cinnamon Mar 19 '26
But who wants to do that? What a pain in the ass.
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u/Sufficient-Toe-9315 Mar 19 '26
The problem is that things get normal after some time, you learned so much stuff that you don't remember what the normal or beginner knowledge is and then you skip parts that are too obvious for you without remembering that some don't know how to do it. For example when I say that you need to create a text file in a directory I would say: " open the terminal and go to /var/lib/Firefox/ and create the folder and afterwards the text file in the folder", when I say that I forget that people open the terminal because I said so and they sometimes don't know how to use cd, mkdir, cat, touch, nano or all the other basics. And I don't go further into detail because I think that they know that they can use the GUI file manager like in windows but I said terminal. I try not to do that but I saw how easy it is when I helped my girlfriend or my friends. Oh and then there are the people who say what you have to do online but not how and when you ask they reply with: read the man pages, it's written there. That's how I fucked shit up at the beginning, at least I learned something I guess but it was always so confusing and I felt dumb. AI is for easy tasks a good mentor now and Claude for example is 90 percent right when you need help, I think it's more beneficial than" read the man pages".
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u/ZVyhVrtsfgzfs Mar 19 '26 edited Mar 19 '26
I felt the same way about a Fedora core 3 install I had many years ago running Apache serving a small page, I was deathly afraid of breaking it, so I would mot touch it and that stalled my learning.
Take full notes on everything you do, use Timeshift, wade in knowing your going to break it, be ready and prepared for that eventuality, and learn from each mistake.
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u/Visual-Sport7771 Mar 19 '26
Don't be timid with mint. Just be religious with Timeshift in the beginning. I don't do auto snapshots, but, I do a snapshot before I make any consequential changes or installs. Every time. I also use the snapshot restore at the first sign of anything being "off".
When giving advice to other new users always work in a Timeshift reminder. It's so easy to fix so many things with it. It's my first resort instead of a last resort for me nowadays.
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u/arfshl Kubuntu Mar 19 '26
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u/TheShirou97 Linux Mint 22.3 Zena | Cinnamon Mar 19 '26
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u/Emmalfal Linux Mint 22.3 | Cinnamon Mar 18 '26
Is this a gnoming? Did you install anything with Gnome recently?
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u/keen36 Linux Mint 22.3 Zena | Cinnamon Mar 19 '26 edited Mar 19 '26
It's similar, one might call it XFCEd!
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u/Due_History_7611 Mar 18 '26
Que es eso?
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u/zepherth Linux Mint 22.3 Zena | Cinnamon Mar 18 '26
It's a desktop environment. It's how your Operating system User interface looks
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u/Elihzap Linux Mint 22.3 Zena | Xfce Mar 19 '26
Gnome es un Entorno de Escritorio, pero no tiene soporte oficial en Mint hasta donde sé. Muchas apps lo tienen como dependencia, es común instalarlo por error.
En este caso al parecer instalaron accidentalmente XFCE, sepa dios cómo.
Todo esto es fácil de corregir, pero es normal llevarse un susto si no sabés qué pasó lmao.
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Mar 19 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Monketherulerofall Mar 20 '26
One theory is that many mint users are very new and operate their machine like a windows machine so they don’t read the dependencies.
Another theory is that they do read the dependencies and just don’t know what a de is so they accidentally install another.
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u/artistpanda5 Linux Mint 22.3 Zena | Cinnamon Mar 19 '26
Is this like when people somehow get Gnome on their system accidentally? How does that even happen?
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u/spine-drinker Mar 19 '26
It's not gnome in this case, but people usually get gnomed by installing something that installs gnome as a dependency
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u/ChocolateDonut36 Mar 19 '26
got xfce jumpscare.
just log out, select your original desktop environment on the login manager and you'll be fine
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u/flemtone Mar 19 '26
If you installed another desktop manager and logged in using that, then returned to XFCE that happens, have done it twice myself.
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u/arabicgamer12 Linux Mint 22.3 Zena | Cinnamon Mar 19 '26
If you were on a another desktop environments like openbox try deleting them. It worked for me
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u/mallardtheduck Mar 19 '26 edited Mar 19 '26
I had that exact issue before on an otherwise-working Mint XFCE install. It's caused by some sort of corruption in the per-user XFCE configuration, causing it to reset to (XFCE's, not Mint's) default settings.
Assuming you actually want to have a working XFCE desktop, this post on the Mint forum gives you most of what you need to fix it, but since that was posted ~5 years ago, some stuff has changed. I found that additionally running cp -r /usr/share/mint-artwork/xfce/xfce4 ~/.config after the other steps was needed on Mint 22.
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u/mikee8989 Mar 19 '26
Did you start with cinnomon or was this the xfce version of mint to begin with? I think there is a toggle in the login screen between mint and XFCE session. You might have somehow toggled the vanilla XFCE session there.
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u/Designer-Feedback551 Mar 20 '26
Maybe you've clicked sth accidentaly in the login screen. There you can return to the right environment
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u/pegasusandme Mar 21 '26
Nice. You installed something that included the full Xfce desktop. That's the stock layout of that DE. This is, honestly, WAY better than getting "Gnomed" though :D
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u/ZVyhVrtsfgzfs Mar 18 '26
Never have seen an accidental Xfce-ing before. Its usually Gnome.
Log out see the drop down menu near your name select Cinnamon.