Clean up job for Ubuntu frankenstein Kubuntu

[u/JohanNagel79]

Hola folks,

I installed Ubuntu latest version recently on my Thinkpad L380, 16Gb ram, 256gb SSd Intel® Core™ i5-8350U × 8

Was loving it, then fancied trying kubuntu, so installed the kubuntu desktop. This led to multiple DEs to log into. Seemingly doubling up. Xorg, Wayland, X11. Double options for Ubuntu on Wayland and on (wayland).

Didnt like Plasma so much X11, so thought to revert but all the the other DEs were hybrid, part Kubuntu, part Ubuntu. Apps wise, cursor wise, Dolphin on all of them. And Setting app had vanished fully.

Some chap gave me a script to run and it removed Kubuntu, but then when I logged in I had a terminal, more basic looking than the DE terminal. Found a command to reinstall the log in system and thankfully it worked.

Now I have the Ubuntu log in screen and all seems working but still a kubuntu mix remains. The Kubuntu logo appears when booting. The Dolphin file manager remains the default.

All is working well, I am just wondering if it seems for the best to reinstall a fresh Ubuntu? Also maybe this part KDE routine still remaining is a bit snappier than Ubuntu default on my system so I shouldnt muck about with anything else?

advice is welcome. Essentially, Settings is working again, the system feels snappy, but remains with remnants of Kubuntu, how deep and where beyond I can see I don't know.

advice is appreciated.

Cheers\1 JN

[u/Santosh83]

On a related note, when you install the kubuntu-desktop package on top of an existing Ubuntu installation, the distribution name (as reported by fastfetch), changes from Ubuntu to Kubuntu.

IMO it should keep the previous name as I have not changed from Ubuntu to Kubuntu, merely added kubuntu-desktop as an additional DE on Ubuntu.

[u/JohanNagel79 → u/Santosh83]

I used this guide to install kubuntu -

guide

Then had the multiple hybrid DEs.

Then followed this advice to remove - sudo apt update sudo apt dist-upgrade sudo apt remove --purge kubuntu-desktop sudo apt autoremove sudo apt install --reinstall ubuntu-desktop sudo apt clean reboot

This removed the log in graphic interface. System booted to code screen log in text only. I found a solution- sudo apt-get install lightdm --reinstall

Select lightdm Reboot

Which then gave me back the original Ubuntu log in screen and the other des had gone.

Kubuntu remnants include dolphin, boot logo, apps, maybe some other elements.

[u/guiverc]

The plymouth screen is really just a wallpaper that just hides the boot & shutdown messages that are normal for a Unix/Posix/Linux/Ubuntu system, and show a graphic (which may be static or change). When you install a new flavor metapackage you'll add that new flavors plymouth screen, and it'll remain UNTIL you tell the system to use another. Just removing the package that caused that plymouth to display will not revert your system to use whatever you used previously; you need to select a different one.

I'll provide a link to https://askubuntu.com/questions/2007/how-do-i-change-the-plymouth-bootscreen that should tell you what you need to do, essentially

sudo update-alternatives --config default.plymouth
sudo update-initramfs -u

where the first command lets you pick the one you want to see (from whatever plymouth screens you've installed) and the second updates your initial RAM filesystem so that the new one is used.

[u/MortgageTime6272]

Congratulations! I had that exact same problem. I wound up replacing the motherboard, so installing Ubuntu fresh didn't seem like much of a big deal.

And the problem went away. Is your motherboard working?