Installing WM without DE bloat

Synaptic

So I've been thinking of reinstalling Solus and only install a WM. As we don't have a bare metal ISO it's kind of difficult to start from the bottom, but what would be the best way/best ISO to start off to install a WM and start deleting most of DE related pkgs?

elfprince

Synaptic sudo systemctl set-default multi-user.target, then verify by
systemctl get-default

and reboot. Do not need to remove anything.
P.S. This assumes that you have already installed and set up the WM, and the .xinitrc . Use startx after login.

viyoriya

Just remove the lightDM and start your xorg server using .xintrc with your fav WM

Synaptic

elfprince What do the commands actually do out of sheer curiosity?

George

Minimal packages for your system https://gist.githubusercontent.com/Drsheppard01/a36b8ac69c23f78967630e93d3daa591/raw/6ad04240cc1362006b91893b4791a7365c10ec4c/packagessolus Budgie DE installed. 582 packages

elfprince

Synaptic I think it allows you to run Window Managers which are not possible to run along with lightdm.
To get back to running your original DE, use sudo systemctl set-default graphical.target command.

Perhaps it is best if you stick with the DE that you have installed, for I suspect that you do not have much experience in Linux/Unix 'craft'. Don't want you to break your system. 😀

Synaptic

elfprince Well tbh its not that I don't have "experience" but it's not exactly the type of problem I ever had when running Arch as it works in a little bit of a different way. I'm planning to scrap lightdm and install Ly which from VM tests it works fine.

Normally what I really want to do is delete anything related to the DE and it's apps and have a fresh start without the bloat of things I will never use. What I'm worried about is if I go ahead and do remove desktop.kde (or other) will it be causing me any problems.

elfprince

Synaptic Yes, I don't know how safe or possible it is to remove the DE that was installed, without breaking things. I hope it works out for you. Please share with us how it goes.

Staudey

Synaptic Yeah, removing most of our DEs is not a use-case we're going to actively support (unless where it doesn't cost us additional effort). There might be dependency chains that are sensible in the context of our DEs, but when you start removing too much it will cause unexpected failures. You are of course free to experiment as you like. Be sure to take careful note of what you remove though.

Synaptic

Okay from the VM testing... Everything seems to work fine. Ly recognises Sway without a problem, Ly logins in fine. Audio works fine and all. I guess I might move it to my desktop later in December and fully experience it.