Hello All,
I just installed Zorin on my HP Envy laptop yesterday.
When I reboot it bring up the default Ubuntu Desktop.
The only way to get back to where I want I have to choose the "Zorin Desktop Wayland"
Is there a way to set that as the default so that I don't have to keep choosing the one I want?
Thanks!
Hi,
Can you clarify what do you mean by Ubuntu Desktop? Maybe take a screenshot?
At first I thought you meant the layout (which you can choose through Zorin Appearance), but I'm not sure how using Wayland affects that, or why you even have to select it since it should be the default already.
When he says Ubuntu Desktop, he means a customized GNOME desktop enviroment, so he's referring to something like this:
In Zorin OS, it looks like the regular Zorin OS environment in Wayland. I should know, I've done something like this before.
To change your default environment on boot, simply click on the settings icon on the lock screen (the one for when you boot up your computer) and select Zorin Desktop on Wayland
You make that on the Login Screen, yes? And when You have there the ''Zorin Desktop'' Option, is there an Ubuntu Option, too?
I find @zenzen's Question relevant because this could help to find out if it is a Layout Issue or a Desktop Environment Issue.
But the Ubuntu desktop does not come installed with Zorin OS, so I'm wondering if this has been installed separately or not. I seem to remember similar threads about this but I cannot find any right now.
We also need to explain why Wayland needs to be explicitly selected when it should be the default. If the laptop has an Nvidia card, maybe it can explain the fallback to X11. However, this wouldn't explain the layout shift, as Zorin OS works fine under X11, so we have two seemingly unrelated issues.
That's why I'd like to clarify if this is just a layout shift with one of the available options in Zorin Appearance, or does the Ubuntu desktop actually loads up for some reason.
From this comment, I gather that @craigbert has already gone through the user login window and select the Wayland option. I wonder if it's maybe disabled somewhere else; could you check this thread (in this case, to do the opposite)?
Thanks for the reply @zenzen.
What I mean by that is that the initial Desktop Environment that loads or presents the login screen is the one you would normally see for standard Ubuntu.
There is a little circle to the left of the login that I can click on and select the Zorin Desktop.
I don't want to have to make that choice each time I login so I would like to know how to set Zorin as the default.
Thanks for the reply.
Yes, you are correct.
Yes, I found how easy it is to select the Desktop Environment I want after the computer has booted, but I don't want to have to make that choice each time. I would rather Zorin be the default as opposed to Ubuntu.
Any idea how I might go about changing that?
This sounds like you are seeing the GDM Login screen and that it is the Ubuntu rather than the Zorin OS one.
Which... It should be the Zorin OS GDM3 screen. If that is the case, either you have a partial or corrupted install of Zorin OS.
I would recommend a full and fresh reinstall of Zorin OS, rather than trying to modify a system that clearly has that kind of corruption.
The other possibility is that you tried to upgrade to Ubuntu using the direct upgrade option at one point or tried installing Ubuntu at some point.
Can I do that without losing my data? It has taken a painfully long time to restore it all.
@Ponce-De-Leon
I am at work right now and will not be able to post any screen shots until lunch time (about 4.5 hours from now).
The Ubuntu option is the default.
If your data is stored on a Storage Drive with the OS on a system drive, then it should not be painful. If it is all on one drive and it is a lot of data, then the waiting to backup the data and waiting to move it onto the fresh install may be painful.
Without knowing more, it is hard to give a better answer than that.
Can I just uninstall the Ubuntu desktop then?
Surely there is a way to edit the config of the GDM3 so that Zorin desktop is the default choice?
Yes to both.
It remains unclarified in this thread as to whether or not you experimentally installed the Ubuntu Desktop or tried to use the Direct Upgrade to install Ubuntu of a higher version.
If you had, it can be cleaned up - maybe. If you tried the Direct Upgrade, there is the risk of residual problems. That is a choice only you can make.
If you did not install anything or try to upgrade using the Ubuntu option - then my recommendation stands. However, the choice still remains yours to proceed knowing the risks.
Run the following in terminal
sudo apt install --reinstall zorin-os-desktop
sudo dpkg-reconfigure gdm3
Select GDM3 at the prompts.
Once confirmed and you exit the prompts, check that the Zorin OS theme is the one in use:
sudo nano /etc/gdm3/greeter.dconf-defaults
It should look similar to:
[org/gnome/login-screen]
logo='/usr/share/icons/hicolor/scalable/apps/zorin-os-logo-symbolic.svg'
theme-name='ZorinGrey-Dark'
If it does or shows your preferred (not Ubuntu) theme, then reboot and test.
Fair enough. I suspect I installed it as part of some instructions I found trying to get RDHP working. I was trying to find some way to restore data from Windows machine to my Zorin laptop. It was late and I was not paying attention to the details. And for the record I never got that working.
If I can find the link to the instructions I will post them here so that all can see the path I went down, if that is helpful.
In this case, I would suspect that repairing your system is safe enough to proceed instead of worrying enough to consider reinstalling. The steps I gave above should solve the immediate problem - The following should help you remove the residual Ubuntu Desktop Environment components without breaking anything Gnome related:
sudo apt remove ubuntu-desktop ubuntu-session
sudo apt clean && sudo apt autoremove
IF any issues after - just run the sudo apt install --reinstall zorin-os-desktop again. Or just run the above command in this post, then run the commands in the previous post after running this one.
Thanks. I will give this a try later and report back here.
This was the key. LightDM had been set somehow so switching to gdm resolved it.
THANK YOU to everyone ~ this has been a good learning exercise.
It must have sneak somehow as a dependency to some other installation. I just checked and it's definitely not installed by default with Zorin OS 17 Core 
Yeah, I am 100% sure it is because of my futzing around and trying to get RDHP to work.