User Story: My KDE Plasma experiment and the Journey back to Zorin

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Recently, I was intrigued by a user story about the KDE Plasma environment and decided to try it out myself. I followed the installation guide on It's FOSS, and everything went smoothly. The Plasma environment impressed me with its speed and responsiveness. Even the Files app loaded without any noticeable lag -- a refreshing experience.

However, as I explored further, I realized that Zorin Connect -- an app I use frequently -- was no longer functional. This was a dealbreaker for me, and I decided to return to the Zorin environment.

The Challenge: Uninstalling KDE Plasma

Getting back to Zorin proved more challenging than expected. I followed the uninstallation guide from Trend Oceans, which provided clear steps. I also added an extra command I came across:

sudo apt remove plasma-desktop --autoremove

suggested

sudo dpkg-reconfigure gdm3

Unfortunately, after rebooting, I found myself at a bash login prompt instead of my familiar Zorin desktop. The gdm3 service wasn’t loading, and I was stuck in a terminal-only mode.

The Fix: Troubleshooting and Recovery

After logging in via the terminal, I attempted to restart and enable gdm3:

sudo systemctl start gdm3

This resulted in the following cryptic message:

Synchronising state of gdm3.service with SysV service script with /lib/systemd/systemd-sysv-install.
...
The unit files have no installation config...

Nevertheless, I could load gmd3 manually:

sudo systemctl enable gdm3

At this point, I was at a loss. Determined to get Zorin working again, I turned to ChatGPT for suggestions. The following commands saved the day:

sudo systemctl set-default graphical.target
sudo ln -s /lib/systemd/system/gdm3.service /etc/systemd/system/display-manager.service
sudo systemctl start gdm3

After running these, the gdm3 service started correctly, and upon rebooting, my Zorin desktop environment loaded flawlessly.

Conclusion

While the KDE Plasma environment was a fantastic experience in terms of performance and usability, the lack of Zorin Connect support made it impractical for my daily workflow. The journey back to Zorin taught me some lessons about managing display managers and troubleshooting Linux services. If you ever venture into experimenting with desktop environments, be prepared for some hiccups -- and don’t forget to document your steps along the way!

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I think the Problem was that You first uninstalled Plasma and then make the reconfigure of GDM3. It would be better if You would have done the reconfigure Command, reboot to test that it works and then the Plasma Uninstallation.

Because of Zorin Connect: On Plasma, You have KDE Connect. that is more or less the same. Wasn't this an Option fpr You?

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If you had installed KDE Connect on phone (Plasma comes with KDEConnect and SMS by default) this would not have been an issue. You would have had to uninstall Zorin Connect on your mobile device. I have actually had better connection using KDE Connect in Zorin!

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Q4OS Aquarius 5.27 (Rolling Release), Plasma 5.27, X11 not Wayland.

Just to add, some distributions don't use the annoying version of SDDM anymore, such as Q4OS, PCLinuxOS, and KDE neonuser:

IMG_20241209_205027
IMG_20241209_2050271920×1116 65.3 KB

You don't get an annoying onscreen keyboard at login like in earlier versions.

SysV (Init) does not work with Gnome. @Aravisian I believe replaced systemd with SysVInit on his xfce version of Zorin (Zorin Lite).

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A few more things made me want to switch back to the Wayland environment:

  1. Zorin Connect: Thanks for mentioning KDE Connect. I didn’t think about looking for an alternative to Zorin Connect, but it’s a good idea.
  2. On-Screen Keyboard at Login: The on-screen keyboard was annoying. I couldn’t figure out a reliable way to turn it off -- sometimes ESC worked, sometimes clicking outside or pressing ENTER. Later, I found this guide, which might help: How to Get Rid of the Virtual Keyboard on KDE Plasma Login Screen.
  3. Curiosity vs. Caution: I was excited to try KDE Plasma, but I started worrying about "what-if" scenarios, like running into other issues or forgetting the commands that got me there and not being able to go back to my original setup. That made me want to find out a way to return.
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Is there any way not to include SDDM, but sth else while installing KDE Plasma? It seems to come with SDDM as default.

Do you suggest that commands

sudo systemctl enable gdm3
sudo systemctl start gdm3
reboot

would take me to the original Wayland environment?

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To clarify: GDM3 is the Gnome Login Screen. So, when You have the Login Screen already back, You can there click on Your Profile so that the Password Field appears. And when the Password Field is appeared, you should see in the bottom right Corner a Gear Icon. And when You click on it, you get shown all the installed Desktop Environments and the Xorg and Wayland Sessions of it.

For Zorin, You normally should have 2:

  • Zorin Desktop
  • Zorin Desktop on Xorg

So, the first Option is the Wayland Session. On Zorin 17 this is the default Option.

So, when You would have first make a sudo dpkg-reconfigure gdm3 and choose in the Window gdm3 for login, you would get the Zorin Login Screen back (if the Zorin Desktop is still installed). Then You could have made a Reboot and land on this Login Screen, make like I described above and use the Zorin Wayland Session. And after that, you could uninstall the Plasma-Desktop. In this Way it shouldn't be neccessary to use these systemctl Commands.

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My bad, forgot you are relating to Zorin. The problem with Zorin is it only has Plasma 5.24 available natively. There is another user on here who has managed to use jammy jellyfish backports to get Plasma 6 installed on Zorin!

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