How to install openSUSE Tumbleweed with the Cinnamon desktop and lightDM

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The instructions that follow tell how I installed Tumbleweed with the Cinnamon desktop and lightdm on several computers. I never would have gotten this far without the help of regular forum contributors tsu2 and Miuku. This post distills tips they offered in a thread this summer:

https://forums.opensuse.org/showthread.php/526458-Selection-of-Cinnamon-desktop-with-new-installation/page2?

and some I figured out on my own. Thank you, tsu2 and Miuku! I wouldn’t be a Tumbleweed user today without your help.

I hope that these instructions will soon be obsolete. Other desktops can be easily installed from the Tumbleweed DVD. This is what I had to go through to get Cinnamon with lightdm in Tumbleweed in September and October of 2017.

  • Install from the DVD until you reach this screen (clipped from a test installation in Virtual Box):

https://i.imgur.com/z50zi9L.png

[FONT=Verdana]* Click Configure Online Repositories, Next to accept defaults and Next at the License Agreement screen.

  • You’re now back at the User Interface screen above. Click Custom to reach the screen below:

https://i.imgur.com/R73nXIZ.png
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana][FONT=Verdana]* Select X Window System. Next, click Details, then Search.

  • In the Search box, enter and select cinnamon , as in the screen below.

https://i.imgur.com/NK4YPqW.png
[/FONT][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana][FONT=Verdana]* Click Accept, then Continue. The installation routine will take you to the Create New User screen. [/FONT][/FONT][FONT=Verdana][FONT=Verdana]You’re not ready for this screen quite yet! Click Back to return to the Software Selection and System Tasks screen. Click Details, Search and input lightdm, as in the screen below:[/FONT]

https://i.imgur.com/OqiWl3T.png
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]I also select lightdm-slick-greeter, which includes an openSUSE branding. (As can be seen at: https://i.imgur.com/IKpIXJP.png )

Click Accept and Continue to return to the Create New User screen. Follow the prompts to complete installation.

[/FONT]* To hide username at login with lightdm, create the file /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf .

[Seat:*]
allow-guest=false
greeter-hide-users=true
greeter-show-manual-login=true
greeter-session=slick-greeter

  • Configure Cinnamon themes and applets as you see fit. I was grateful to find gnome-colors-icon-theme through Yast.
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The SUSE branded slick-greeter log-in screen:

https://i.imgur.com/IKpIXJP.png

3

This method also worked for Leap 42.3 (at least for me).

4

Those unhappy with the SUSE branded slick-greeter log-in screen wallpaper may tailor log-in screens of their own by creating an additional configuration file: /etc/lightdm/slick-greeter.conf

An example:

[Greeter]
background=/usr/share/wallpapers/yourwallpaper.jpg

Additional configuration information: https://github.com/linuxmint/slick-greeter

A longer sample configuration file: https://github.com/manjaro/packages-community/blob/master/lightdm-slick-greeter/slick-greeter.conf

5

For those suffering looping Cinnamon crashes at log-in in spring, 2018, please see thread: https://forums.opensuse.org/showthread.php/531075-Zypper-Dup-kills-Cinnamon-desktop

6

Please also see: https://forums.opensuse.org/showthread.php/531715-Zypper-Dup-to-20180615-snapshot-again-kills-Cinnamon-desktop , related to:

https://bugzilla.opensuse.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1091701 . Expect to suffer if you try to install Cinnamon in Tumbleweed before this bug is addressed.

7

Tumbleweed snapshot 20180625 seems to have solved the problem described in post #6. As of today, at least, I believe these instructions will successfully install Cinnamon in both Tumbleweed and Leap 15.

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As I can’t delete this post, I feel obligated to mention that I have abandoned Cinnamon-in-Tumbleweed for KDE Plasma, and now wish that I had installed a standard Tumbleweed desktop in the first place. I remain grateful to the forum regulars who helped me configure a system with Cinnamon. Their intentions were the best; they only hoped to help me.

A standard Tumbleweed configuration lets the user choose between KDE Plasma, Gnome and xFCE. I presume that openSUSE will support these choices over the long haul. If something goes awry after an update of related components, the openSUSE team will take steps promptly to remedy matters and make the desktop right again.

My experience strongly suggests that Cinnamon doesn’t have that kind of support. If it weren’t for the generous efforts of one maintainer – who thought she had turned over Cinnamon responsibilities some years ago – Cinnamon might not now be maintained in Tumbleweed at all. I have dealt recently with more Cinnamon-related grief in Tumbleweed than with all other issues combined.

For anyone who also has run into problems after following the tips in this post to install Cinnamon in Tumbleweed: if it’s any consolation, I’ve sat in the same figurative boat with you while the water leaks in. I have lost count of how many times updates booted to looping iceWM crashes.

I presume, but don’t know, that Cinnamon in Leap is more reliable.

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That may well be correct.

It’s important to remember that opensuse is very much dependent on volunteers.