Hello all!
What is the preferred way to delete one pattern (Gnome 42) and install a new pattern (KDE )
I tried this from the GUI the other day, but there was so much that wasn’t removed, so when i rebooted, the system still went into Gnome.
I would very very much like to be able to (more or less) painlessly remove Gnome and install KDE (even if i have to reinstall or replace some programs). As long as my home directory isnt touched!
Thank you for your time.
Best regards,
/Rafgas
Why do you want to remove Gnome. Just add KDE and use it.
I have both Gnome and KDE installed. It works just fine.
On the login screen, you can select Gnome or KDE (and perhaps some other choices).
Maybe your system is set for auto-login. In that case, logout from your desktop and you should get a login screen. And then select KDE. And that should become the default for future auto-login.
Patterns work in one direction. Patterns are not aliases for the collection of packages. If pattern A requires package B, then installing A will also install B, but removing A will not cause B to be removed (it is perfectly legal to remove pattern but keep installed packages).
There is no straightforward way to request removal of all packages that (would) have been installed due to installation of some pattern.
There is no perfect solution to undoing installation of pattern gnome, but the following is close to one: zypper rm --dry-run --clean-deps ‘gnome-*’ removes 309 packages vs 319 packages being installed previously.
I understand now, i thought it worked both way.
Thank you all!
The question is still: Why do you want to remove Gnome? I see no reason to spoil time about that.
I well, I have no real reason, bloat? 
Then leave it as it is. Many have four or five DEs installed and their users only use one or two of them. I guess there is a lot more software you never use. when you want to get rid of that “as being bloat”, you better reserve a considerable amount of time and effort for it.
All right, I’ve always been someone who ends up running out of disk space, so i was mostly thinking about disk-space management.
Normally a desktop software install does not really eat much space when you have the recommended minimum size for your root partition and when you have application data (like databases, web-sites, etc.) and user data on other partitions.
But of course do know nothing about your mass-storage set-up.
Only the one partition (installed Opensuse tumbleweed at the end of 2021, went with the standard layout from the installer) for my system.
Oh yes, isn’t that including /home nowadays? Not my favorite because users can then fill up the / partition (mostly unintentionaly by some mischief). blocking the whole system. But that I my personal feeling.