How can I find which desktop enviroment I am using?

Question

as the title:

How can I find which desktop environment I am using?

I want to accomplish this using command line.

score 91 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 25 '12 at 14:23

91

And you can try $DESKTOP_SESSION for the DE.

answered Apr 25 '12 at 14:23

user55822

3,245

score 82 · Answer 2 · edited May 22 '20 at 07:34

82

This command seems to be useful:

ls /usr/bin/*session

in GNOME returns /usr/bin/gnome-session (and more)
in MATE returns /usr/bin/mate-session (and more)
in LXDE returns /usr/bin/lxsession (and more)
in JWM returns /usr/bin/icewm-session (should be jwm-session, not?!)

edited May 22 '20 at 07:34

Pablo Bianchi

17,371

answered Apr 15 '13 at 00:23

Nadiw

821
6
2

score 30 · Answer 3 · edited May 22 '20 at 07:33

I've tested the best tools I've found with:

a - GNOME under Linux Mint installed
b - GNOME under Linux Mint Live USB
c - MATE under Linux Mint
d - LXDE under Lubuntu
e - JWM under Puppy Linux (JWM is not a desktop environment but a stacking window manager).
f - XFCE under Debian Buster

Results

env | grep DESKTOP_SESSION= (so-so)

a & b - DESKTOP_SESSION=gnome
c - DESKTOP_SESSION=default.desktop
d - DESKTOP_SESSION=Lubuntu
e - Nothing
f - DESKTOP_SESSION=xfce

echo $GDMSESSION (so-so)

a & b - gnome
c - Nothing
d - Lubuntu
e - Nothing
f - xfce

pgrep -l "gnome|kde|mate|cinnamon|lxde|xfce|jwm" or ps -A | egrep -i "gnome|kde|mate|cinnamon|lxde|xfce|jwm" (well, but not perfect)
```
a & b - OK
c - OK
d - WRONG
e - Nothing & OK
f - OK
```

HardInfo (very well, but not perfect)

a - Nothing
b - GNOME 2.32.0
c - MATE
d - LXDE (Lubuntu)
e - Unknown (Window Manager: JWM)
f - XFCE

Conclusion

score 18 · Answer 4 · edited Apr 25 '12 at 14:38

18

For the window manager you can use:

sudo apt-get install wmctrl
wmctrl -m | grep "Name:" | awk '{print $2}'

edited Apr 25 '12 at 14:38

Yishu Fang

2,615

answered Apr 25 '12 at 14:10

Marius Balaban

417

score 10 · Answer 5 · edited Apr 14 '13 at 22:48

10

In a terminal or console, you can run:

pgrep -l "gnome|kde|mate|cinnamon"

or

ps -A | egrep -i "gnome|kde|mate|cinnamon"

The item that appears in more lines should be the answer

edited Apr 14 '13 at 22:48

Lucio

19,191
32
112
191

answered Apr 14 '13 at 19:29

Adesi

121
1
2

score 1 · Answer 6 · answered Apr 14 '13 at 18:34

You can run HardInfo. It's ready by default at least in Linux Mint; or you could install it (from Synaptic, ...).

You can run it a) from the main menu > Search box > hardinfo, or b) from the main menu > All applications > System Tools or Administration > System Information, or c) from the main menu > All applications > All > System Information, or d) from a terminal or console > hardinfo > Enter, or e) from the Run Application dialog (Alt+F2) > hardinfo > Enter.

Once HardInfo opens you just need to need to click on the "Operating System" item and look to the "Desktop Environment" line.

Nowadays, apart from GNOME and KDE, you could find MATE, Cinnamon, ...

How can I find which desktop enviroment I am using?

6 Answers6

Results

Conclusion

Linked

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