10

I have upgraded my Ubuntu 16.04 to 20.04 and have installed Xfce which I'd like to set as the default DE when logging into my system. However, everytime I login with Xfce and logout, Ubuntu forgets Xfce as the default DE and goes back to the option Ubuntu (Unity).

Following How do I set the default desktop environment on 18.04 (Bionic)?

I tried

sudo update-alternatives --config x-session-manager

in the terminal. However, what I get is

There are 3 choices for the alternative x-session-manager (providing /usr/bin/x-session-manager).

Selection    Path                    Priority   Status


0            /usr/bin/gnome-session   50        auto mode
  1            /usr/bin/gnome-session   50        manual mode
  2            /usr/bin/startxfce4      50        manual mode


    

  • 3            /usr/bin/xfce4-session   40        manual mode
    • 



Press <enter> to keep the current choice[*], or type selection number:

which apparently indicates that Xfce should be the default DE which is not the case. Any help would be appreciated.

Simon
  • 201

2 Answers2

7

When I upgraded to Ubuntu 22.04 LTS from the previous LTS I also had the issue where the default desktop stopped being Xfce. In my case, my /var/lib/AccountsService/users/<my-user-name> contained a Session property as well as the XSession property. The Session property was empty.

[User]
Session=
XSession=xfce

Setting Session=xfce made Xfce the default desktop environment for me again.

justincc
  • 81
4

check cat /var/lib/AccountsService/users/your-username. Make sure that XSession is set to xfce.

s3idani
  • 423