Nice one @guiverc!
I don’t want this thread to go off-topic but I’ve seen that you mention your multi-desktop install here and somewhere else, and I would really like to know more about how is it done. Different sessions on one Ubuntu? Different Ubuntus on one computer? As I’ve got two old computers, Xubuntu on one and Ubuntu MATE on the other (which is dying) and I would really like to keep both flavors and explore others. I would really appreciate your advice on this subject, thanks.
I moved the question to its own thread, so that issue should be resolved 
I’ll start with Why I did it…
Decades ago when I had simple DSL with a small monthly quota, my ISP (iinet) had what they called freezone, or a list of sites/streams (very minimal) which you could visit/watch/listen where bandwidth wasn’t counted, and included their FTP mirror which was an official CD mirror for Ubuntu at the time… That mirror offered Ubuntu Desktop & Server ISOs, so that is what I installed.
I always installed one of those (eg. Ubuntu Desktop), switch the archive site used to also be the ISPs mirror, then would login to text terminal and apt remove ubuntu-desktop and then install the flavor desktop I wanted to try out (eg. apt install xubuntu-desktop) with the package changes being bandwidth quota free due to my using the freezone mirror for downloads. This allowed me explore lots of unusual flavor switches.
I got lazy, and just stopped removing the older desktop, thus my install became multi-desktop, with my selecting which session I’ll use today when I login. (Technically multi-desktop installs wasn’t new for me; I’d been doing it with Debian for years; having first used Debian GNU/Linux before the Ubuntu project even started; you’ve been using Ubuntu I think longer than I have I read earlier this morning, it was part me also exploring the new-to-me Ubuntu)
I was using a Lubuntu session (LXQt desktop) when I saw your (Xubuntu) Post your desktop post (this was moved from), so I just closed a couple of windows, logged out, selected Xubuntu as my session and entered my password, and I’d switched from using LXQt and a Lubuntu session to a Xubuntu session and Xfce desktop to get my screenshots.
This install was was made with Lubuntu media (though I often do need to check that out)
guiverc@d7050-next:~/snap$ cat /var/log/installer/media-info
Lubuntu 25.10 "Questing Quokka" - Daily amd64 (20250603)
after which I added ubuntu-desktop and tried to add xubuntu-desktop (or maybe didn’t add xubuntu-desktop & discovered a problem then; sorry I forget when this package issue arose on this install & don’t care enough to explore logs to confirm when …) but resolved that by using different metapackages to get Xfce installed, either then or shortly after (whenever issue appeared)
Ubuntu Desktop, Lubuntu have switched to dracut yet Xubuntu hasn’t, thus on this box if I
root@d7050-next:~# apt install xubuntu-desktop
The following package was automatically installed and is no longer required:
dracut-core
Use 'sudo apt autoremove' to remove it.
Installing:
xubuntu-desktop
.. snip ..
REMOVING:
dracut
so for now I’ve not got xubuntu-desktop installed here, just other Xfce metapackages; but that issue is newish, and hope that issue will be resolved prior to resolute’s release.
Whilst this install may not seem old given the ISO date (20250603) of install media (it was the current daily); that was a non-destructive install and the install actually contains much older data (some back to 2017 or artful cycle when I started using the development release)
(I treat it as a ~mid 2017 install; the box then a 2009 optiplex that was updated to current 2017 optiplex when the 2009 box’s PSU died; data was restored to current box but I don’t believe I restored everything)
This install is dual boot; it contains an ~unused Microsoft Windows 11 (box came with, shrunk to ~50GB) and two Ubuntu installs; this is my primary install which runs whatever release is in development, and my alternate system is a LTS (noble or 24.04). As the development release is unstable, if something breaks I’ll just reboot if I need to & use the LTS release that gets its packages updates etc about each fornight (10-15 days) when I force myself to reboot & switch/update it.
I have other boxes around, this is my newest box and is a 2017 dell optiplex, but my other hardware is much older than this. A second box I use in the evenings or when its hot (its under a ceiling fan) is a 2008 dell optiplex so it’s old Core2Quad with less RAM.
Another note with multi-desktop installs; the 2008 Dell has a Debian forky install (plus 3 Ubuntu releases!) with Debian offering me 16 session choices at login; which is most desktops for me to play with, and less than a year ago I had 26 session choices installed, but I trimmed down and removed the ones I just wasn’t using (most sessions are WMs, and not desktops).
I’ve been unable to bloat Ubuntu as heavily as Debian allows, and tend to stick to 3 flavors usually, or if I really want 4 on an install, I test out order of install sometimes to get the best result; which is what I did on my primary box back in 2017 when I set it up… I have written about it on an askubuntu question, but I didn’t find the answer I wanted; one like it can be read here, and issues encountered will be release specific, but its rare to expect issues on release-upgrade… in fact the dracut issue I’ve touched on in this ‘opus’ reply is the first real package issue I’ve encounted since my actual (as I see it) ~install in 2017.
If you wanted to have both Xubuntu (Xfce) & Ubuntu-MATE (MATE) on the same install; I’d expect no problems, as they’ll be pretty easy to manage together too (both are GTK based desktops; where as LXQt/KDE Plasma are Qt and there are some added complexities when GTK & Qt are involved)
If you have questions; ask… otherwise its me rambling on.
Thank you SO MUCH @guiverc!
If I could give you an award, I definitely would!
So for now here goes a Gold Medal:
I got myself into the GNU/Linux world thanks to Ubuntu, I think my first Ubuntu was 6.10, a couple years later I switched to Xubuntu, always on old computers, switched between these two every few years until 2018 when I found Ubuntu MATE which was my flavor for the next 4 years. Then I got back to Xubuntu.
I like Ubuntu, Xubuntu and Ubuntu MATE, so I will definitely be exploring multi-desktop installs.
I was afraid installing more than one desktop would screw up things, like mixing different desktop’s software on the same apps menu. I will definitely try it soon.
The only thing I’ve got to find out is if different desktops can share a “files” partition, as I’ve got music and videos and other documents that I use almost daily and I don’t want them replicated on every desktop’s home folder.
Thank you very much for taking the time to post such a detailed explanation!. And I really appreciate the ‘why’ and the whole story, that’s the best part of it all!
I do suggest you read the askubu link I gave; it included those desktops + Lubuntu too, and I touched on what I referred to as risk in there; second additional desktop I mentioned as “extremely minor risk”.
I’d always suggest trying it out on a box without your data that matters to you, eg. I use some of the boxes here only for Quality Assurance testing, the second machine I mentioned with 3 Ubuntu + a Debian install has data of mine only on the Debian partition; as the Ubuntu installs get re-installed for QA purposes every so often (the 25.04 install will soon be replaced by 26.04; but for now it’s still a support install should I need to test stuff on a 25.04 system).
If you don’t have a secondary box to test on, you can always use a VM, though if you have older hardware a VM can sometimes be slow.
I do regularly use this (my primary) box for testing stuff so I can comment on support questions, but there is risk to that… I mentioned re-installing this install using a 20250603 daily, which was only done because I’d used the box in what I considered was a perfectly safe thing I could back out from (I did expect it to fail, but did it so I could reply to a end-user in a support query), but I was wrong, and damage was left here on this system so my assessment was flawed… The re-install didn’t actually fix anything anyway; except it gave me a little more detail which allowed me to find the cause (indirectly; my unseen damage I’d failed to consider was finally discovered) which I fixed myself post-re-install anyway.
FYI: The non-destructive re-install I talked about here but note it’s not ideal for 24.04 ISOs using ubuntu-desktop-installer which Ubuntu Desktop (23.04 & later), Xubuntu & Ubuntu-MATE use for 24.04 & later… for now three flavors still use calamares which is what I used to re-install this multi-desktop install.
I’m not sure what you’re meaning here, but as this multi-desktop install is a single install, any file in my $HOME (~) directory is available regardless of which DE or WM session I’m using, ie. if I opened clementine in GNOME, Xfce, or LXQt (or other choice I have) it’ll continue from whatever playlist it was last played with, even if it was last used on a different desktop (different session), as all its configs are identical being stored in my $HOME or /home/guiverc directory, music files in $HOME/favorites/ are available to all…
guiverc@d7050-next:~/snap$ echo $HOME
/home/guiverc
A lot of my files are on network shares, those are defined in my file system table (ie. /etc/fstab) so those are likewise available identically to any desktop/session I login with.
I’m using my Lubuntu session right now, but the biggest change from NOW to when I was using the Xubuntu (Xfce) session that I can think of is how my media key on my second keyboard works; in Lubuntu when I press the PLAY button my music player (clementine currently) will toggle PLAY/PAUSE… and if I had vlc running it would not be touched… Both GNOME & Xfce treat the media buttons differently to how it’s setup with Lubuntu/LXQt, and whilst I could change that; I’ve left it default as it better allows me to discover problems & thus report them to other Lubuntu team members (I’m on that team).
( FYI: it may help readability if you ignore the second keyboard or read it as keyboard, but the keyboard I’m typing on now doesn’t have media keys; I have to hit the key on a second keyboard which I normally use when standing )
Addendum:
The music player showing in my Lubuntu screens is clementine (open apps on panel), or my usual music player… When I logged out and logged back into Xubuntu to get that screenshot, you won’t see clementine selected but audacious which I do also like…
The reason I actually chose audacious whilst running Xubuntu/Xfce was purposely so I’d get a different music track playing, rather than have the same track continue to play, as it would have continued from the same spot with a longish pause whilst I was logged out & before I restarted the app after logging again, and I decided I didn’t want that, but actually wanted to hear something different. The setup & config for both apps is identical in both sessions, as they’re both using the same files in my $HOME directory.
Great! I thought every session would create its own Home directory, but from what you say I see this is not the case.
I will try a multi-desktop install ASAP and I’ll let you know.
Hey @guiverc, I did it, right now I’m on Ubuntu MATE desktop installed on my Xubuntu 24.04.3 system
I installed everything through Synaptic, as I do 9 out of 10 times.
It went well, but I had to install some other packages manually; MATE desktop loaded fine, but I got error messages because of Brisk menu and trash applet unable to load, and there were no indicators except for network manager.
No big deal, as I figured it out and installed additional packages… but seems odd to me that Brisk menu and trash applet were not in the default installation as the desktop calls for those two items as soon as it loads for the very first time. 
I left Brisk menu out and installed Classic Menu (Apps, Places, System), also Indicator Applet complete which somehow was missing the clock, so I added the standalone clock.
I’m not complaining, not at all, just stating my experience so anyone who’s willing to install a 2nd desktop knows that there might be a few bumps in the road, nothing wrong, nothing difficult, just gotta work a little bit to get everything you want.
This is my first time doing something like this, I had some irrational fear that I would screw up, so I did it both to kick that fear away and to learn, it’s been a great experience so far, everything seems to be working well.
if you install ubuntu-mate-desktop then Ubuntu – Details of package ubuntu-mate-desktop in noble should show what you’d expect to install; BUT that can be altered by recommended packages option you have set in Synaptic Preferences, ie. my resolute release presents the option as “Consider recommended packages as dependencies”. An install from ISO will install everything for a normal install (no-recommends maybe closer to a minimal install though; but that I’d also expect to be release/ISO specific). View Settings->Preferences in synaptic to see/change your current settings; that maybe what determines what you go, versus maybe what you expect.
We all screw things up… but many of us learn more in the fixes we need to do post-screw-up anyway.
Well done, & continue to have fun.
