Will I break anything if I switch from Cinnamon

[Kendoori]

My Thinkpad X230 has weird issues graphics wise, which appear to be related to my Intel i915 cards ability to handle transparency. It's intermittent and had gone away for a while, but a kernel update seems to have brought it back. I dropped the kernel back, but that didn't snuff the issue out. I'm now trying a different theme, which appears to have calmed things down. I am wondering whether there is just some toxicity between Cinnamon and my hardware setup.

Am thinking that Mate might behave differently. I don't want to rebuild my system and wondered whether trying out Mate with my setup can be done without significant pain.

Any feedback is appreciated.

[kyphi]

If you just want to see how the MATE edition functions, you could try a live version or install it in VirtualBox or dual boot.

To answer your question, if you would break anything, I would say, yes, lots. Best to do a clean install.

[deanr72]

Not an ideal solution but in similar cases I've simply dual-booted two linux OSs and gradually (i.e. over a week or two) made the second install behave as I wanted.

Once I'd got everything from one OS to the other I delete (or just shrink) the now obsolete OS.

At least this way there's very little danger of breaking anything and you'll always have one working OS should anything go a bit funky

[dogshed]

I used Software Manager to install Mate. I select it from the login screen.
This was suggested on a post I found *on the internet* and although I have some issues I don't think it's due to installing this way.

[kc1di]

It's best to use the live DVD or usb and test that way first. if all looks good do a clean install of Mate.

[lsemmens]

I hate to state the obvious here but...


BACKUP! BACKUP! BACKUP!


Always make a backup before you play with anything you think may bork your system.


Now. To your problem.

My thinking is - after you have backed everything up - blow it all away and load your new system. Then you can re-install what you need. Think of it like buying a new car. You generally don't keep the old one around "just in case" do you?