How to install GUI desktop environment on Ubuntu Linux 14.04 LTS (Trusty Thar)

This article will describe multiple procedures on how to install various GUI desktop environments on Ubuntu Linux 14.04 LTS (Trusty Thar). The article assumes that no desktop manager nor display manager is currently installed on your system. Furthermore, If the display manager needs to be installed explicitly we will install lightweight XDM. In case that you require different display manager simply replace xdm package listed in below commands with some alternatives such as GDM, KDM, lightdm etc.

UNITY

$ sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop

GNOME

$ sudo apt-get install ubuntu-gnome-desktop

KDE

$ sudo apt-get install kubuntu-desktop

How to install KDE desktop on ubuntu linux

Cinnamon

Select cinnamon session before login.

#  sudo apt-get install software-properties-common
#  sudo add-apt-repository ppa:lestcape/cinnamon
#  sudo apt-get update
#  sudo apt-get install cinnamon xdm

How to install cinnamon desktop on ubuntu linux

Xfce

$ sudo apt-get install xfce4 xdm

Mate

$ sudo apt-get install software-properties-common
$ sudo apt-add-repository ppa:ubuntu-mate-dev/ppa
$ sudo apt-add-repository ppa:ubuntu-mate-dev/trusty-mate
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install mate-desktop-environment xdm xserver-xorg

LXDE

$ sudo apt-get install lxde lxdm