I purged any packages related to xfce on Debian, and when I rebooted the login screen was still there. Upon login, there was only the wallpaper and a right click context menu available. Launching terminal emulator or Zutty closes them instantly. Tried booting into safe mode as well, makes no difference. How do I boot into a terminal or wipe xfce? Default root is disabled.
(sudo still works on one account)
How do I boot into a terminal
Start with the kernel command-line option rescue (also known as single – the "single-user" mode). Debian uses GRUB, so press e at the boot menu to edit the kernel command line; add the option at the end of the 'linux' line.
If that doesn't work in some way, use the option systemd.unit=multi-user.target to perform a normal boot but without the graphical login.
Other options: emergency (similar to 'rescue' but even smaller); systemd.debug-shell (normal boot but with a root terminal on CtrlAltF9).
or wipe xfce?
Look through dpkg -l for the package corresponding to "login screen" service (the display manager), which is probably LightDM but could also be GDM or SDDM – doing systemctl list-dependencies graphical.target should show the service name.
Once you've found the package, uninstall it with sudo apt purge --autoremove.
Default root is disabled. (sudo still works on one account)
Anything you do as root, you can also do through 'sudo' (which literally lets you run things "as root").
