How to install Mint XFCE, not plain xfce on Mint 14

[isaac12345]

Hi all,

I have linux mint 14 installed on laptop for many months and would like smoother performance.So I decided to install the xfce desktop from the software manager as the option is not available by default in the 'sessions' dialog box.but it installed the plain blue xfce environment. Is there any way to install the Mint modified prettier xfce environment?

[Fornhamfred]

I run LMDE in which there is a mint-meta-debian-xfce package which would install the minty version of xfce. There may be the same package in 14!!!!

[karlchen]

Hello, isaac12345.

Telling from my Mint 13 xfce system I suggest to
+ launch Synaptic package manager
+ Locate the meta package mint-meta-xfce (2012.06.25 or newer)
+ Right click it and select it for installation.
+ As this is the xfce meta package doing so will pull in a lot of dependant xfce packages.
+ Accept them all.
+ Click [Apply]

This should install the complete mintified edition of Xfce 4.10.

HTH,
Karl

[isaac12345]

Hello, isaac12345.

Telling from my Mint 13 xfce system I suggest to
+ launch Synaptic package manager
+ Locate the meta package mint-meta-xfce (2012.06.25 or newer)
+ Right click it and select it for installation.
+ As this is the xfce meta package doing so will pull in a lot of dependant xfce packages.
+ Accept them all.
+ Click [Apply]

This should install the complete mintified edition of Xfce 4.10.

HTH,
Karl

I did as you posted, then selected 'XFCE session' from the session window on the login screen, but it came up with the rather boring blue-gray xfce version. I think I might need to uninstall all of xfce files and then re-install mint-xfce files. Could you please advice on how to uninstall?

[bobafetthotmail]

check the Appearence and the window manager theme. Mint added a theme on top of its XFCE. Settings --> Appearence and Settings --> Window Manager

Default mint XFCE theme is Mint-x, so switch all themes and icon to that.

[isaac12345]

check the Appearence and the window manager theme. Mint added a theme on top of its XFCE. Settings --> Appearence and Settings --> Window Manager

Default mint XFCE theme is Mint-x, so switch all themes and icon to that.

Ok. I tried your suggestion by logging in with the XFCE interface and then switching themes. I didnt quite get the result that I wanted. For example, the dock at the bottom was still there, the wallpaper was the same and the 'window' button was not opening the 'menu' menu. Its not as potrayed in this screenshot on Mint 14 xfce,which is what I would like - http://www.tuxarena.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/mint14_desktop.png
I think the XFCE packages that I installed originally are taking over the mint-xfce packages. Could you please advise on how to completely uninstall all xfce(mint and non-mint) related files, so that I can then install the mint-xfce files again and try if that works.
Thanks!

[bobafetthotmail]

Afaik, you can download the packages, but not the custom settings themselves. That is, once you got everything as a package you need to open customization panels to move stuff around. But it's better to wait a bit to see if anyone has a better idea than mine.

For dock you mean a Apple-like bunch of icons thing? If it's that, then it's a separate application that must be disabled/removed.

The wallpaper is the one selected through the Settings, so you will have to go and find a new wallpaper from the internet, download it and set it as wallpaper.

As for the "window" button not opening the "menu" what does that mean?
If you don't have an application menu, right-click on the bottom bar, select Panel and then Panel Preferences, then in the Item tab you can add the XFCE application menu.
If you want the wisker menu, then there was a thread about updating wisker menu in xfce and then fixing its theme manually in Mint 15 here in this section, but I can't find it... anyway the package for it is xfce4-whiskermenu-plugin.

Can you post a screenshot of your current XFCE desktop?

[InkKnife]

The OSX Dock looking thing is actually a panel in XFCE. You can get rid of it in the panel settings.