Installing XFCE without re-install?

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timytamy

Installing XFCE without re-install?

Post by timytamy »

Hi, I've been using Mint 17.1 MATE for a while, but I'm trying to get XFCE running.

I've gone through other posts to install xfce4, xfce4-goodies, mint-meta-xfce etc but I'm struggling to get to the "mint" version of XFCE. On logon, I still have a desktop like this http://180016988.r.cdn77.net/wp-content ... 1/XFCE.png and no apparant way to get the whisker menu.

What I'd like is an XFCE environment that's the same as if I had downloaded the Mint XFCE edition. Is there any way to do this without re-installing?
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
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karlchen
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Re: Installing XFCE without re-install?

Post by karlchen »

Hello, timytamy.

You might follow the steps which have been explained here HTH,
Karl
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raptir

Re: Installing XFCE without re-install?

Post by raptir »

Whisker is actually its own package and I don't think it's included in any of the bundles. The package is called xfce4-whiskermenu-plugin. Once you install that you just right click on the panel, then go to Add New Item and choose Whisker Menu. If you uncheck "Lock panel" you can drag the top panel down to the bottom and remove the original bottom panel.
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karlchen
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Re: Installing XFCE without re-install?

Post by karlchen »

Hi, raptir.

You need to check the details list in my second post as well: among other packages: xfce4-whiskermenu-plugin :wink:
(The steps are not based on any scientific theory, but they are what I have done, and the system is still up and running, uhm, no, the machine is actually shutdown at this point in time at home. :wink:)

Cheers,
Karl
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timytamy

Re: Installing XFCE without re-install?

Post by timytamy »

Coolies. So with that I seem to have most of XFCE, however the notification/applet area is lacking. Mainly some sort of network manager. I've found a network monitor, but it dosen't seem to do anything useful. Is there another package or just a config item?

Thanks again!
raptir

Re: Installing XFCE without re-install?

Post by raptir »

karlchen wrote:Hi, raptir.

You need to check the details list in my second post as well: among other packages: xfce4-whiskermenu-plugin :wink:
(The steps are not based on any scientific theory, but they are what I have done, and the system is still up and running, uhm, no, the machine is actually shutdown at this point in time at home. :wink:)

Cheers,
Karl
I was not referencing your post, I was responding directly to the original post in the topic since he basically had it apart from the whisker menu not being installed.
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karlchen
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Re: Installing XFCE without re-install?

Post by karlchen »

Hi, raptir.

OK. Fine. But it was a good chance of promoting my list of software (meta) packages one more time which should be installed in order to get the full Linux Mint xfce experience in the end. :wink:

Cheers,
Karl
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MtnDewManiac
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Re: Installing XFCE without re-install?

Post by MtnDewManiac »

raptir wrote:
karlchen wrote:Hi, raptir.

You need to check the details list in my second post as well: among other packages: xfce4-whiskermenu-plugin :wink:
(The steps are not based on any scientific theory, but they are what I have done, and the system is still up and running, uhm, no, the machine is actually shutdown at this point in time at home. :wink:)

Cheers,
Karl
I was not referencing your post, I was responding directly to the original post in the topic since he basically had it apart from the whisker menu not being installed.
Hi Karl,

I read your reply (post #2 in this thread), which linked me to (among other things) this:
karlchen wrote:As promised this afternoon here is the list of software packages which were selected here in order to get a full-featured xfce 4.10 desktop on Mint 16 32-bit. The primary and only desktop environment had been Cinnamon 2.0.14 at that time.

Launch Synaptic package manager and select for installation:

Code: Select all

mint-artwork-xfce
mint-backgrounds-xfce
mint-meta-xfce
xfce4
xfce4-whiskermenu-plugin
xfce4-goodies
xfce4-indicator-plugin
xfwm4
xfwm4-themes
indicator-application-gtk2
indicator-sound-gtk2
pavucontrol
This will pull in round about 95 software packages all in all. Confirm. And click [Apply]

The installation will take only a few minutes and succeeded here without any errors or warnings.

Once the installation is complete logout. In the MDM greeter screen select the button "Session" and select "xfce" and login. When asked whether you wish to make xfce the default desktop or just use it for the current session, make it your default session.
I just wanted to say, "Thanks." Bookmarked.

Regards,
MDM
Mint 18 Xfce 4.12.

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cllvt

Re: Installing XFCE without re-install?

Post by cllvt »

karlchen wrote:Hello, timytamy.

You might follow the steps which have been explained here HTH,
Karl

Thanks for this info. Karl. It was exactly what I was looking for, and the procedure worked perfectly on Mint Mate 17.1 to Mint 17.1 xfce conversion. It was quite quick and no snags. I was a little concerned as the post was about a year old, pre 17.1, but no issues, it is working great.

Chris
cllvt

Re: Installing XFCE without re-install?

Post by cllvt »

One related question:

I have been cleaning-up, getting rid of mate today after installing the xfce desktop, and looking at any xfce packages that might be useful. It seems that I should have this:

mint-info-xfce (description: Base package. This package is needed by the Mint tools and the system to uniquely identify the edition and release of Linux Mint you're using and to get information related to it.)

When I try to add it however, I get an error:

E: /var/cache/apt/archives/mint-info-xfce_2014.12.12_amd64.deb: trying to overwrite '/etc/linuxmint/info', which is also in package mint-info-mate 2014.12.12

Questions:

1) If I try and remove the mint-info-mate package first however, it tells me that it needs to remove eight other packages, some seemingly super-important such as: mint-meta-core, mint-meta-xfce, mintdesktop, mintsystem, etc. which I don't believe that I want to do.

Is it OK to just leave as is? Will Mint tools be able to identify edition and release with the current condition?

2) Or should I manually somehow get rid of the mint-info-mate package without messing with the packages that Synaptic wants to remove? If so, how would I do that?


Chris
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karlchen
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Re: Installing XFCE without re-install?

Post by karlchen »

Hello, Chris.

Simply leave the mint-info-mate package alone. Replacing the mint-info-mate package by mint-info-xfce package is not worth the hassle.
In my case, I kept the mint-info-cinnamon package. xfce will work fine nonetheless, and update-manager will offer available updates correctly, too.

Cheers,
Karl
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cllvt

Re: Installing XFCE without re-install?

Post by cllvt »

karlchen wrote:Hello, Chris.

Simply leave the mint-info-mate package alone. Replacing the mint-info-mate package by mint-info-xfce package is not worth the hassle.
In my case, I kept the mint-info-cinnamon package. xfce will work fine nonetheless, and update-manager will offer available updates correctly, too.

Cheers,
Karl
Good to hear, thanks for the Quick reply Karl!

Chris
raptir

Re: Installing XFCE without re-install?

Post by raptir »

cllvt wrote:One related question:

I have been cleaning-up, getting rid of mate today after installing the xfce desktop, and looking at any xfce packages that might be useful. It seems that I should have this:

mint-info-xfce (description: Base package. This package is needed by the Mint tools and the system to uniquely identify the edition and release of Linux Mint you're using and to get information related to it.)

When I try to add it however, I get an error:

E: /var/cache/apt/archives/mint-info-xfce_2014.12.12_amd64.deb: trying to overwrite '/etc/linuxmint/info', which is also in package mint-info-mate 2014.12.12

Questions:

1) If I try and remove the mint-info-mate package first however, it tells me that it needs to remove eight other packages, some seemingly super-important such as: mint-meta-core, mint-meta-xfce, mintdesktop, mintsystem, etc. which I don't believe that I want to do.

Is it OK to just leave as is? Will Mint tools be able to identify edition and release with the current condition?

2) Or should I manually somehow get rid of the mint-info-mate package without messing with the packages that Synaptic wants to remove? If so, how would I do that?


Chris
As Karl said, leaving it alone is a reasonable solution. But if you'd like to know how to do it, it's actually very simple and no hassle at all. This is a use case where I find aptitude to be the most powerful package management tool, and using the curses based interface you can resolve this in just a couple keypresses.

Open a terminal, and run

Code: Select all

sudo aptitude
Note that there are no commands. Once you enter your password, you'll be greeted with the aptitude curses-based interface. Hit the / key to start searching, and search for the package you want to remove (mint-info-mate). With the package highlighted, hit - to remove it. At the bottom of the screen you'll see a red warning message about the removals that will be performed in addition to the mint-info-mate. Now, search for the package you want to replace it with (mint-info-xfce). With that package selected, hit + to mark it for installation. You should then notice that the proposed actions will update. In my case, it ended up with only a single proposed removal and that is the mint-user-guide-mate which was replaced with mint-user-guide-xfce. Hit g to review all the actions, then g again to apply them.
cllvt

Re: Installing XFCE without re-install?

Post by cllvt »

Thanks raptir,

When I have a chance and can get on that computer I will check this out.

Interesting, never heard of aptitude.

Chris

EDIT: I tried aptitude. Unfortunately it gave me the same error Synaptic did about overwriting, etc. Guess I will leave it as is. Thanks.
Last edited by cllvt on Tue Feb 17, 2015 3:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.
raptir

Re: Installing XFCE without re-install?

Post by raptir »

Aptitude is another apt frontend just like Synaptic and apt-get. It is the recommended package management tool for Debian and is preinstalled in Linux Mint as well.
cllvt

Re: Installing XFCE without re-install?

Post by cllvt »

So, with Synaptic and with Aptitude I have been unable to remove mint-info-mate and add mint-info-xfce.
If I look in /etc/linuxmint/info folder (where the overwrite error listed in previous posts occurs with both) this is what is there:

RELEASE=17.1
CODENAME=rebecca
EDITION="MATE 64-bit"
DESCRIPTION="Linux Mint 17.1 Rebecca"
DESKTOP=MATE
TOOLKIT=GTK
NEW_FEATURES_URL=http://www.linuxmint.com/rel_rebecca_mate_whatsnew.php
RELEASE_NOTES_URL=http://www.linuxmint.com/rel_rebecca_mate.php
USER_GUIDE_URL=help:linuxmint
GRUB_TITLE=Linux Mint 17.1 MATE 64-bit


Seems like I could manually change this easily (opening the folder as root) if I knew exactly what should be there (is is xfce or XFCE, is the toolkit still GTK, etc.). Am I just asking for trouble messing with this; I guess it seems like as Karl said it should be fine but I guess I am a little OCD and on some level it bothers me that my xfce computer thinks it's Mate :lol: . I am wondering if there were some updates to xfce would they still happen? I would expect so, but since the mint-info-xfce package is not loaded maybe not? I suppose manually changing the file contents still is not going to load the package anyway, so it would not be any different?

If anyone has any thoughts about this I would love to hear them. Otherwise I guess I will leave as is and mark this solved and not worry about it.

Thanks,
Chris

EDIT: Sorry being such a pain about this, it is not that I doubt what anyone tells me, just trying to get a more complete understanding than I have now.
raptir

Re: Installing XFCE without re-install?

Post by raptir »

I figured it out and tested it in a VBox install so it should work for you. If you run...

Code: Select all

sudo aptitude -o Dpkg::Options::="--force-overwrite" install mint-info-xfce
It will force dpkg to overwrite the /etc/linuxmint/info file.

That said, i really have no idea where this information is even used.
cllvt

Re: Installing XFCE without re-install?

Post by cllvt »

raptir wrote:I figured it out and tested it in a VBox install so it should work for you. If you run...

Code: Select all

sudo aptitude -o Dpkg::Options::="--force-overwrite" install mint-info-xfce
It will force dpkg to overwrite the /etc/linuxmint/info file.

That said, i really have no idea where this information is even used.
Hey raptir, thanks! Not sure where/when to use this, do I run Aptitude as before and when it gives me the error then run this in terminal, or just plug this in terminal now?

Should I remove mint-info-mate first?

Chris
raptir

Re: Installing XFCE without re-install?

Post by raptir »

cllvt wrote:
raptir wrote:I figured it out and tested it in a VBox install so it should work for you. If you run...

Code: Select all

sudo aptitude -o Dpkg::Options::="--force-overwrite" install mint-info-xfce
It will force dpkg to overwrite the /etc/linuxmint/info file.

That said, i really have no idea where this information is even used.
Hey raptir, thanks! Not sure where/when to use this, do I run Aptitude as before and when it gives me the error then run this in terminal, or just plug this in terminal now?

Should I remove mint-info-mate first?

Chris
Sorry for not being clear. Aptitude has the curses-based interface but can also run commands via the terminal directly, just like apt-get. Just open a terminal and plug in the command I posted.

You don't need to remove mint-info-mate. mint-info-xfce depends on mint-user-guide-xfce (so it will automatically be installed), and mint-user-guide-xfce conflicts with mint-user-guide-mate (so it will be automatically removed). mint-info-mate depends on mint-user-guide-mate, so it will also be automatically removed.
cllvt

Re: Installing XFCE without re-install?

Post by cllvt »

"Sorry for not being clear. Aptitude has the curses-based interface but can also run commands via the terminal directly, just like apt-get. Just open a terminal and plug in the command I posted.

You don't need to remove mint-info-mate. mint-info-xfce depends on mint-user-guide-xfce (so it will automatically be installed), and mint-user-guide-xfce conflicts with mint-user-guide-mate (so it will be automatically removed). mint-info-mate depends on mint-user-guide-mate, so it will also be automatically removed."


Thanks raptir! That went flawlessly!

After reading a bit about Aptitude I thought that might be the case, but was a little hesitant to try it as I have zero experience with it. If I had started it though, I would have seen how it spelled out what was going to happen, better to check with the pros. I am sure I would have been fine as is, but I will sleep a little easier knowing my xfce box now thinks it's an xfce box! :D

Chris

EDIT: Many thanks to karlchen and raptir for helping get xfce on my Mint install, would not have attempted it without the guidance, but it's awesome to have it completed. Not that Mate is a bad DE, I am just more comfortable in xfce now. Thanks!
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