reasonable approach to migrating from KDE to XFCE?

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Jazoray

reasonable approach to migrating from KDE to XFCE?

Post by Jazoray »

Or: How to get the default Mint-XFCE Desktop onto an existing installation.

I have been a long time KDE zealot, but with the direction KDE 5 is heading, i see no future for it.

i have a mint KDE installation that existed for a long time. if possible, i just want to install the packages that exist in a Mint-XFCE installation on top of it and keep all of my other installed stuff and personal settings.

so i thought mybe install mint-meta-xfce, xfce4, or xubuntu-desktop from the PPA

simulating the install from a Mint-KDE VM, i end up with a nonworking XFCE desktop. even NetworkManager and the application launcher menu is missing.

reinstalling from scratch and restoring backups is a last-resort method. i want to explore other possibilities first.

so, is there a way to get the mint-xfce out-of-the-box xfce-desktop onto my existing mint-kde installation?
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Pierre
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Re: reasonable approach to migrating from KDE to XFCE?

Post by Pierre »

from Package Manager AKA synaptic: install the xfce4-dbg which is the meta package for the xfce DE
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Jazoray

Re: reasonable approach to migrating from KDE to XFCE?

Post by Jazoray »

Pierre wrote:from Package Manager AKA synaptic: install the xfce4-dbg which is the meta package for the xfce DE
are you sure that this isn't just for the debugging symbols, which are a tiny part of xfce?
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Re: reasonable approach to migrating from KDE to XFCE?

Post by Hoser Rob »

ByeByeXP wrote:Season's Greetings to you!

There was a similar topic discussed here that dealt with how to run concurrent DEs on a single *nux system. Afaicr, the concensus was -- don't ... The reason being that what we (re. most of us being *nux non-geeksters) "interact" with is more than just an operational shell.

For example: KDE uses a window-manager that differs substantially from Xfce's (look at those hot corners, for one); each DE's file-manager differs in suble ways; the way file properties ar being managed differs (Note: Mate's ability to color folders' icons does not cary over to other DEs)/ Moreover, afaik, there are startup-level as well as login-level differences between DEs. While these low-level processes (aka "daemons") may tolerate each other, how would they know just which DE "owns" their functions?

My long-winded answer: chose ONE desktop spin, but don't expect that each concurrent'y-configured (and, possibly, initialized) DE will behave nicely. Hope this helps you a bit -- i borked too many installs trying to get multi-DEs to run without a problem ...
Finally, someone admits they buggered their install with a bunch of installed DEs. The problem with that kind of thing is that many beginners post how they did something like that and nothing went wrong. At least not yet. But they don't often admit they screwed their install later.

I'd recommend backing up data and doing a clean reinstall with one DE version. It's not 100% straightforward for novices to keep all the configurations straight. Reinstalling is really sometimes the easiest way. I've reinstalled for less.

To find out which one you'd like it's really best to download all the DE versions and test them yourself. Of course it'd be best if you can do this from a USB rather than an optical disk. They're too slow to get a feel for things.
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Re: reasonable approach to migrating from KDE to XFCE?

Post by Pjotr »

Hoser Rob wrote:I'd recommend backing up data and doing a clean reinstall with one DE version. It's not 100% straightforward for novices to keep all the configurations straight. Reinstalling is really sometimes the easiest way. I've reinstalled for less.
+ 1

Sound advice. :)
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Jazoray

Re: reasonable approach to migrating from KDE to XFCE?

Post by Jazoray »

In the end, the solution for me was simply to install more xfce packages. like whiskermenu, variuos plugins, and the gnome network manager.

no clean install needed.
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Re: reasonable approach to migrating from KDE to XFCE?

Post by MtnDewManiac »

Jazoray wrote:In the end, the solution for me was simply to install more xfce packages. like whiskermenu, variuos plugins, and the gnome network manager.

no clean install needed.
Xfce's "goodies" package (Synaptic Package Manager will have the correct name, but searching for goodies shows it) is a good one to add.

One question: When you add the extra DE and then upgrade the distro to another point, do ALL of your DE and DE-related components upgrade? Or only the one that was included in your initial installation? It seems that this is when issues tend to appear for some users.

Regards.
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