How do I switch my desktop environment to XFCE or another?

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princerameses

How do I switch my desktop environment to XFCE or another?

Post by princerameses »

I want something closer to windows. I would just get the XFCE version, but I want the latest release (10) and only 9 is available.

So could someone please give me step by step instructions on how to do this? Thanks.
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Beardedragon

Re: How do I switch my desktop environment to XFCE or anothe

Post by Beardedragon »

princerameses wrote:I want something closer to windows. I would just get the XFCE version, but I want the latest release (10) and only 9 is available.

So could someone please give me step by step instructions on how to do this? Thanks.
Install Linux Mint 10
Setup your networking.
Update everything in Mint first.
Open Synaptic Pkg Mgr then install xfce4 and xfce4-goodies
Reboot and change Sessions to XFCE at login after choosing your username but before putting in your password and hitting Enter.
XFCE will be your default as long as you do not change Sessions again.

Or, if you want what Merlwiz79 was working on before his accident, start with Xubuntu 10.10 and follow the instructions in this Thread:
http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.p ... 0&start=20
Last edited by Beardedragon on Mon Jan 31, 2011 11:30 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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grimdestripador
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Re: How do I switch my desktop environment to XFCE or anothe

Post by grimdestripador »

There are ubuntu instructions for installing a "Desktop Environment"
The key is this, when you first turn on your comptuer, you are most likely presented with the Gnome-Login screen. On the bottom bar of the screen where you can shutdown/ change your language / or switch your default Desktop Environment.

To install install more than one Desktop Environment. Try

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get install lxde
or

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get install kdebase 
or

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get install openbox 
or

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get install xfce4 
Consider this quote
Mixing and matching *buntus is possible and often encouraged by the community. If you choose Ubuntu, you are not stuck with Ubuntu. If you choose Kubuntu, you are not stuck with Kubuntu. You can use Gnome-native applications in KDE and vice versa. You can use Gnome- and KDE-native applications in Xfce. You can install education-related programs in any desktop environment. You can install kubuntu-desktop on top of Ubuntu and choose which one you want to log into at the login screen. All four versions of Ubuntu (Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu, and Edubuntu) share the same software repositories and available applications. You are not locked into using one version just because it is the first version you installed. From now on, I'll be referring to all or any of the above versions as simply Ubuntu.
http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/whichbuntu
princerameses

Re: How do I switch my desktop environment to XFCE or anothe

Post by princerameses »

Thank you for your reply. How do I change sessions? Will I be prompted?
I actually don't have it installed yet.
vrkalak

Re: How do I switch my desktop environment to XFCE or anothe

Post by vrkalak »

Open the Synaptic Package Manager, in the 'search' bar ... type "xfce"

Click on the Xfce Meta Package to 'install'

After the installation is compete ... re-boot your computer.

After the Grub screen, comes the Log-in screen ... at the Log-in screen, at the bottom, click on "sessions", choose "Xfce" ... finish logging in.

This will not change anything in your Gnome desktop, and all files/documents and bookmarks will show up in Xfce.
Beardedragon

Re: How do I switch my desktop environment to XFCE or anothe

Post by Beardedragon »

princerameses wrote:Thank you for your reply. How do I change sessions? Will I be prompted?
I actually don't have it installed yet.
When the login screen comes up hit Enter once, so it asks for your password. The Sessions menu is at the bottom of the page, there is no prompt, it is always there.
mikhou

Re: How do I switch my desktop environment to XFCE or anothe

Post by mikhou »

From what I have seen (and I've asked a lot of questions as well), vrkalak and merlwiz79 are the local XFCE experts so I can't add anymore to what has already been said. What I WILL say is that you won't really experience XFCE until you use a distro that is tweaked for it. To add XFCE on top of LM10 Main is nice, but it's not the best. Either load up LM 9 XFCE, load up Saline OS (which I haven't tried yet but is completely based on XFCE), or load up a minimum Debian XFCE install and just watch how fast your machine is! This does not take anything away from LM10. It's just my opinion that you won't fully experience XFCE until you go to an XFCE-based distro.

That being said, if all that you want is a different look, then go ahead and add the XFCE meta-package. I'm sure that you'll like it. I did. (That's what I did for awhile before I went with a straight-up Debian XFCE install.)

mikhou
vrkalak

Re: How do I switch my desktop environment to XFCE or anothe

Post by vrkalak »

mikhou wrote:From what I have seen (and I've asked a lot of questions as well), vrkalak and merlwiz79 are the local XFCE experts.

What I WILL say is that you won't really experience XFCE until you use a distro that is tweaked for it.
@mikhou ... thanks for the vote of confidence. :)

Correct, if you load the Xfce desktop over Gnome in MInt you will essentially have the same desktop as Xubuntu.
The official released version of Mint-7 Xfce CE is one of the best, in this regards ... Mint-9 Xfce comes in next.

But, Xfce was made to be a 'stand-alone' desktop environment, and not over another, larger more bloated, desktop.

If you want to use a good and super fast Xfce desktop not loaded over anything else, I say go with Crunchbang OS (Statler Edition/Xfce)

http://crunchbanglinux.org/ ... http://salineos.com/index.php

Crunchbang/Linux makes two versions ... one is with Openbox Window Manager and NO desktop environment.
The other is with Xfce as a 'stand-alone' desktop . . . both a super fast and easy to configure.

Both SalineOS and Crunchbang Statler are based on Debian Squeeze and use a Xfce as the default desktop environment.
mikhou

Re: How do I switch my desktop environment to XFCE or anothe

Post by mikhou »

My HUGE apologies. I absolutely should have mentioned Crunchbang. It is by far one of my favorites. In fact, if I wasn't running straight-up Debian XFCE, I would be running Crunchbang Statler XFCE. As much as I love LM and LMDE, I don't think that I can go back from XFCE to Gnome or anything else now. In fact, just recently, I began experimenting with E17 via Bodhi, but I really don't see anyway that E17 will replace my beloved XFCE.

@vrkalak, thanks for mentioning Crunchbang. Not to hijack the thread, but have you had a chance to try Saline? Any thoughts?

mikhou
vrkalak

Re: How do I switch my desktop environment to XFCE or anothe

Post by vrkalak »

Same here ... when I went with LMDE (Gnome) ... I did my best to 'like' Gnome but I had to give in and switch my LMDE to using the Xfce desktop.

I have every Linux OS distro that uses Xfce as default.

So, yes. I downloaded SalineOS and tried it when it was first released.
SalineOS is based on Debian Squeeze and not testing, thus it will be stable very soon.
The only problem, for me, is that SalineOS uses Wicd and not Network Manager.
Wicd does not support any USB Modems and Network-Manager does.

Otherwise, SalineOS seems like a good, simple and fast version of Debian Squeeze and Xfce.

I love Debian and Xfce ... a win/win OS package.
wewa
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Re: How do I switch my desktop environment to XFCE or anothe

Post by wewa »

So crunchbang is dead.

Have you guys gone back to LM or using something else?
Beardedragon

Re: How do I switch my desktop environment to XFCE or anothe

Post by Beardedragon »

wewa wrote:So crunchbang is dead.

Have you guys gone back to LM or using something else?
Personally I moved from Saline, which died, to Manjaro. They have Xfce and KDE as main desktops plus options to add other desktops later. It is a rolling update system with Stable, Testing and Unstable updates, your choice. Actually, IMO, Testing is an advanced Stable and I use it as default. Get some info here: http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=manjaro. My preference is Cinnamon Desktop, a version of gnome. Good luck to you. Note, I use the same username in Manjaro as in LM.
Hoser Rob
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Re: How do I switch my desktop environment to XFCE or anothe

Post by Hoser Rob »

grimdestripador wrote:... Consider this quote
Mixing and matching *buntus is possible and often encouraged by the community. If you choose Ubuntu, you are not stuck with Ubuntu. If you choose Kubuntu, you are not stuck with Kubuntu. You can use Gnome-native applications in KDE and vice versa. You can use Gnome- and KDE-native applications in Xfce. You can install education-related programs in any desktop environment. You can install kubuntu-desktop on top of Ubuntu and choose which one you want to log into at the login screen. All four versions of Ubuntu (Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu, and Edubuntu) share the same software repositories and available applications. You are not locked into using one version just because it is the first version you installed. From now on, I'll be referring to all or any of the above versions as simply Ubuntu.
http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/whichbuntu
Which 'community'? The community of people who write crap blogs because they can't get a real computer job? There are good blogs. And very bad ones. How are noobs supposed to tell the difference?

Installing multiple DEs is feasible if you know what you're doing. Otherwise it's a good way to make your system unstable. KDE with a gtk based DE is generally pretty safe.

Another one of those stupid blogs suggested that is was a good idea to install the beta LX-Qt DE on an Lubuntu system. Doing so involves adding a bleeding edge daily build ppa from lubuntu. So this moron suggests installing a beta DE and making your existing DE unstable in the process. And that's just my favorite one.
For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong - H. L. Mencken
MikeM1224

Re: How do I switch my desktop environment to XFCE or another?

Post by MikeM1224 »

I have to add that using Mint 20.1, I have installed Default, Cinnamon, The KDE 5.68.0 / Plasma, and Gnome. all in same system.
I guess the newer Kernals can handle multiple DE's well, because I haven't an issue.

So, for you noobs, Go ahead and try a few DE's. It is ok. Look for install videos and notes, not hard to do.
Always open a terminal (Ctrl + ALT + T) and type
sudo apt-get update
- before and after you install a new DE.

Use Timeshift utility to save your system restore point. (like windows) before you attempt installs in case it bombs. Probably will not, but in case.

Then install Screenftech - this is a command line tool to get more info on desktop environment. In case you need to remember which DE you loaded and do not know, or need the version #'s etc... $ sudo apt install screenfetch
after install, you just enter screenfetch
I got this result:

Username and computer:xxxxxxxx
OS: Linuxmint 20.1 ulyssa
Kernel: x86_64 Linux 5.4.0-65-generic
Uptime: 1h 18m
Packages: 3224
Shell: bash 5.0.17
Resolution: 3520x1080
DE: KDE 5.68.0 / Plasma 5.18.5
WM: KWin
GTK Theme: Breeze [GTK2/3]
Icon Theme: Neonyt-Dark-Icons
Disk: 31G / 220G (15%)
CPU: Intel Core i7-2630QM @ 8x 2.9GHz [54.0°C]
GPU: GeForce GT 550M
RAM: 3145MiB / 7854MiB
==================================================

You will have a graphic of the OS on the left, I omitted it here. As you can see, you get a wealth of info here. Great little command.

also, for quick, no -install, use command: $ echo $XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP
it will give you just the desktop environment base. By that I mean it only returned "KDE" no thing else, Plasma did not show up here. That is why installing and using screenfetch is much better.

:D

That's all for now.

Cheers!
mms

Re: How do I switch my desktop environment to XFCE or another?

Post by mms »

MikeM1224 wrote: Wed Feb 17, 2021 11:58 am I have to add that using Mint 20.1, I have installed Default, Cinnamon, The KDE 5.68.0 / Plasma, and Gnome. all in same system.
I guess the newer Kernals can handle multiple DE's well, because I haven't an issue.

So, for you noobs, Go ahead and try a few DE's. It is ok. Look for install videos and notes, not hard to do.
Always open a terminal (Ctrl + ALT + T) and type
sudo apt-get update
- before and after you install a new DE.

Use Timeshift utility to save your system restore point. (like windows) before you attempt installs in case it bombs. Probably will not, but in case.

Then install Screenftech - this is a command line tool to get more info on desktop environment. In case you need to remember which DE you loaded and do not know, or need the version #'s etc... $ sudo apt install screenfetch
after install, you just enter screenfetch
I got this result:

Username and computer:xxxxxxxx
OS: Linuxmint 20.1 ulyssa
Kernel: x86_64 Linux 5.4.0-65-generic
Uptime: 1h 18m
Packages: 3224
Shell: bash 5.0.17
Resolution: 3520x1080
DE: KDE 5.68.0 / Plasma 5.18.5
WM: KWin
GTK Theme: Breeze [GTK2/3]
Icon Theme: Neonyt-Dark-Icons
Disk: 31G / 220G (15%)
CPU: Intel Core i7-2630QM @ 8x 2.9GHz [54.0°C]
GPU: GeForce GT 550M
RAM: 3145MiB / 7854MiB
==================================================

You will have a graphic of the OS on the left, I omitted it here. As you can see, you get a wealth of info here. Great little command.

also, for quick, no -install, use command: $ echo $XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP
it will give you just the desktop environment base. By that I mean it only returned "KDE" no thing else, Plasma did not show up here. That is why installing and using screenfetch is much better.

:D

That's all for now.

Cheers!
That's enlightening!
Best answer regarding switching desktops I found so far.
Thank you very much.
I'll surely follow your advice. :)
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