How To Start Xfce
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The Xfce Project itself provides a lightweight desktop environment, which includes only the core compoments required for a desktop environment, like a window manager, a file manager, a session manager, a panel and a few utilities.
Ubuntu's default desktop environment is Gnome. Sometimes people using Ubuntu want to try out Xfce as well, though.
Warning: having Xfce and Gnome together means you'll have cluttered application menus full of Xfce applications and Gnome applications.
Even though these instructions are for Xfce, the same principle applies for adding Xfce to Kubuntu or adding KDE to Ubuntu or Xubuntu. Basically, you install the desktop environment, log out, and choose the desktop environment.
How To Use Xfce
Go to the Ubuntu Software Center. In the filter (top-right) type xubuntu-desktop and then click Install next to Xubuntu desktop system. Enter your password when prompted.
If you're using Ubuntu 11.04, you'll have to click on Show __ technical items in order to get xubuntu-desktop to show up for installation.
Xfce will start downloading and installing. You can click In Progress if you want to see the percentage of the task that's complete.
Note: this will take significantly longer than other software packages to install, because this actually brings in a lot of packages, not just one. The Xubuntu Desktop system is what is called a metapackage, which means it's an empty package, which is just a pointer to a whole group of other packages.
After Xfce finishes installing, log out.
Then, before you log back in again, select Xubuntu session (instead of Gnome, which is Ubuntu's default desktop environment).
Xubuntu will load up. Xubuntu is basically Ubuntu's implementation of Xfce, with the appropriate Ubuntu-specific artwork and defaults.
If, instead, you want the default Xfce desktop without the Ubuntu-specific artwork, you can choose. Xfce instead of Xubuntu at the login screen.
If you decide you want to remove Xfce, it's not enough to go to Ubuntu Software Center and remove the Xubuntu Desktop system package, as that is just an empty package that points to all the software packages that make up a default Xubuntu installation. Removing the pointer package won't remove all the packages it points to.
If you want to remove Xfce, follow these instructions.
Last updated 05/1/12 06:45
I'm trying to keep things fairly minimal, but it's tough!
(Judging by what I read online, I have to pick for myself one of each of these:
- a display manager
- a greeter
- a window manager
- a desktop environment
How To Start Xfce Arch Linux
Sheesh.
I don't know, maybe I don't need all of the above, but it's hard for me to tell what of this I really need, and what's bloat.)
Right now, the way I have it is that I get a text-only login interface, and, after I log in, I run
This works OK, but I'd like to automate away that obligatory call to exec startxfce4. I already have this very same command in ~/.xinitrc (in fact, it's all I have in this file), but apparently it's not enough. What do I need to do instead (or in addition)?
Also, the text-only interface is OK, except that the font is tiny (I have a high-rez screen), hard to read. I wouldn't mind having a graphical login screen, but I have not been able to find one that I can install without installing a bazillion other packages alongside, many of them with names featuring the word 'gnome', which I want to avoid.
Is there a really minimal graphic login that I can use to log into xfce4?
kjokjo1 Answer
Actually, you have already picked (4) - that's what XFCE is, a desktop environment, and thereby (3), the XFCE Window manager (xfwm). XFCE doesn't include a display manager, but other desktop environments do (GNOME has GDM, LXDE as LXDM, KDE has KDM, Unity has LightDM), and most display managers come with a default greeter. So, in effect, once you pick a desktop environment, you usually have the other three choices made for you.
How To Start Xfce Session
after I log in, I run
.. I already have this very same command in ~/.xinitrc..
That's what startx does:
So you need to run startx on login to a TTY. The Arch Wiki offers a nice snippet for doing this:
You can add this to .bashrc, and when you login to TTY1 (see the check for XDG_VTNR), it will start the GUI.
As for display managers, the Arch Wiki lists quite a few, some of which are lightweight. You may have some luck with SLiM, whose dependencies are pretty minimal. It's also on the list of recommended apps by XFCE.