Possible to do XFCE only?

[joemartin]

is it possible to leave just xfce as the only desktop and delete gnome or would that disrupt things since gnome is the default?

if so, what would be the command to delete gnome and leave a true xfce as the only desktop?

thanks.

[thewanderer]

It is possible to choose XFCE as the desktop environment during the system install. On DVD, it is already included, while on CD you have to choose another first installation disk - they are labeled accordingly (xfce).
It is completely fine to remove GNOME and leave XFCE only.
To do that, you can try:

Code: Select all

apt-get remove gnome-desktop-environment
apt-get autoremove

The first command removes the metapackage and the second one should handle the automatically pulled in dependencies.
However, you probably want to keep GDM. To do that, issue `apt-get install gdm` before autoremove (after will work fine, too) - it will mark the package as installed manually. However, if you want a lighter display manager, you can try Slim, which is available in 'slim' package.

[alexdudko]

And choose XFCE as default session while booting.

[dbbolton]

When I install Xfce, I usually install the following:

Code: Select all

aptitude install xfce4 xfce4-goodies thunar-archive-plugin

[sir fer]

You could also try installing only the base system then xorg and XFCE from there, (apt-get install xorg xfce4 xfce4-goodies ) then type 'startx' and it should be the default desktop.

It might require some tweaking such as getting some icon themes iirc (apt-get install tango-icon-theme or gnome-icon-theme if you prefer) as in Debian with XFCE, very little is configured for you.

Which version of debian are you using?

[tuxracer]

I downloaded and installed Debian Testing, x86 ver. with LXDE and XFCE desktops. When it boots up, it uses the LXDE. I wanted to try XFCE but when I go to change the session, XFCE is not an option?!? There are several options including OpenBox Gnome or something like that (????? - sorry, on a different computer for this post and don't recall all the choices). Maybe on the install, I accidentally/incidentally selected to omit the XFCE install???

Do I have to install XFCE now? I suppose trying Synaptic and seeing if the XFCE desktop is/isn't installed would confirm one way or another?

Do I sound clueless or what?!?

[sir fer]

Sounds like XFCE4 is not installed. Just apt-get install it, most of what you need is on the disk you have anyway. Then log out and back in and XFCE4 should be one of the options in the login manager.