MX Linux Forum

Posted: **Wed Apr 03, 2019 11:35 am**

Is it possible to remove XFCE completely and use only LXDE or only Mate on MXLinux?

The aim is to get more and more lightweight using LXDE and with Mate the aim to have the Mate Desktop as personally I feel Mate/Gnome 2.0 are more Linux.

Posted: **Wed Apr 03, 2019 12:17 pm**

I use the Mate Desktop on MX Linux and it works well. If you are removing XFCE4 components, check to see what other packages will be removed. I don't remember which ones exactly, but a few packages are needed gor the MX utilities. This of course in not unusual of any OS. I made the mistake of removing a needed packge, again, I don't remember which one. I did leave the lxmenu components as I believe the MX menu editor relies on them. You will find MX Linux works very well with Mate. I think you will be very satisfied.

Posted: **Wed Apr 03, 2019 12:21 pm**

1) Pick the LXDE or one of Mate respins, other users made:
http://forum.mxlinux.org/viewtopic.php? ... 8c57093d72

2) if you want lightweight (whatever it means for you, few dozen Kb RAM saved? Which will be a drop in an ocean if you have even few years old PC), you can always use antiX-base. "Lightweighter" you probably won't get. If you don't like XFCE, at least for my taste there is no much practical difference to XFCE-less MX, which is based on antiX, I prefer to run antiX live from older USB2 while MX as full install.

3) you may also try "Minimal" MX version by user "manyroads", also listed in 1) above. It's XFCE but he brought it down from 1.2 GB to some 800 Mb ISO I recall. Tried it, he just removed what he considers nonessentials, I pretty have the same taste so see no difference or functional shortcomings vs. standard MX, just considerably smaller .

Btw, how is LXDE/ Mate "more Linux"? It is just a DE, Linux is always same.

Also, MX is pretty much tweaked for XFCE, not LXDE.

When I wanted minimal LXDE time back I used Russian Ubuntu respin Runtu, stripped down to few 100 Mb ISO and pretty functional good looking thing...

Posted: **Wed Apr 03, 2019 12:38 pm**

The primary developers for LxQT use manjaro and siduction as their base for the LxQT DE. It is what they recommend.As for what you can do with any distro remember Linux's great strength is "you can do anything you want." Linux's great weakness is "you can do anything you want."

Edit: As for using LXDE (not LxQT) you really should consider using the DE the developers are working on and support. That is not LXDE.

Posted: **Wed Apr 03, 2019 1:04 pm**

aledie wrote: Wed Apr 03, 2019 12:21 pm 1) Pick the LXDE or one of Mate respins, other users made:
http://forum.mxlinux.org/viewtopic.php? ... 8c57093d72

2) if you want lightweight (whatever it means for you, few dozen Kb RAM saved? Which will be a drop in an ocean if you have even few years old PC), you can always use antiX-base. "Lightweighter" you probably won't get. If you don't like XFCE, at least for my taste there is no much practical difference to XFCE-less MX, which is based on antiX, I prefer to run antiX live from older USB2 while MX as full install.

3) you may also try "Minimal" MX version by user "manyroads", also listed in 1) above. It's XFCE but he brought it down from 1.2 GB to some 800 Mb ISO I recall. Tried it, he just removed what he considers nonessentials, I pretty have the same taste so see no difference or functional shortcomings vs. standard MX, just considerably smaller .

Btw, how is LXDE/ Mate "more Linux"? It is just a DE, Linux is always same.

Also, MX is pretty much tweaked for XFCE, not LXDE.

When I wanted minimal LXDE time back I used Russian Ubuntu respin Runtu, stripped down to few 100 Mb ISO and pretty functional good looking thing...

Mate is more Linux is what I wanted to say ... and thats becasue it based out of Gnome 2.0 ... just a personal nostalgic preference when I first installed Linux on my PC ... it was RedHat and then Debian and some others which came with Gnome by default ... 1999 ... So for a windows user till that time ... Linux was Gnome ... Hence the statement.

Posted: **Wed Apr 03, 2019 1:04 pm**

I feel Mate/Gnome 2.0 are more Linux.

I agree, but past tense.
Mate development, feature-wise, has stagnated. If you visit the issue ticket pages and commit logs for each
of the mate apps, you'll find their attention across recent versions has been consumed by chasing break/fix
reimplementation, chasing Gnome3 compatibility.

https://github.com/mate-desktop/caja/issues 162 open issues
https://github.com/mate-desktop/mate-screensaver 44 open issues
https://github.com/mate-desktop/mate-power-manager 48 open issues
https://github.com/mate-desktop/mate-panel 154 open issues

https://github.com/mate-desktop/engrampa/issues 34 open issues
"Recently used toolbar" does not work
break/fix break/fix break/fix break/fix break/fix break/fix...

Considering the length of the backlog queue, any newly reported bugs may be moot ~~
mate devs may well close all the GTK3-related tickets en masse when they again change their silly hats and begin chasing GTK4

Posted: **Wed Apr 03, 2019 1:09 pm**

manyroads wrote: Wed Apr 03, 2019 12:38 pm The primary developers for LxQT use manjaro and siduction as their base for the LxQT DE. It is what they recommend.As for what you can do with any distro remember Linux's great strength is "you can do anything you want." Linux's great weakness is "you can do anything you want."

Edit: As for using LXDE (not LxQT) you really should consider using the DE the developers are working on and support. That is not LXDE.

LXDE is still under development but slow.

https://blog.lxde.org/

Posted: **Wed Apr 03, 2019 2:44 pm**

There's a command in the wiki to remove all xfce related packages: https://mxlinux.org/wiki/xfce/how-to-co ... move-xfce/

Posted: **Wed Apr 03, 2019 8:25 pm**

There's also a newer LXQT in the test repo, as well as Enlightenment (lightweight desktop that doesn't get much attention here)

Posted: **Thu Apr 04, 2019 3:02 am**

Stevo wrote: Wed Apr 03, 2019 8:25 pm There's also a newer LXQT in the test repo, as well as Enlightenment (lightweight desktop that doesn't get much attention here)

I am not very sure of LXQT or fan of it ... LXDE is very simple light stable. And offlate its seen activity.

Yes Enlightenment is a very good lightweight desktop but I personally found it too confusing to use and configure. BodhiLinux is already a distro based on Enlightenment.

Posted: **Thu Apr 04, 2019 2:07 pm**

kmathern wrote: Wed Apr 03, 2019 2:44 pm There's a command in the wiki to remove all xfce related packages: https://mxlinux.org/wiki/xfce/how-to-co ... move-xfce/

Does it work for MX 18 as the wiki mentions upto MX-17

Posted: **Thu Apr 04, 2019 2:56 pm**

The XFCE packages are still the same in MX 18.X, so the command will work.

Posted: **Fri Apr 05, 2019 3:02 am**

Ok Great.

Posted: **Fri Apr 05, 2019 3:27 am**

sagsaw wrote: Thu Apr 04, 2019 2:07 pm
kmathern wrote: Wed Apr 03, 2019 2:44 pm There's a command in the wiki to remove all xfce related packages: https://mxlinux.org/wiki/xfce/how-to-co ... move-xfce/
Does it work for MX 18 as the wiki mentions upto MX-17

How do you do the reverse then? Reinstall XFCE?

Posted: **Fri Apr 05, 2019 3:30 am**

sagsaw wrote: Fri Apr 05, 2019 3:27 am
sagsaw wrote: Thu Apr 04, 2019 2:07 pm
kmathern wrote: Wed Apr 03, 2019 2:44 pm There's a command in the wiki to remove all xfce related packages: https://mxlinux.org/wiki/xfce/how-to-co ... move-xfce/
Does it work for MX 18 as the wiki mentions upto MX-17
How do you do the reverse then? Reinstall XFCE?

Hello Sagsaw,

After reading your different posts/topics, I wonder if MX is really the distro you need. Why not trying other distros like pure Debian or Sparky (if you need LXDE or Mate) ?

Posted: **Fri Apr 05, 2019 7:33 am**

Re reinstall Xfce

Probably easier to just reinstall MX.
Backup your data to a different medium to safeguard.

Posted: **Fri Apr 05, 2019 2:27 pm**

zorzi wrote: Fri Apr 05, 2019 3:30 am
sagsaw wrote: Fri Apr 05, 2019 3:27 am
sagsaw wrote: Thu Apr 04, 2019 2:07 pm

Does it work for MX 18 as the wiki mentions upto MX-17
How do you do the reverse then? Reinstall XFCE?
Hello Sagsaw,

After reading your different posts/topics, I wonder if MX is really the distro you need. Why not trying other distros like pure Debian or Sparky (if you need LXDE or Mate) ?

Hi zorzi,

Will try to keep it short ...

Been installing trying using different Linux Distros ( did also have QNX BEOS installed too ) since 1999 ...

Every 3 year period since then for me has had different winners ...

Server for me has been always Pure Debian and offlate Ubuntu Server since 14.04.

But desktop has had shifting successes as and how distros progress with their improvements and new features and overall development work.

Till 2012 mostly its been debian after which it has been Lubuntu till the time I have been fascinated with the term LTS ...

Lubuntu is moving to LXQT and dropping its Lightweight tag and also does not intend to be a 5 year LTS Distro just as yet. I love LXDE Plus Openbox.

That started my search again since 2018 and I zeroed in on Linux Mint Mate Edition.

But then I also found MXLinux (found ???) ...

MXLinux is very fast and I think its kernel is quite well tuned for desktop use ...

How I came to this conclusion ...

Single core 32 bit VIA C7 with 4gb ram ...

Tried Slitaz, Mint Mate, Lubuntu/Ubuntu and MXLinux ... All live no install ...

SLitaz took ages to just unpack the .gz files ditto the other ... Mint was the slowest ... thats a surprise ...

Fastest boot MXLinux ... and played youtube 144p with vesa driver and no other aid pure software ...

On all other distros youtube took ages to start and the videos just did not seem to play or played frame by frame with a 10 seconds or more delay per frame ...

So obviously the MX-4.19 kernel has something going for it ...

So MXLinux looks like the one for me for Desktop (for me means not just individual but also places where I decide which OS goes on the computer) and hence I am trying now stage two ... customize it for my needs and hence the activity on the forums seeking help advice guidance and providing feedback ...

Posted: **Sun Apr 07, 2019 2:01 pm**

Stevo wrote: Thu Apr 04, 2019 2:56 pm The XFCE packages are still the same in MX 18.X, so the command will work.

Did it successfully using the link provided by

kmathern wrote: Wed Apr 03, 2019 2:44 pm

HTOP does not work because it requires xfce4-terminal so installed it. Any work around for the requirement of xfce4-terminal???

Synaptic from menu does not work at all.

running synaptic-pk gives error attached in the screenshot.

desktop 1_001.jpg

but running sudo synaptic-pk from terminal launches Synaptic.

Posted: **Sun Apr 07, 2019 2:15 pm**

sagsaw wrote: Sun Apr 07, 2019 2:01 pm HTOP does not work because it requires xfce4-terminal so installed it. Any work around for the requirement of xfce4-terminal???

I'm not seeing here that htop specifically requires xfce4-terminal.

Code: Select all

$ apt-cache depends htop
htop
  Depends: libc6
  Depends: libncursesw5
  Depends: libtinfo5
  Suggests: lsof
  Suggests: strace
  Conflicts: htop:i386

I think htop should pretty much work with any of the terminal emulators. Did you install lxterminal (LXDE) or mate-terminal (MATE)?

Posted: **Sun Apr 07, 2019 2:40 pm**

sagsaw wrote: Sun Apr 07, 2019 2:01 pm running synaptic-pk gives error attached in the screenshot

That seems to be failing because it's attempting to authorise as the root user — did you supply your user password instead?

In respect of htop, I can install that in a bare console without X so there must be another package that has x-terminal-emulator as a dependency — you can install any of the terminals listed on the linked page to fulfill that dependency.

Posted: **Sun Apr 07, 2019 2:49 pm**

kmathern wrote: Sun Apr 07, 2019 2:15 pm
sagsaw wrote: Sun Apr 07, 2019 2:01 pm HTOP does not work because it requires xfce4-terminal so installed it. Any work around for the requirement of xfce4-terminal???

I'm not seeing here that htop specifically requires xfce4-terminal.
Code: Select all
$ apt-cache depends htop
htop
  Depends: libc6
  Depends: libncursesw5
  Depends: libtinfo5
  Suggests: lsof
  Suggests: strace
  Conflicts: htop:i386
I think htop should pretty much work with any of the terminal emulators. Did you install lxterminal (LXDE) or mate-terminal (MATE)?

Yes LXDE installed all its components including lxterminal ... when I click on the htop menu it give me this error xfce4-terminal not found.

If i run it inside a terminal it very much works. ITs only when i click on the menu that i get this error.

Posted: **Sun Apr 07, 2019 2:54 pm**

Head_on_a_Stick wrote: Sun Apr 07, 2019 2:40 pm
sagsaw wrote: Sun Apr 07, 2019 2:01 pm running synaptic-pk gives error attached in the screenshot
That seems to be failing because it's attempting to authorise as the root user — did you supply your user password instead?

In respect of htop, I can install that in a bare console without X so there must be another package that has x-terminal-emulator as a dependency — you can install any of the terminals listed on the linked page to fulfill that dependency.

I did provide the root password ... but you can see the error in the screen shot ..The Synaptic does not launch after I click it from the menu.

For synapti cto launch from a terminal i have to enter sudo synaptic-pkexec

but after xfce removeal and lxde install Synaptic does not launch from the menu click.

With regards to htop ...again it runs when command is entered in terminal. But when clicked from menu it gives the mentioned error to mitigate which i had to install xfce4-terminal

Posted: **Sun Apr 07, 2019 3:05 pm**

sagsaw wrote: Sun Apr 07, 2019 2:54 pm I did provide the root password

Check /var/log/auth.log for any clues as to why it may have refused that.

And also perhaps try this solution: https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/issues ... -335350903

But I'm pretty sure pkttyagent should ask for the user password instead

sagsaw wrote: Sun Apr 07, 2019 2:54 pm when clicked from menu it gives the mentioned error to mitigate which i had to install xfce4-terminal

Try

Code: Select all

exo-preferred-applications

And change the terminal in the "utilities" tab.

EDIT: probably best to choose x-terminal-emulator to unify the setting with whatever the alternative is.

Posted: **Sun Apr 07, 2019 11:22 pm**

Head_on_a_Stick wrote: Sun Apr 07, 2019 3:05 pm

Well will chk ..

Ok what i did was first install lxde and them remove xfce .... This way it gave it the opportunity to auto configure alternatives ... It did ... It changed display manager login manager desktop environment windowmanger n everything thays required so that after reboot i am on lxde smoothly ...

Also while xfce was removed i saw messages saying xfce terminal was replaced woth lxterminal

But htop refused to work ... Other terminal based programs when run from menu alao worked.

I also checked the htop.desktop file but it has no references to xfceterminal

Posted: **Mon Apr 08, 2019 12:03 am**

Check Preferred Applications in your Settings application, Utilities tab, and make sure the default terminal emulator isn't still set to Xfce Terminal.

(Edit: never mind, Head_on_a_stick already suggested that.)

MX Linux Forum

[SOLVED] Remove XFCE and use only LXDE or Mate

[SOLVED] Remove XFCE and use only LXDE or Mate

Re: Remove XFCE and use only LXDE or Mate

Re: Remove XFCE and use only LXDE or Mate

Re: Remove XFCE and use only LXDE or Mate

Re: Remove XFCE and use only LXDE or Mate

Re: Remove XFCE and use only LXDE or Mate

Re: Remove XFCE and use only LXDE or Mate

Re: Remove XFCE and use only LXDE or Mate

Re: Remove XFCE and use only LXDE or Mate

Re: Remove XFCE and use only LXDE or Mate

Re: Remove XFCE and use only LXDE or Mate

Re: Remove XFCE and use only LXDE or Mate

[SOLVED] Re: [SOLVED] Remove XFCE and use only LXDE or Mate

Re: Remove XFCE and use only LXDE or Mate

Re: Remove XFCE and use only LXDE or Mate

Re: [SOLVED] Remove XFCE and use only LXDE or Mate

Re: Remove XFCE and use only LXDE or Mate

Re: Remove XFCE and use only LXDE or Mate

Re: Remove XFCE and use only LXDE or Mate

Re: Remove XFCE and use only LXDE or Mate

Re: Remove XFCE and use only LXDE or Mate

Re: Remove XFCE and use only LXDE or Mate

Re: Remove XFCE and use only LXDE or Mate

Re: Remove XFCE and use only LXDE or Mate

Re: [SOLVED] Remove XFCE and use only LXDE or Mate