[SOLVED] Cinnamon-Xfce

[J.Naw]

Hello, I was wondering about the xfce edition of mint. I am currently "dual-booting" windows 7 and mint 13 right now, and was wondering if i could go to xfce, and keep the grub and all that fancy jazz. If not, would it be possible to first, erase the mint partition, get my windows dvd back, but back the windows boot MBR, and the install xfce???

[karlchen]

Hello, J.Naw.

Reading your title "Cinnamon - Xfce" and your wish to swtich to Xfce, I assume that currently you are running Linux Mint13 with the Cinnamon desktop. Correct?
You would, however, like to use Linux Mint13 with the Xfce desktop. Correct?
If the answer to both question is "yes", then there is good news:
There is no need to re-install Linux Mint13 from the scratch just in order to switch from the Cinnamon desktop to the Xfce desktop.

You can

1. add the Xfce desktop software first, i.e. install it
   To do so launch Synaptic Package Manager. Search for the Xfce meta package named mint-meta-xfce, dated 2012-June-25 (or newer).
   This is a meta package which depends on all the software packages which together form the Xfce desktop.
   Therefore by selecting mint-meta-xfce for installation, a lot of dependent xfce packages will be selected and installed as well.
   Make sure you get Xfce 4.10 and not an older version.
2. make the Xfce desktop your primary desktop environment when logging in
3. ignore Cinnamon for a while and use Xfce only
4. once you have decided that you want to keep Xfce and never use Cinnamon again, uninstall the Cinnamon desktop software
   To do so launch Synaptic Package Manager. Search for the installed software packages named cinnamon, cinnamon-themes, mint-artwork-cinnamon, mint-meta-cinnamon, mint-info-cinnamon, mint-meta-cinnamon-dvd, select them for de-installation and apply.
   But in fact, there is no real need to do so. You could just keep Cinnamon on the disk forever without using it, just in case you might change your mind in the future and want to go back to Cinnamon.

HTH,
Karl

[odo5435]

How to Instal and Manage Multiple Desktop Environments Using GUI in the Community pages may have some information that is useful to you.

[J.Naw]

Thankyou, I did look at the boot file, I might not go with it, Thanks for the reply though. I am sticking with linux mint!!!

[J.Naw]

Just another question, if i want to use KDE, Can i do the same thing, like install kde on linux mint without reinstalling the operating system?

[karlchen]

Just another question, if i want to use KDE, Can i do the same thing, like install kde on linux mint without reinstalling the operating system?

Yes, you can.

Karl

[J.Naw]

How do i do that?

[A Future Pilot]

I'm pretty sure you can just do 'sudo apt-get install kde' in a terminal (no quotes).

[caerolle]

Or, if you want to install KDE graphically, with a bit more info and context provided, use the Software Manager or Synaptic.

Really, you can have several DEs (desktop environments) installed, then just click the 'sessions' button (the middle one) on the login screen to select the one you want to use. Reading the tutorial linked in the earlier post would help you a lot with all this, and it's very short, and not too technical.

caerolle