I am usually a GNOME or KDE type person so most of the time I use those environments, but I've found that not too many people--especially those with low system resources--can run resource hungry desktop environments such as GNOME or KDE. I know that a lot of people want their desktop to look nice in a lightweight environment such as LXDE or XFCE, maybe with a dock, but they can't get it to work properly without enabling a compositor. This guide will show you, baby-step by baby-step, how to install and enable a lightweight compositor that will allow you to run beautiful yet lightweight dock applications such as Docky or Avant Window Navigator, or anything that needs compositing in general.
Docky in LXDE
Docky in XFCE
Step 1: Download and install a lightweight compositor, for example XCompmgr, using either the Terminal or Software Manager.
A.)If you want to install XCompmgr using Software Manager then follow these steps[Note: smiley faces are bullet points]:
☺Click on the XFCE menu(or LXDE menu)>System>click "Software Manager".
☺In the searchbox on the top right corner, type in "xcompmgr", without the quotes of course.
☺Click on the item which says "X composition manager", then click on the green "Install" icon located in the top right corner.
☺If asked for your password, type it in and press enter; installing programs require admin privileges.
☺Wait for the installation to finish; it shouldn't take long.
B.)If you want to install XCompmgr using the Terminal then follow these steps[Note: smiley faces are bullet points]:
☺Click on the XFCE menu(or LXDE menu)>click "Terminal".
☺Type in "sudo apt-get install xcompmgr", without the quotes! How many times do I have to re-iterate, seriously!? JUST JOKING lol!
☺If you are asked for your password, which you will be asked for, type it in because installing programs require admin privileges.
☺If it says, "[This much space] will be used for the installation. Do you want to continue? [Y/N]," type "Y" and press enter.
☺Wait for the installation to complete; this shouldn't take long. You will know when it's done when green text similar to "{name}@{name}-desktop ~ $" comes up.
☺Exit the terminal. If it says something like "There is a process running. Closing the terminal may interrupt it," it means installation is still running. Wait for it to finish, then close the terminal.
Step 2: Enabling xcompmgr on startup. This is the hard part....well...not really!!
This my friends, is the hard part....compared to what we had to do earlier. IT'S NOT THAT HARD ACTUALLY!
☺Open the Terminal and type in "gksu pcmanfm". This command opens the file manager(equal to the "Windows Explorer", for Windows users) as root, or administrator, so please be careful to not delete any files accidentally because the file system contains many important operating system files. Deleting these files may leave LinuxMint inoperable.
☺In the searchbox on top, type in a "/"(slash).
☺Look for a folder named "etc" and double click it.
☺Look for a folder named "xdg" and double click it.
☺Look for a folder named "autostart" and double click it.
☺Make a new file in this folder by right clicking anywhere in a white, blank space, then clicking on "Create document", then clicking on "Empty file". ☺Open this empty file you just created with any text editor(by right clicking the file>open with>LeafPad) and copy and paste this whole thing:
Code: Select all
[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=XCompmgr
Comment=XCompmgr--a light compositor
Exec=xcompmgr
Terminal=false
Type=Application
OnlyShowIn=XFCE;LXDE
Step 3: The easiest part!
This is the part where you celebrate by installing the dock of your choice and trying it out! Personally I like Docky, but I've tried Avant Window Navigator and both work flawlessly!
Option 1: Installing Docky
A.)Using the Software Manager:
☺XFCE menu(or LXDE)>System>Software Manager
☺In the searchbox, type in "docky".
☺Install Docky.
☺To run Docky, go to the menu>Accessories>Docky
B.)Using the Terminal:
☺XFCE menu(or LXDE)>Terminal
☺Type in "sudo apt-get install docky"
☺To run Docky, go to menu>Accessories>Docky
Option 2: Installing Avant Window Navigator
A.)Using the Software Manager:
☺XFCE menu(or LXDE)>System>Software Manager
☺In the searchbox, type in "avant-window-navigator".
☺Install it.
☺To run Avant Window Navigator, go to menu>Accessories>Avant Window Navigator
B.)Using the Terminal:
☺XFCE menu(or LXDE)>Terminal
☺Type in "sudo apt-get install avant-window-navigator"
☺To run Avant Window Navigator, go to menu>Accessories>Avant Window Navigator
Conclusion
Guys, I hope you enjoyed reading and following this guide as much as I did making it. Sure, this guide may be useless to those Linux experts, but for us noobs this could mean much more.
As for the resource usage of these items in LXDE, which was using 95MB RAM idle usage, Docky was using 28MB of RAM and XCompmgr using 1MB of RAM. Avant used a lot less memory, 10MB average, but was more CPU intensive using 2% of processor power.
In XFCE, the idle usage of RAM was 120MB, with these items using 28MB and 1MB for Docky and XCompmgr, respectively; with Avant, it was 12MB and 2% for RAM and processor usage, respectively.
If there happens to be any mistakes in this guide, or you want me to add something, feel free to let me know so I can correct them.
Any questions or comments? Post them and I will try and solve and answer them to the best of my knowledge.
Have a nice day!