Upgrading Mint 12 LXDE?

[gurmint]

Hello all,

I'm a little bit of at a crossroads, but honestly don't know where the possible roads go...

My current situation is this: I have a fully functional Linux Mint 12 LXDE machine. I am very, absolutely, extremely happy with this distro for this machine, particularly after having used XFCE for a long time and finally "seeing the light" in LXDE. The machine is an old low-spec hardware, performing as a home server, and the combination of Mint out-of-the-iso usability, ubuntu-based underpinnings and LXDE lightweight glory is just perfect for me (yes, this is absolutely biased personal preference)

But I am starting to be in need of upgrades to some apps installed in it (tiny features getting developed or fixed I'd like to have) which come with, of course, newer distro repos. Plus I like the idea of going LTS, since this is a "server" that just needs to be stable above everything else.

Unfortunately, it seems Mint 13 (LTS) will not be flavoured in LXDE , so I'm either stuck, or I change LXDE for MATE or something. Or I go with other distro and put LXDE on it. Or can I install any Mint 13 and change for LXDE afterwards?

I'm not a newbie... but not a Linux expert either. I've been combing forums and honestly can't find much particularly applicable to my case. Maybe I'm just missing how to approach the issue...
Suggestions? Howto's?

Thanks!

[nunol]

I would recommend installing Mint 13 XFCE LTS and try to use that.

If that is not satisfactory just install LXDE on top.

[xenopeek]

I don't have any of the Linux Mint 12 editions on my machine any longer, else I'd be of more help. But the way I would approach this depends on how handy you are and what your goal is.

Whatever you decide on how handy you are and what your goal is, I'd recommend taking Linux Mint 13 Xfce as a base and add LXDE on top of that. MATE and KDE have a lot of different default applications and libraries, so may not be a good match (though I've built a nice Xfce on top of Linux Mint 13 MATE, instead of on top of GNOME 3 as you get with Linux Mint 13 Xfce ). You may also add LXDE on top of Cinnamon if you prefer, though with Xfce also being stuck with Gtk+ 2 for now I think that is the best bet.

As to your goal; do you just want LXDE and will you tweak and tune it yourself, or do you want LXDE with the themes and defaults as they were on Linux Mint 12? If you just want to add LXDE, just install the package lxde and go ahead and tweak and tune (lots of manual labour . You will be running stock LXDE that way.

If you want to run LXDE with the themes and default as they were on Linux Mint 12, there are basically two options to that. The first option is the cautious one, where you install Linux Mint 13 Xfce in VirtualBox or in dual boot next to your current installation. Then install LXDE as above, and then visit http://packages.linuxmint.com/list.php? ... =Lisa-LXDE and download and install mint-artwork-lxde and mint-lxde-default-settings. You may also want mintinput and gnome-run-dialog, but I'm not exactly sure if these are installed by default (so check your package manager, which of these is installed on your current Linux Mint 12). You will have to create a new user to use the Mint themes and defaults. Doing this in VirtualBox or in dual boot will give you the opportunity to compare your Xfce + LXDE system with your current system and fix any missing tidbits.

In either of the above approaches you will probably have to reconfigure a lot of things to make the same applications as on Linux Mint 12 LXDE the default.

The not so cautious second option is to upgrade your Linux Mint 12 LXDE in place to Linux Mint 13. Yes, that can be done. No reinstallation needed, just reconfigure your sources.list correctly (!!!) and do an upgrade of all your installed packages. Is it that easy? No, there may be dependency conflicts and other problems. It may lead to more problems than it is worth, or even a broken system, hence we strongly advice against upgrading in this way. But let's say you don't mind if everything breaks and you have to reinstall your entire system, then this is worth a shot as you won't have to configure themes, defaults or other things. For help with reconfiguring your sources.list, please share the output of the following command:

Code: Select all

inxi -r

[gurmint]

I'd recommend taking Linux Mint 13 Xfce as a base and add LXDE on top of that.
...
As to your goal; do you just want LXDE and will you tweak and tune it yourself, or do you want LXDE with the themes and defaults as they were on Linux Mint 12?

Not exactly sure what you mean by that, which probably shows that I'm closer to newbie than expert... more than I thought myself But my guess is that my goal is just to install LXDE, as stock as possible. Why? I do not really care much -in this machine- about the looks and choice of default applications. I just care about the small footprint LXDE provides, yet being very usable, and honestly I like LXDE waaaaaay better than XFCE (again, biased personal preference).

I would recommend installing Mint 13 XFCE LTS and try to use that.

If that is not satisfactory just install LXDE on top.

So if my logic is correct, I will go with the recommended installation of Mint 13 XFCE and then add LXDE.
Thanks all!

[seppalta]

I have installed LXDE over all the Mints. The best one (fastest, most stable, rolls forever) in my opinion is on Mint Debian (LMDE). For an install recipe, see http://lxlinux.com/debian.html . I found it much faster than Mint 12 LXDE.