cinnamon -> xfce

[orange_roughy]

Hi, i installed Mint 13 with Cinnamon. I want to install XFCE and switch between the two on the login screen. How can I install XFCE without ruining cinnamon?

thanks,
orange

[GeneBenson]

Hi orange_roughy,

In a terminal:

Code: Select all

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:xubuntu-dev/xfce-4.10
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install xfce4

This will install a bare Xfce. You can then select "Xfce" in the login screen. The first time you start Xfce it will ask if you want to use the default menu or a bare (empty) one, Choose the default menu.

There are a number of things you need to be aware of though:
Cinnamon uses GTK3 while Xfce uses GTK2. When choosing a theme in Xfce in "Appearance" or "Window Manager" make sure it supports GTK2.

Not all the applications you have under Cinnamon will show up in the Xfce menu. That is because they are defined only to display in Gnome (i.e. Cinnamon). You can change this but you will need to read up on how to edit the Xfce menu.

Since you have only installed a bare Xfce you may want to install some Xfce apps. Just make sure they are version 4.10 and not version 4.8. A good example is "xfce4-goodies" which includes the popular "Weather plugin". It is still at 4.8 and won't run under Xfce 4.10. You can see the version numbers in Synaptic.

Hope this helps.

[orange_roughy]

wow thanks, Gene!