The unofficial LMDE XFCE - startup

[Tomtom]

I will also keep an eye on this topic. I am not a Debian user but this discussion got me interested. I like XFCE and I have a netbook which I want to keep cool. So my points would be:

One aspect of Mint's user friendliness is that they include the programs that most people use (except for truetype core fonts and skype). If most of the people use VLC (or mplayer) and they need it and they would install it anyway than its preinstalled. Why to make everybody to make some extra steps. This saves time and saves us from getting a buggy version of the program.

The default look should be mintish. I used shiki wise in the past and greybird for XFCE. I agree that dark themes are nicer and better for the eyes. Mint has some themes preinstalled so people can change without going to the look.org sites.

Regarding audio players. Most of the people have their favorite players already which they will install anyway. Its hard to do justice here. For sure, one of the programs I uninstall is Banshee. There are faster and better looking players and they can deal with large collection of music. (Exaile is one of them.)

[Schoelje]

The only viable solution is to start my own repository, and there I have another slight problem: I haven't got a clue how to do that (but it's high on my wish list).

Maybe see ketoth's tutorial on mirrors, and notes on traffic.

Also reprepro.

Thanks, that's a good starting point.

[Tomtom]

Has anybody used deadbeef musicplayer? I noticed that manjaro xfce using it so I just installed it on my Mate. It looks nice, seems very fast and lightweight. It can handle large music collection. Well, my collection is not so big and I haven't tested it for weeks so I can not say that it is the one and only player for debian xfce...

[Schoelje]

I don't know about deadbeef, and I'm afraid nobody else has an opinion about it
So, I'm leaving the list as is for now.

Other news on the unofficial LMDE Xfce:
Device Driver Manager is my first priority at the moment (Clem wants to include it in LMDE), and as soon as that is done, I'll start with LMDE Xfce.
If you want to help testing DDM (so I can start sooner with LMDE Xfce ), you can find the thread here:
viewtopic.php?p=660053#p660053

[dritzominous]

..................
- Alacarte

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get install --no-install-recommends alacarte

^ To install alacarte without gnome-panel dependency.

I've tested both alacarte and lxMenuEditor quite a bit last night, and I've found alacarte to be more mature.

It's not perfect, but it still does the job better than anything else out there. And lxMenuEditor uses Java..

dritz...
That got my attention. Perhaps my 'alacate' is broken? I can't get it to do anything except shut off/on items. I can't edit properties, make new items, new categories.

Code: Select all

LMDE-SID

gene@zordon:~$ apt-cache policy alacarte
alacarte:
  Installed: 3.5.3-1
  Candidate: 3.5.3-1
  Version table:
 *** 3.5.3-1 0
        500 http://http.us.debian.org/debian/ unstable/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

As a test, I went to my just installed Nadia-XFCE-RC and alacarte works fully funtional there.???

Code: Select all

Nadia-XFCE

gene@nadia ~ $ apt-cache policy alacarte
alacarte:
  Installed: 3.5.5-0ubuntu1.1
  Candidate: 3.5.5-0ubuntu1.1
  Version table:
 *** 3.5.5-0ubuntu1.1 0
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ quantal-updates/universe amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     3.5.5-0ubuntu1 0
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ quantal/universe amd64 Packages

EDIT-2:
Nope, just installed alacarte: 3.5.5-0ubuntu1.1, same thing. Something is broken in my LMDE/SID/alacarte.

Ugh, that sucks. I'll have to fiddle with figuring out how the alacarte and lxMenuEditor code work, and try to make something more functional.

If I fork it, I'll be basing it on alacarte. (Java is often evil when it comes to resources)

I guess I'll call this my official winter break project.

[Schoelje]

I guess I'll call this my official winter break project.

I'm happy to hear that you want to take up this issue.
Device Driver Manager and Debian Plymouth Manager are taking up a lot of my time at the moment.
So, I'm glad there's another developer in the team!

[cwwgateway]

Schoelje, I seem to have missed the thread (or post) about the Debian Plymouth Manager. Where could I find that thread/post?

[Schoelje]

Schoelje, I seem to have missed the thread (or post) about the Debian Plymouth Manager. Where could I find that thread/post?

I'm in the middle of the unit tests and if that's done (I think in a few hours), I'll start a new thread and post a link on the unofficial LMDE KDE.Xfce thread.

[cwwgateway]

Schoelje, I seem to have missed the thread (or post) about the Debian Plymouth Manager. Where could I find that thread/post?

I'm in the middle of the unit tests and if that's done (I think in a few hours), I'll start a new thread and post a link on the unofficial LMDE KDE.Xfce thread.

Thank you.

[Schoelje]

I've started a new thread for Debian Plymouth Manager:
viewtopic.php?f=47&t=120073

I'm in dire need for testers. So, if you like to help, just follow the instructions in the thread.

If you feel up to it, there is also the Device Driver Manager:
viewtopic.php?f=47&t=113559

P.S.: I've also posted this on the unofficial LMDE KDE thread.

[dritzominous]

I guess I'll call this my official winter break project.

I'm happy to hear that you want to take up this issue.
Device Driver Manager and Debian Plymouth Manager are taking up a lot of my time at the moment.
So, I'm glad there's another developer in the team!

I love you too.

[Schoelje]

I guess I'll call this my official winter break project.

I'm happy to hear that you want to take up this issue.
Device Driver Manager and Debian Plymouth Manager are taking up a lot of my time at the moment.
So, I'm glad there's another developer in the team!

I love you too.

[OS2-User]

Schoelje, if it's not already too late to still add something to the feature wish list, then I would very much appreciate, if your version could become the first recent Linux Mint with CDRTools again for CD/DVD burning, instead of the dreadful and abandoned mess called CDRKit.

Unless the dimwitted and utterly stubborn Debian maintainer very recently came to his senses, this switch would additionally require to compile your own version of Brasero, since in his infinite stupidity he also removed CDRTools support from Brasero, Debian/Ubuntu are shipping.

The history on this issue can be found here on the author of CDRTools' homepage: http://cdrecord.berlios.de/old/private/linux-dist.html
Antiqua offered binaries of CDRTools in this thread http://forum.ubuntuusers.de/topic/kleines-projekt-mit-paketverwaltung-die-schil/9/, where also the author Jörg Schily offered support and additional background info of this issue with Debian (sorry, German only, but you being Dutch, might be able to read it anyway).
There also is Brandon's CDRTools PPA: https://launchpad.net/~brandonsnider/+archive/cdrtools (also still requires a fully functional 'Brasero')

It would be great not to have to fiddle with replacing essential programs right after installation, but have them come ready right out of the box again for once.
<sigh> I just wish Clem would do the same finally as well for all official Mint images.

[Schoelje]

Schoelje, if it's not already too late to still add something to the feature wish list, then I would very much appreciate, if your version could become the first recent Linux Mint with CDRTools again for CD/DVD burning, instead of the dreadful and abandoned mess called CDRKit.

Unless the dimwitted and utterly stubborn Debian maintainer very recently came to his senses, this switch would additionally require to compile your own version of Brasero, since in his infinite stupidity he also removed CDRTools support from Brasero, Debian/Ubuntu are shipping.

The history on this issue can be found here on the author of CDRTools' homepage: http://cdrecord.berlios.de/old/private/linux-dist.html
Antiqua offered binaries of CDRTools in this thread http://forum.ubuntuusers.de/topic/kleines-projekt-mit-paketverwaltung-die-schil/9/, where also the author Jörg Schily offered support and additional background info of this issue with Debian (sorry, German only, but you being Dutch, might be able to read it anyway).
There also is Brandon's CDRTools PPA: https://launchpad.net/~brandonsnider/+archive/cdrtools (also still requires a fully functional 'Brasero')

It would be great not to have to fiddle with replacing essential programs right after installation, but have them come ready right out of the box again for once.
<sigh> I just wish Clem would do the same finally as well for all official Mint images.

How does xfburn, which will replace Brasero on the unofficial LMDE Xfce, relate to this issue?

[OS2-User]

Unless the dimwitted and utterly stubborn Debian maintainer very recently came to his senses, this switch would additionally require to compile your own version of Brasero, since in his infinite stupidity he also removed CDRTools support from Brasero, Debian/Ubuntu are shipping.

How does xfburn, which will replace Brasero on the unofficial LMDE Xfce, relate to this issue?

I honestly don't know, since so far it only was Debian/Ubuntu's Brasero being mentioned as having been crippled to now work only with CDRKit. I am running LM-8 Gnome for the last 3 years and couldn't upgrade due to all kind of different regressions in the releases since, until now, where all my hardware seems to be working properly again (with only minor, but tolerable issues that is), finally

[GeneC]

I believe that xfburn has been mentioned as a preferred CD/DVD burner for XFCE.

See https://www.google.com/search?q=site#sc ... W10AHAooBQ

Seems a waste of time to fix something that is broken, than to use something that works....

[Schoelje]

I believe that xfburn has been mentioned as a preferred CD/DVD burner for XFCE.

See https://www.google.com/search?q=site#sc ... W10AHAooBQ

Seems a waste of time to fix something that is broken, than to use something that works....

My sentiments exactly

[Tomtom]

In the past years I have always used Xfburn even in my gnome and later in my mate editions. It just does what I need and I had better experiences with it than with the other three burners (brasero, gnomebaker, k3b).

[mack_mcash]

In the past years I have always used Xfburn even in my gnome and later in my mate editions. It just does what I need and I had better experiences with it than with the other three burners (brasero, gnomebaker, k3b).

I agree with this statement, 100%.

xfburn is the way to go, imo.

[on4aa]

@Schoelje
@zerozero
@GeneC
@all LMDE-XFCE-lovers

I only learned today about the tragic fate of the official LMDE XFCE distro... sorry for being a bit late at chiming in...
I manage about 8 LMDE-XFCE machines among my friends and family, so I feel particularly concerned.

I agree with zerozero and GeneC that a pure XFCE would be most welcome.
As for my customisations that might interest others:

• I removed Nautilus and Thunar in favour of spacefm; Unlike Thunar, it offers tabs, file search and yet it is light and well maintained.
• For more serious file management stuff, I use Double Commander
• mdm might be light, but users need each time to type their usernames. I currently use gdm3 to overcome this.
• Geekie, VLC, Osmo, KeePassX
• I use a second vertical panel to launch my most-used applications. It fits well on 16:9 aspect ratio screens.
• I developed a Recent Folders plugin.
• I will PM Schoelje a Calc worksheet with all my installed packages and customisations.

In my opinion, Clem should really allow the developers group to grow and welcome in and officially support a new LMDE XFCE developer team.
If not, we should simply fork and in order to gain visibility, set up or own site.
You really cannot expect potential new users to search for an obscure forum link, nor could you refer family or friends to this.