[solved] Installing LinuxMint Xfce starting from a basic Ubuntu installation

[dashohoxha]

How can I install LinuxMint Xfce, starting from a basic Ubuntu installation?
For example to install Ubuntu Xfce I can run:

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apt install xubuntu-core

or

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apt install xubuntu-desktop

How to continue from there to make the LinuxMint customizations?

[richyrich]

apt install mint-meta-xfce

Of course you will need to add the Mint repositories to your software sources.

Edit: You will need to tell us which version of Ubuntu you are using, before we can tell you the correct Mint version repository you will need to add.

[dashohoxha]

Thanks for the answer. I am not familiar with this kind of forum and I had not enabled email notifications, so I did not notice your answer until now.

I am talking about the latest ubuntu, bionic. I followed these steps:

• Created the file /etc/apt/sources.d/linuxmint.list with this content:

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  deb http://packages.linuxmint.com tara main upstream import backport #id:linuxmint_main

• Created the file /etc/apt/preferences.d/official-extra-repositories.pref with this content:

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  Package: *
  Pin: origin build.linuxmint.com
  Pin-Priority: 700
  

• Created the file /etc/apt/preferences.d/official-package-repositories.pref with this content:

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  Package: *
  Pin: origin live.linuxmint.com
  Pin-Priority: 750
  
  Package: *
  Pin: release o=linuxmint,c=upstream
  Pin-Priority: 700
  
  Package: *
  Pin: release o=Ubuntu
  Pin-Priority: 500
  

• Did an upgrade:

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  apt-key adv --recv-key A6616109451BBBF2
  apt update
  apt upgrade
  

• Installed mint-meta-xfce: apt install mint-meta-xfce

However the result still does not look like the normal LinuxMint. For example have a look at this: http://mint.fs.al/?host=mint.fs.al&port=6901 (user1:pass1 or user2:pass2)

[fabien85]

Not sure, but if you installed xubuntu-desktop prior to installing mint-meta-xfce, then xfce may have already written config files and that's going to override the ones from Mint.
Through the link you provided, the Mint wallpaper appears when logged out, but it is overriden when logging in.

Another thing to test is to add --install-recommends and --install-suggests when installing mint-meta-xfce

All that said, I'm not the best person to help. I once tried to install xfce on a Mint Mate box, and got the default xfce appearance as you have, instead on the Mint xfce appearance. I tinkered a lot and finally managed it, but cannot remember how I did. (and in fine I purged everything and went back to Mate..)

[dashohoxha]

Yes, I installed first xubuntu-core and lightdm, and then applied the steps above.
I used these scripts: https://github.com/docker-scripts/desktop
(which is basically this Dockerfile and then the installation of WebVNC ).

Actually I also installed manually xubuntu-desktop and some other packages like xubuntu-extras etc. hoping that it would make any difference, but it did not change anything. By the way, mint-meta-xfce does not have any recommends or suggestions, so this cannot help either.

Maybe it depends on who writes first the Xfce config files, as you said, so I will try to install first mint-meta-xfce and later xubuntu-desktop.

[richyrich]

Just install mint-meta-xfce . . do NOT install the xubuntu desktop, as that will overwrite what mint-meta-xfce has already installed.

[dashohoxha]

I tried to follow the suggestions above. The code now looks like this: Dockerfile.

I have noticed that lightdm is required. Also xubuntu-core seems to be required, otherwise nothing will be displayed. Maybe it should be in the list of dependencies of mint-meta-xfce (and maybe xubuntu-desktop should be in the list of suggested or recommended packages).

However there is a problem on user login, which I guess breaks the xfce session and things become messed up:



I found that the file /usr/bin/locale-check is missing from the package base-files (dpkg-query -L base-files)
On Ubuntu it is available only on bionic-updates (not on bionic): base-files (bionic), base-files (bionic-updates).

Should we report an issue about this? Is there any workaround in the meantime?

[dashohoxha]

As a workaround I tried:

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# apt list base-files -a
Listing... Done
base-files/tara,now 19.0.1 all [installed]
base-files/bionic-updates 10.1ubuntu2.3 all
base-files/bionic-security 10.1ubuntu2.2 all
base-files/bionic 10.1ubuntu2 all

# apt install base-files/bionic-updates

Now the file /usr/bin/locale-check is there, the error message disappears, but the desktop is not properly configured yet: http://mint.fs.al/?host=mint.fs.al&port=6901
There is still something that is missing.

[dashohoxha]

When I install the packages lightdm-settings and slick-greeter along with lightdm, then display manager works properly and I can login even without installing xubuntu-core. So, I think that these three packages should be dependencies for mint-meta-xfce.

However the desktop is not yet properly configured (for example the panel is on top, the menu style is not ok, etc.).
There is still something missing.

https://github.com/docker-scripts/deskt ... c0150edf18

[dashohoxha]

The original answer (by richyrich) actually solved this problem: posting.php?mode=reply&f=46&t=277765#pr1527262
The problems that I had subsequently (with desktop not looking properly) were due to the fact that user accounts from previous installations were not erased, so I guess that some configurations were kept.

However the problem reported here still remains: posting.php?mode=reply&f=46&t=277765#pr1532423