[solved] 18.3 cinnamon to xfce few questions

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Duke49th

[solved] 18.3 cinnamon to xfce few questions

Post by Duke49th »

Hi.

After I read that xfce uses less resources and is better on old hardware I think about switching.

I use it on a laptop acer Aspire 5750Z and an Desktop with Intel i3 machine with at the moment just 4gig ram (other 4 gig are damaged) with just onboard graphics card (more damaged hardware but not really money now to replace everything haha).

Well, I am not a fan of reinstalling everything from scratch as you may can imagine.

I installed it that way:

Desktop:
  • swap/core on a 1Gb and 20 Gb partition on my SSD, where my former Win 10 install is located (of course separate partition)
  • home on a 150 Gb partition of a regular HDD
Laptop:
  • everything (swap/core/home) on a 60 Gb partition on a HDD where also Win 7 is installed (separate partition of course)
For Desktop: If I reinstall on the SSD (swap/core) again and leave the home partition untouched does that cause any issues? Or is this the even the best way to go?

For Laptop: I guess I will lose everything?

What is the reason for a fresh install? Why not just install the xfce package and continue to work with existing install?

What can happen? Bugs? Missing settings?

I have my account on this forum a bit longer. But as a former heavy gamer and making music, I did not really use Linux Mint before. Just tested a bit.

So I am totally inexperienced. I'm a total noob.

Now I need it mainly for office/surfing and I just keep my Win install for the case I need to use a program that runs better/only in Windows. But of course I want a faster but still nice looking and functional UI.

Thanks.

P.s.: Ohh one more question. Is the difference between Cinnamon and Xfce just UI and some settings or are there major differences? For example Audio Driver (I use an Audigy 2 EX Platinum which works and I want to keep it as it sounds so much better than onboard), available programs in packet manager etc.
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xenopeek
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Re: 18.3 cinnamon to xfce few questions

Post by xenopeek »

You can install the package mint-meta-xfce which should get you the default software and programs for Linux Mint Xfce edition. That doesn't remove any software specific to Cinnamon though and, if you use the same user account for Xfce login as for Cinnamon login, some remnants of Cinnamon may be loaded in your Xfce session while they aren't needed. It could cause some processes to run while they aren't needed and possibly it can cause some conflicts. It's not trivial to pin point which packages are Cinnamon specific though. All that combined leads to the general advice to just reinstall.

In your case you might consider waiting a tad longer, till end of this month, when Linux Mint 19 Xfce final release becomes available. That way you switch to Xfce cleanly and you upgrade to Linux Mint 19 (on average the software on Linux Mint 19 will be 2 years newer than on Linux Mint 18.3).

Your partition re-use plan is fine. And yes, if /home is not on its own partition you will have to backup files before installing. A good time to check that you do indeed have backups of the files you care about as hard disks (also SSDs) can and do fail suddenly (or fire/flood/lightning/burglar strikes).
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Duke49th

Re: 18.3 cinnamon to xfce few questions

Post by Duke49th »

Ok thank you.

If I would change to xfce 19 beta now. Will it be possible to go over to the stable release without reinstall again?

Sounds like it is already pretty stable if the release is close. Better that way than switching to xcfe now and again to 19 soon again. And I'm impatient. :D

Only thing I hate is to setup a fresh OS to my needs. That's the only thing I am tired of. And better doing that earlier than later after you installed and setup more and more software.
After 25+ years of Windows I am more than tired of that :D


Edit: Never mind. I should read the announcements more carefully before asking such questions lol.
It will be possible to upgrade from this BETA to the stable release
I'll then go ahead with reinstalling to 19 beta
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xenopeek
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Re: [solved] 18.3 cinnamon to xfce few questions

Post by xenopeek »

I love it when a plan comes together :D Good luck with the install. It should generally work okay but some few things may not yet work as they should. Check the announcement on the blog for any mention of bugs you run into and if nothings is there post a comment to let the developers know something else to work on.
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MtnDewManiac
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Re: 18.3 cinnamon to xfce few questions

Post by MtnDewManiac »

Duke49th wrote: Wed Jun 13, 2018 7:00 amIf I would change to xfce 19 beta now. Will it be possible to go over to the stable release without reinstall again?

Sounds like it is already pretty stable if the release is close. Better that way than switching to xcfe now and again to 19 soon again. And I'm impatient. :D
As you have already learned, yes, Clem provides an upgrade path from Beta to Release versions of his distros. And, yes, our distro's Beta versions seem to be pretty usable in general.

But I suggest that you - and others in your situation, that of upgrading versions AND changing desktop environments - consider this: If everything is fine, no worries. However, IF you experience one or more issues after doing this thing, won't it cause at least a little additional hassle when troubleshooting the issue? You would have to ascertain whether your issue is caused by switching DEs or by the version upgrade. Add the fact that, however likely it might be, such an issue might be connected to some heretofore undiscovered issue with the Beta... Well, the phrase "unnecessary complications" springs to mind.

I can well understand impatience (having been young once :P ) . But I was taught that, when experimenting, one should strive to change only ONE variable at a time; otherwise the experiment can end up being useless. I feel that this strategy might be relevant to upgrading/changing one's computer setup, too.

Regards,
MDM
Mint 18 Xfce 4.12.

If guns kill people, then pencils misspell words, cars make people drive drunk, and spoons made Rosie O'Donnell fat.
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