LXDE on Linux Mint Main Edition

[drewkeller]

I'm glad to see someone working on a LXDE edition.

I have LXDE running on the Main Helena edition shortly after it was released. I spent quite a while messing around with Fluxbox, LXDE, etc so I don't remember how I got it working. Does someone have some steps for that? A Google search didn't turn up anything obvious. I would like to get LXDE on Isadora because Isadora fixes some issues with my sound.

Of course, if the "official" LXDE is going to be done in a couple weeks or so it might not be worth messing around. What sort of ETA ballpark are we looking at.... in the "weeks" range or in the "months" range?

[Aging Technogeek]

The eta on Mint 9 LXDE is the same as for the MAin Edition - when its ready. The developer is assisting in the release of the Main Edition, developing Mint 9 LXDE, developing Mint 9 Fluxbox, developing another OS called Peppermint, and working a full time job so he can feed and house his family. You can understand why Mint 9 LXDE will not be released the day after Mint 9 Main stable is released.

It should be out hopefully by mid to late June but that is only my guess. As I said above it will be released when the developers think it is ready.

[Kendall]

I think the development time is going to way rather quick, so don't expect to wait too long. Of course, I could be wrong.

[drewkeller]

So basically 1-2 months after Main beta is released.... it might be worthwhile for somebody to install LXDE over a main edition. If I end up doing it, i'll post the steps. That was the main point of this topic, anyway. There's already an progress topic on this forum that is updated fairly regularly so it would have been pointless to make another topic just about that, right?

I am a software developer myself, also with projects on the side, so I know how these things go. No offense was intended. But I also know the difference when something is going to take a week or 6 months and I can say so even before I begin. The progress thread for LXDE 9 indicates that there is an ISO at a bug-finding stage 5 days after Main 9 RC. Main 8 RC was released Nov13 and LXDE 8 RC was released in March 15 (about 4 months). There was no real LXDE 7 release, so no data. Based on the data that exists, It seemed like a fair question.

[Kendall]

I didn't start building Mint 8 LXDE until a few weeks after the Fluxbox edition was released. I basically started building it to offer an official edition as an unauthorized one had shown up in Russia. Also I went back and read where McLovin had started work on this and made an "official" announcement so I thought it best to keep true to his word and push forward with it. The total development time from zero to the RC build only took eleven days. It will take longer for Mint 9 as there are a lot of new things to consider and work on, but it should still be rather quick. Right now we're just waiting for the final release of the Gnome edition before we start really digging in.

[.ee]

Can I expect the same tablet PC functonality as on Ubuntu 10.04 or better? Can I help testing it?

[drewkeller]

How to install LXDE on Linux Mint Main Edition

Some of the theming of the Gnome edition and the LXDE edition conflict with each other. It's possible to keep the files but both can't ben installed at the same time in the package manager. Choose one of the below options and follow the optional steps as marked in the sequence.

• optional 1: Do these steps if you want to keep mint-lxde-default-settings and dependencies installed instead of gnome-wise-icon-theme and dependencies.
• optional 2: Do these steps if you want to keep gnome-wise-icon-theme and dependencies installed instead of mint-lxde-default-settings and dependencies.

1. 1. Download Mint Main edition. Burn. Install.

• 2. Run package manager. Add repository
  • deb http://packages.linuxmint.com/ helena-lxde main upstream import backport romeo

• 3. (optional 1) Make temporary copies of the items below. These are the items that are in the gnome-wise-icon-theme and related packages.
  • /usr/share/backgrounds/linuxmint
    /usr/share/gnome-background-properties
    /usr/share/icons/Felicia
    /usr/share/themes/Aurora-Midnight
    /usr/share/themes/AuroraMint
    /usr/share/themes/Carbon
    /usr/share/themes/Felicia
    /usr/share/themes/Gilouche
    /usr/share/themes/Lightning
    /usr/share/themes/Murrina-Blue
    /usr/share/themes/Murrine
    /usr/share/themes/PepperMint
    /usr/share/themes/WildMint

• 4. In the package manager, mark the following for REMOVAL, then click Apply.*
  • gnome-wise-icon-theme

• 5. In the package manager, mark the following for INSTALLATION, then click Apply.
  • lxde
    mint-lxde-default-settings
    mint-artwork-lxde (should get marked when you mark the default settings package)

• 6. (optional 1) Restore the items you kept in step 3.

• 7. (optional 2) Open a file manager. Show hidden files. Copy everything from /etc/skel/ to your home directory

• 8. (optional 2) Make temporary copies of the items below. These are the items that are in the mint-lxde-default-settings and related packages.
  • /etc/skel
    /usr/bin/skl
    /usr/bin/skl1
    /usr/lib/linuxmint/mint-lxde-default-settings
    /usr/share/icons/hicolor
    /usr/share/backgrounds
    /usr/share/icons (icons in this folder)
    /usr/share/icons/gnome-wise
    /usr/share/slim/themes/mint-lxde
    /usr/share/themes/Aluminum
    /usr/share/themes/DarkerIce
    /usr/share/themes/Shiki-LXDE

• 9. (optional 2) In package manager, do the following.
  • Remove mint-lxde-default-settings. Click Apply.
    Install gnome-wise-icon-theme. Click Apply.

• 10. (optional 2) Restore the items you kept in step 8.

• 11. (optional 2) The GRUB bootloader will say "Linux Mint 8 Helena LXDE" even though it's actually Mint 9. To fix this, change the GRUB_TITLE as appropriate in the following file
  • /etc/linuxmint/info

• 12. Logout. At the bottom of the login screen, select LXDE as the session type. Log back in.

• 13. The pcmanfm2 filemanager used in mint LXDE didn't seem to be working. A side effect seems to be that the desktop background isn't displayed. To fix, I did this...
  • Open the package manager.
  • Mark pcmanfm-nohal for installation. This causes pcmanfm2 to be marked for removal.
  • Apply.
  • Logout and back in.

• 14. Change theming:
  • In Settings/Appearance, select Shiki-LXDE on Window tab
  • In Settings/Appearance, select GNOME-Wise on Icon tab
  • In right click desktop/Desktop, select the wallpaper image
  [list]
  • Mint9: /usr/share/backgrounds/linuxmint/Talento-1.jpg
• In right click menu button, "Menu" settings, select the icon
[list]
• /usr/share/icons/mint-menu-lxde.png

[/*][/list][/list]

• 15. Now you can remove any extra software that you didn't really want from the main edition.

[Kendall]

Thanks for the write-up. I'm being more careful to make things more portable for Mint 9.

[alanmoore]

Hi! With the release of Mint LXDE 9 RC, has any of this changed?

I actually want to install the new Pcmanfm2 onto the Mint Gnome Edition, not the whole LXDE desktop, but can't seem to find it in the repos. Could anybody help me?

Also, Pcmanfm2 has recently been updated to version 0.9.7, I think, and more updates are coming in the next few weeks. We're talking about betas and RCs, so all new versions until 1.0 comes out will be bug-fix releases, no new features, as you can see here:

http://blog.lxde.org/?p=727

So my question is, will you keep your Pcmanfm2 package updated, so we, the users, can enjoy bug-fix releases of the software contained there, or will be have to wait for the next Mint LXDE (10) to use the latest and greatest Pcmanfm?

Thanks.

[Kendall]

The packages for Mint 9 LXDE are much more portable the ones from Mint 8 LXDE so there should be significantly fewer issues putting one desktop on top of the other. Yes, I'll be making sure the file manager stays as up to date as possible. The best builds of pcmanfm2 for Ubuntu based distros are in the Lubuntu PPA which will be enabled by default in the stable release of Mint 9 LXDE via an update to mint-lxde-default-settings.