Install Xfce on Debian 7 Wheezy

Xfce Desktop

Xfce is a lightweight desktop environment system for linux, and is a good alternative to the complex and clumsy gnome.

In this post I am going to show you how to install xfce on debian. It is available in the debian default repositories and can be installed right away.

# apt-get install xfce4

This will install the xfce desktop with all the necessary applications. The download size is around 20.4 MB and should finish in a few minutes on a fast broadband connection.
Along with the main xfce4 package you can also install additional useful applications by installing the package named xfce4-goodies.

# sudo apt-get install xfce4-goodies

If you want to install all the application of the xfce desktop suite then use the following command instead

# apt-get install xfce4-*

It will install a lot more applications. The download size is around 99MB and would take more time to complete.
So choose the right one for your needs.

Customise Xfce

After installing the XFCE desktop, you would want to customise the look and feel of it, to make it better. The default looks of any desktop are nothing great as such.

Get better themes

I personally find the greybird and bluebird themes to be great looking when it comes to xfce and lxde. On ubuntu they are present in the default repositories. However on debian we have to add the ubuntu ppa repository to get them.
Its easy, just run the following commands

# add-apt-repository 'deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/shimmerproject/ppa/ubuntu quantal main'
# apt-get update

# aptitude search shimmer
p   shimmer-themes-greybird         - Greybird Theme from the Shimmer Project

# apt-get install shimmer-themes-greybird

Now go to

Applications Menu > Settings > Appearance

And from the style tab, select greybird theme.
Also switch to a better font like Droid Sans. Enable anti aliasing with full hinting and RGB subpixel order. Now that should make your fonts look a great deal better.

Speed up the user interface

This is a simple trick that will speed up the menu display in xfce desktop. By default when you move the mouse over applications menu and and any sub menu under it, the sub menus appear after a short of few milliseconds. This delay can be removed to make the menus appear instantly making the user interface look very fast.

Install KDE in debian

For this you need to install x-window-system-core,kde,gnome

Install KDE in debian

#apt-get install x-window-system-core kde

You'll probably also want to install KDM, for the KDE-style login screen.

#apt-get install kdm

 
Starting KDE

To start KDE, type

#startkde

you may need to start X-Server if it is not running, to start it run

#startx

To start KDE each time (you probably want this) you'll need to edit your startup files. If you use KDM or XDM to log in, edit .xsession, otherwise edit .xinitrc or .Xclients.

Install Gnome in Debian

#apt-get install gnome

This will install additional software (gnome-office, evolution) that you may or may not want.

Custom

For a smaller set of apps, you can also do

 # aptitude install gnome-desktop-environment

A set of additional productivity apps will be installed by

 # aptitude install gnome-fifth-toe

Developers

If you need development packages, e.g. for compiling GNOME dependent packages from source, you should try

 # aptitude install gnome-core-devel

For a full set of developer tools, please do

 # aptitude install gnome-devel

The install procedure will as you the details of your video card, keyboard and mouse. Some hints

- PS/2 mice are attached to /dev/psaux.

- USB mice are usually attached to /dev/input/mouse0

- Be sure to select the correct video driver. If you select an inappropriate one, X won't start. If you are not sure which driver to use, ask here.

- If you are completely helpless, use the 'vesa' driver. It should work on any card.

- Other than the things listed above, you can accept the default answers, but be sure to actually read what the installer ask; the default maybe isn't what you want.

After you done, you have two options.

The first one is to edit the ~/.xinitrc file, and write the 'exec startkde' or 'exec gnome-session' lines to it, depending on what you want to start. After this, if you issue the 'startx' command, a GUI will hopefully start.

The second option is to install a login manager, which is probably the more convenient choice, and is good for most people. Simply install the kdm or the gdm package (the former is KDE's login manager, the latter is of Gnome). No matter which one you choose, you can always choose your GUI upon login, if you installed both KDE and Gnome.