XFCE
Sorry for the dumb question, but how do I go about installing XFCE? Do I need a PPA for it, or is there a package available in the repos? I'd like to try it out.
The xfce desktop environment is packaged in the repos:
sudo apt-get install xfce4
Thank you!
I actually really like this one, but looking through the screenshots it seems I have XFCE 4.0. How do I upgrade to the nicer-looking 4.10?
You might need to compile it yourself, dunno if it requires newer libraries than in Trisquel 6. Or find a PPA (which might contain non-free software, be careful),
Since Trisquel is currently always based on an Ubuntu version, you are stuck to the software versions which reside in the corresponding Ubuntu repositories.
So unless you compile XFCE in version 4.10 or (if available) use a PPA, you are stuck to 4.0.
When in doubt, this index is also really useful to find your packages :)
I am using version 4.12 from a ppa. I had to include 4.10 ppa also.
ppa:xubuntu-dev/xfce-4.10
ppa:xubuntu-dev/xfce-4.12
Upgrading will most likely fail. You can install a patched version of package trisquel-desktop-common-data if you want to use the ppas.
You can't just remove the package:
https://trisquel.info/en/issues/7610
If you want to try using the ppas, you can get trisquel-desktop-common-data source with "apt-get source", remove file etc/xdg/autostart/xscreensaver.desktop from the source directory, build the deb file and install it.
If you need any help, just reply.
Wow, thank you! I actually kind of have it working via those ppas, but I took a ridiculously naive route and I expect I'll find kinks because of that. By "naive", I mean moreso than you probably think - I tried installing it and synaptic showed a list of the packages it was trying to install before it failed. I manually added all of those packages.
It looks pretty nice, and I haven't seen any legit bugs yet, but I'm guessing something's bound to show up sooner or later. And the GRUB2 background is now a debian picture for some reason...
I am a member!
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1
You know that xfce4 4.8 is not that different than 4.10 ?
Have you tried 4.8 from the repositories ?
If it's just better looks you're looking, you can check xfce-look.org
or shimmerproject.org/project/greybird .
- --
teodorescup
I use: trisquel.info | fsf.org | eff.org | torproject.org | flattr.com
| duckduckgo.com | h-node.com | skepdic.com |
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.11 (GNU/Linux)
Comment: Using GnuPG with Thunderbird - http://www.enigmail.net/
iQEcBAEBAgAGBQJRzaebAAoJEMEMGgtsD2TuESoH/19QQEoLxWTEhD2fqAt62zod
yKRbVQS639YO6bXzSnfYZIRfAiKvMuVGtDLdB4OmcBwITVfuUWOZ43HBJXdLac4e
x6YjbXhjfvIZtqa6vv1aTPM9kJzddgMyZYAjodEDboiGpZZ2MjJeUb9gp5i5X03q
aGhwPAOo1jy0dke+GkAjewSGgQYIb6VlZnuz+aMPA/nNH3Qub0HyVI2nFCC+02AO
1m38QBeB1sJvPZCxNzy37+PuzKuSwO6slMS4wJ/JDLp/LbygMcwYe0/Y95zddcJG
UjaHNvcHr9ATse8x3/11ny0dCNDuaXg9sSkWFyjkw+N9Ef/vf3po9ydJjXZWleY=
=U4Fq
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
>GRUB2 background is now a debian picture for some reason...
Do you have a /usr/share/desktop-base/grub_background.sh
WALLPAPER=/usr/share/images/desktop-base/desktop-grub.png
COLOR_NORMAL=light-gray/black
COLOR_HIGHLIGHT=white/black
All the images in that /usr/share/images/desktop-base/ folder seem to be Debian-related.
Remove package desktop-base. It is automatically installed with xfce4 package.
This is what changed your theme.
Okay, I'm going to try doing your suggestion, how do I build the deb file and install it?
# create a dir (not to polute home with files)
mkdir build
cd build/
# install build dependencies
sudo apt-get build-dep trisquel-desktop-common-data
# get package source (without sudo)
apt-get source trisquel-desktop-common-data
cd trisquel-desktop-common-data-6.0/
# remove file
rm data/etc/xdg/autostart/xscreensaver.desktop
# build deb package
dpkg-buildpackage -uc -us
cd ..
# install the package
sudo dpkg -i trisquel-desktop-common-data_6.0-5_all.deb
Okay....now what? I tried reinstalling the xfce4 package, didn't make any change. I tried installing xubuntu-desktop and got an error.
christian@christianity:~$ sudo apt-get install xubuntu-desktop
[sudo] password for christian:
E: Could not get lock /var/lib/dpkg/lock - open (11: Resource temporarily unavailable)
E: Unable to lock the administration directory (/var/lib/dpkg/), is another process using it?
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:xubuntu-dev/xfce-4.10
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:xubuntu-dev/xfce-4.12
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
If XFCE isn't installed:
sudo apt-get install xfce4 xfce4-goodies
The goodies are additional xfce4 packages.
The error you are getting probably comes from another apt-get you started, synaptic, or other program for packages. Close them all.
You have the Synaptic package manager open or another apt-get running.
Okay, my system is pretty screwed up now. If I try to do dist-upgrade or install anything at all, I get
E: /var/cache/apt/archives/trisquel-desktop-common-data_6.0-5_all.deb: trying to overwrite '/etc/xdg/autostart/xscreensaver.desktop', which is also in package xfce4-session 4.10.1-0ubuntu1~ppa0.12.04.1
Help?
This means you haven't installed the modified trisquel-desktop-common-data package.
If you want the problem to go away, you can easily remove xfce packages, and everything will be as it was.
If you feel bad that your apt-get is broken, do this and you can still try to install xfce4 later. However, it seems you haven't removed file xscreensaver.desktop, or haven't installed the modified package, and that is easily fixable.
The package trisquel-desktop-common-data can be pached to become removable.
Open terminal and enter build directory:
cd build
Get the patch and enter package directory:
wget https://trisquel.info/files/issues/postrm.patch
cd trisquel-desktop-common-data-6.0/
Apply the patch:
patch debian/postrm ../postrm.patch
Build the package and install it:
dpkg-buildpackage -uc -us
cd ..
sudo dpkg -i trisquel-desktop-common-data_6.0-5_all.deb
This should fix the problem, and you can continue with dist-upgrade.
Here are previous commands with added lines:
# create a dir (not to polute home with files)
mkdir build
cd build/
# install build dependencies
sudo apt-get build-dep trisquel-desktop-common-data
# get package source (without sudo)
apt-get source trisquel-desktop-common-data
# get patch for removing package
wget https://trisquel.info/files/issues/postrm.patch
cd trisquel-desktop-common-data-6.0/
# apply patch
patch debian/postrm ../postrm.patch
# remove file
rm data/etc/xdg/autostart/xscreensaver.desktop
# build deb package
dpkg-buildpackage -uc -us
cd ..
# install the package
sudo dpkg -i trisquel-desktop-common-data_6.0-5_all.deb
Okay, I've got XFCE working (thank you!) - but there's one lingering problem. Any time I try to use synaptic or dist-upgrade, it automatically adds trisquel-desktop-common-data to be upgraded, which will fail. How do I fix this?
You can change package version by changing change log.
Edit debian/changelog file in the build directory.
There is this line:
trisquel-desktop-common-data (6.0-5) precise; urgency=low
Change the version:
trisquel-desktop-common-data (6.0-5.1) precise; urgency=low
After that, rebuild the package, and be careful to install the right version with "dpkg -i".
This way, only when new version appears (6.0-6), the package will be upgraded.
That worked!
Thank you SO much for the explicit walkthroughs! I'm really not good with the terminal, but you made this pretty easy on me. I really appreciate it!
I'll come back to this thread if I notice anything funny in the next couple days, but right now it looks like it's working great.
I need to revive this thread - there's now an update for trisquel-desktop-common-data which I can't install after modifying the file. Does anyone know how I can get the update?
Bumping
Bumping again because my post got knocked way down by the spammer.
Rebuilding the package should work.
You will only have to change the versions in the build process.
After you install the package you have built, you can safely dist-upgrade.
If you have tried to dist-upgrade before, I will help you resolve the issues.
Thank you for your reply.
When trying dist-upgrade, I get the following errors:
dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/trisquel-desktop-common-data_6.0-6_all.deb (--unpack):
trying to overwrite '/etc/xdg/autostart/xscreensaver.desktop', which is also in package xfce4-session 4.10.1-0ubuntu1~ppa0.12.04.1
dpkg-deb: error: subprocess paste was killed by signal (Broken pipe)
Removing 'diversion of /usr/bin/gnome-panel to /usr/bin/gnome-panel.real by trisquel-desktop-common-data'
dpkg-divert: error: rename involves overwriting `/usr/bin/gnome-panel' with
different file `/usr/bin/gnome-panel.real', not allowed
dpkg: error while cleaning up:
subprocess new post-removal script returned error exit status 2
Errors were encountered while processing:
/var/cache/apt/archives/trisquel-desktop-common-data_6.0-6_all.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
Currently my version number is 6.0-5.1, wanting to upgrade to 6.0-6. How should I change it?
I uploaded a new patch for postrm at https://trisquel.info/files/issues/ignore-errors.patch
It ignores all errors.
Here is a script that works fine for me.
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| xfce-fix.txt | 694 bytes |
How does one run a script exactly?
Save the script.
Open terminal window and go to the directory you saved the script in with the cd command.
You can run it with sh command:
sh script_name
For general purposes it is better to make the script executable:
chmod +x script_name
And then run it with:
./script_name
Seems to have gotten it. Thank you very much!