Arch linux install xfce4

How to Install XFCE in Arch Linux (Simple Guide)

XFCE is a great, lightweight desktop environment for Linux. Many people prefer it over something like Gnome because it uses less resources and is very snappy, even on an older system.

In this tutorial, I will show you how you can easily install XFCE on your system running Arch Linux.

If XFCE is not for you, check out my previous posts where I have covered how to do a minimal install of KDE Plasma (or Gnome) in Arch Linux.

Installing XFCE in Arch Linux

Alright, first things first, make sure that you have Arch Linux (Base) installed on your system. If not, then go check my guide how to do a base installation of Arch Linux and then come back to this tutorial.

Once you have confirmed that, you will need to update your repositories. Also make sure that your Arch Linux Installation is up-to-date. This is a recommended step as it ensures that no installed package versions will be incompatible with the ones that we are going to install.

Use this command to update Arch Linux:

Now to install XFCE, type this command:

sudo pacman -S xfce4 xfce4-goodies

Accept any installation prompts (pressing enter key works most of the time) and wait for it to finish. Installation can take a few minutes or more, it depends on your internet speed & the hardware you are using.

Once XFCE finishes installing, we will need a login manager (also called a display manager). A login, or display manager provides a GUI login screen, instead of the command-line one.

If you are installing XFCE on an Arch system that already has a Desktop Environment (like Gnome or KDE) installed, you probably already have a greeter. If that is the case, you can start XFCE from the login screen.

Installing a Display/Login Manager

If what I have stated above is not the case, then you will need to install one. The one I would recommend LightDM. LightDM is a lightweight & simple-to-use Display Manager.

To install LightDM, open a terminal and type:

sudo pacman -S lightdm lightdm-gtk-greeter

The command above will install the following things, lightdm, the display manager, & lightdm-gtk-greeter, which is a ‘GUI’ (or you can say skin) for our display/login manager.

Once the installation completes, in the same terminal type:

sudo systemctl enable lightdm

This will allow lightdm to start with the system, now you don’t have to manually login and start the DM every time at boot.

Note: lightdm already defaults to lightdm-gtk-greeter as a greeter, but other greeters for lightdm are also available. If you have installed any other greeter, you will need to set it in the config file for lightdm( /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf ).

Now go ahead and reboot your system. Once your computer reboots, the LightDM screen will be in front of you.

Make sure that the Session is set to XFCE, and you are logging in with right credentials (username/password).

Tip: If XFCE is the only Desktop Environment installed, it will be selected by default.

Ending

There you go, you should now be running XFCE on your Arch Linux machine.

XFCE is one of my favorite desktop environment for Linux. But I can agree on the fact that it is a little plain by default. However, if you have used Distributions like Manjaro, MX, Or Xubuntu, you know how much better XFCE can look. Of course looks are subjective but still, you can make major changes to the way your XFCE install looks & feels.

There are many themes and configs available for XFCE that you can use. You can also make changes to the configuration files as per your liking.

If this post needs some improvements or you have any suggestions/questions/feedback regrading this topic, do leave a comment down below.

Источник

Install XFCE 4 Desktop Environment on Arch Linux

There are many desktop environments on Linux. For example, KDE Plasma 5, GNOME 3, GNOME 4x (i.e. GNOME 40, GNOME 41, GNOME 42), MATE, Cinnamon, LXDE, Budgie, and Cutefish. XFCE desktop environment is one of them. Just like LXDE and MATE, the XFCE desktop environment is one of the lightweight desktop environments out there. It doesn’t consume a lot of memory, doesn’t need much CPU power, or disk I/O to run. It is also more responsive compared to other desktop environments, such as GNOME3, KDE Plasma 5, and Cinnamon. If you want to just get your work done and you don’t care about fancy desktop effects and transparency, you should try out the XFCE desktop environment.

XFCE 4 is the latest version of the XFCE desktop environment at the time of this writing. In this article, I will show you how to install the XFCE 4 desktop environment on Arch Linux. So, let’s get started.

Table of Contents:

Updating All Packages:

Before you install the XFCE 4 desktop environment, it’s a good idea to update all the installed packages of your Arch Linux computer.

To update all the installed packages of Arch Linux, run the following command:

In my case, all the installed packages are up-to-date:

If you have any updates, you can press Y, and then press to confirm the installation of updates.

sudo pacman -S xfce4 xfce4-goodies

sudo pacman –Rsu xfce4 xfce4-goodies