Xubuntu desktop minimal installation

Question

Following this question I have have installed a minimal Ubuntu system on my computer.

I want to install the minimum packages possible the cleanest xfce desktop possible.

What are the minimal packages possible necessary to run a working minimal xubuntu desktop and how do I install them?

Do I need a login manager to run the desktop when I am done installing?

Solution

The bare bones minimal would be

sudo apt-get install xfce4

If you do not install a log in manager (slim, gdm, light-gdm, etc) you will not have a graphical login screen, and in that case you can either startx or xfce4-session

Depending on how much or little you wish to configure, you may want to go with lightdm ;)

If you need assistance configuring your xfce4 session (from the command line or with a log in manager) post back.

You will almost certainly wish to install additional fonts and additional xfce packages. Many of the extras are "plugins" , ie "xfce4-foo-plugin"

Either search for the packages, or if you prefer, install the "goodies" package

http://packages.ubuntu.com/precise/xfce4-goodies

Additional packages to consider (IMO) might be firefox, synaptic, squeeze, xfburn

Text editors , personally I prefer gedit as it has a number of features, but leafpad or mousepad are more traditional / lightweight (but scant features).

The following would give you a nice (IMO), minimal setup, adapt the packages as you wish.

sudo apt-get install xfce4 xfce4-goodies xfce4-mixer gedit squeeze synaptic xfburn lightdm audacious audacious-plugins

Other plugins listed here

http://packages.ubuntu.com/cgi-bin/search_packages.pl?keywords=xfce&searchon=name&subword=1&version=all&release=all

Add in a few fonts and multimedia as required and you would be good to go.

Comments

[Admin]

Just to clarify, do you want a minimal xfce or specifically "xubuntu-desktop" ?

[rgov]

I also had to follow this post which says to change some lightdm config file for xfce rather than Unity. Otherwise I was met with a problem starting my login session from the GUI.