My pc is rather old (AMD Durom 800Mhz with about 300Mb of ram) so I want to try something slightly more slimline for my needs.
I believe XFCE might meet my needs (am i right)
If so shick package(s) do I need to swap to this environment and how will it affect my wireless connection?
Ok I’ve got it installed and done this
> The file
> /etc/sysconfig/windowmanager
> has
> DEFAULT_WM=“GNOME”
> I guess in your case it will be fvwm
> Change that to
> DEFAULT_WM=“xfce”
> and it should work.
But after a reboot it still loos the same. Is this right?
I expected the whole environment to change!
Change it with startxfce4
sorry for being dense but could you be a bit clearer.
Do I put this in the Terminal? or in the windowsmanager screen?
tried both and neither worked.
Ok, we will just use Yast2 to change your default WM
Fire up yast2 and go into:
System-/etc/sysconfig editor-desktop-window manager-default w_m
and choose startxfce4 as your default. If it is not in the list just type startxfce4 in the slot and click ok.
This is exactly what I have already tried. Didn’t work as far as I can tell
What is your default Displaymanager?
Can you please elaborate more on how you setup your machine?
It will be helpful if the information is a bit detailed.
installed a few days ago and choose gnome.
In a previous thread it was mentioned to me that xfce would be better for my old pc.
In install manager I choose what I think is the xfce envirnement and installed xfce4-desktop
Also I have installed
-branding-opensuse
-panle
-session
libxfce4mcs
libxfce4util
libxfcegui4
thunar
xorg-x11-libxfiules
(these are what show if I search xfce)
I changed the default in WM from Gnome to xfce then to startxfce4
Do you mean gnome is installed side by side with xfce?
What is the displaymanager that you are using is it gdm, kdm or xdm.
What does your login screen look like?
Are you using a password less login?
If you take a look at your login screen do you see any options down the monitor’s screen?
Ellapsed time for editing.
Looks like your installation is incomplete
You may go back to yast2 software management and click the patterns and look for xfce choose it and have a look on the accompanying packages.
Take note that you must install xfwm4 importantly it is the window manager for xfce.
Please post back with your findings, we might be able to solve it if we are lucky.
Do you mean gnome is installed side by side with xfce?
I installed gnome during the initial install. I would now like to try xfce to see if it speeds things up. I don’t mind loosing gnome if I don’t loose the wireless settings etc.
What is the displaymanager that you are using is it gdm, kdm or xdm.
Not sure. If I go to YAST>SYSTEM> /etc/sysconfig Editor
then
DESKTOP>WINDOWSMANAGER>Default WM
I get
File: /etc/sysconfig/windowmanager
Possible Values: gnome, startkde, startkde3, startxfce4, twm or any value
Default Value: kde
Configuration Script: profiles, kde, susewm
Description:
Here you can set the default window manager (kde, fvwm, ...)
changes here require at least a re-login
and have changed the setting of Default_WM: to startxfce4
What does your login screen look like?
No login screen - Goes straight to desktop
Are you using a password less login?
I suppose so.
**
If you take a look at your login screen do you see any options down the monitor’s screen**?
Dont think I see this at all
Looks like your installation is incomplete
You may go back to yast2 software management and click the patterns and look for xfce choose it and have a look on the accompanying packages.
Take note that you must install xfwm4 importantly it is the window manager for xfce.
installing this now! will post back if successful
still no luck im afraid
Hi,
First thing first, try changing the behavior of your login settings.
You must not boot with a password less login, it is not that it is unsafe but for the reason that with the password less login you lost the options to choose which desktop you want e.g: gnome or xfce which I asked you in my previous post. It is one of the reason why you keep on booting to gnome because the last login prior to installing xfce, gnome session was save. The only chance that you can boot to xfce is disabling password less/auto login and choose xfce in the boot screen, or you can try going into init 3 (runlevel 3) login as user and su and try the command startxfce4 (down side you will be in xfce as su, not advisable). I will choose the my first option though.
With your last additional xfce installation did you make sure that the packages in the xfce patterns were in place? Please post the additional packages that you added.
Lastly you didn’t mentioned you displaymanager. eg: kdm, gdm. My guess is your using gdm from your gnome installation.
how do i change to a login with password?
unsure what you mean by windows manager - I haven’t changed anything so what ever is default for gnome I suppose.
I just installed the one extra package - xfwm4
Not window manager, I am referring to **displaymanager **they are two different things.If my guess is rightt hat your using gdm which I don’t use and not familiar with, my guess in configuring it for your login is to run the command gdmsetup. (not really sure if it require to be run as su)
sorry for my inability to read.
i get gdmsetup: command not found?
found the setting and it is gdm
In terminal type su enter your root password and do the command gdmsetup
Beyond that I can no longer help you.
Check also your installation to confirm what displaymanager you are using. I am just guessing that you are using gdm following your gnome installation.
This link will help if you really are using gdm.
http://projects.gnome.org/gdm/docs/2.18/gdmsetupusage.html
Hmmmmm – as for getting xfce started, you’ve gotten plenty enuff info in this thread to help you work through that. However, you have mentioned your wifi settings as being important so I will pitch in a couple of cents worth.
Xfce is lighter and faster. While it is graphical and just as good-looking as gnome when you’ve got it running, the menus are different stylings. So if you get xfce to run, you should notice some differences. As for wifi, you can get wicd, which is a great wifi solution. Wicd is in the suse 11.2 repository.
Two more things - first, the downside of “lighter” is more manual setup. Xfce had a gui menu editor in version 4.5, but they dropped it out in 4.6, if I recall the version numbers correctly. So you might have to edit menu configuration files (as root, you can use gedit or other text editor). Once you get them set up, they work fine. The configurations can be quirky, but this is only a moderately difficult geek fix. I actually think xfce has a cleaner and sharper look than gnome, but editing configuration files is more than I want right now.
Second, and last item - if the wifi works with the gnome install of suse, then it should work with the xfce install, just the same. Given that you seem to be fairly new to Linux and Suse, I would recommend that you consider reinstalling Suse from scratch, and pick the xfce desktop when you do. This will possibly be the EASIEST way to get you going through the forum.
Cheers, Hiero2 (aka spokesinger)
Just a word of encouragement to the OP.
I am notoriously non-geek, but I got my 11.2 to happily switch between KDE3.5.1 and Xfce4 (logout/end session, then select session type Xfce4, job done!) Nice and easy to customise once there.
I also swap between Compiz and Xfwm quite easily, if not 100% perfect, by running compiz-manager, and then to drop compiz and get a simpler and more stable/solid WM I run xfwm4 --replace &
This gives me xf window manager running on top of KDE desktop environment and it all works lovely!
I know the OP has gnome, but I thought I would share that Xfce is not difficult!