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Re: [LUG] XFCE

 
On 29/12/11 10:23, Henry Bremridge wrote: 
Have just moved my wife's machine from Ubuntu 10.04 to Debian Testing

Tried the default gnome, hated it (although I have left it on the computer,
in case she likes it). But I am not sure whether I had just the desktop
manager or whether I had the window manager.  

Anyway tried just XFCE, and that seems sufficiently similar to Ubuntu 10.04
that it will hopefully work. But any pointers greatfully received to the
following:

1)  XFCE by default only updates for security updates. Security updates for
    Debian Testing "cannot be expected to be of the same quality as for
    Debian's stable" http://testing-security.debian.net/

    When I tried to activate XFCE to update automatically, it did not (I am
    not quite sure why)

    Before I revert to cron-apt, has anyone run into this problem before?

2)  Currently the default window manager / Desktop manager on start up is
    Gnome. What file do I need to change to make the default XFCE?

3)  Tried to install a HP laserjet P1102w. Bearing in mind all the
    discussions on printers over the last few weeks, all I can say is
    Brother just worked. HP still doesn't. Hopefully will get that working
    this weekend.



1) XFCE is a desktop environment, it doesn't have any update policy whatsoever. That is dictated by the operating system version it's running on, in this case Debian Testing (which it looks like you actually understand from the quote from the Debian website). Automatic download and application of update files is a catastrophically bad idea - automating the check for updates and notifications/emails/whatever to yourself or an admin is a very good idea but blindly and automatically installing the updates for any non-stable version of a distro is not something you ever want to do. You'll want to keep an eye on potential issues in the release notes for packages being retired, drastically altered, etc. Just run synaptic daily or dump "apt-get update && apt-get dist-upgrade -y" into the admins .bashrc or use cron-apt if you absolutely insist on automating updates (but seriously, just don't *ever* do this).

2) For Debian at least, the default WM can be set from GDM/KDM/XDM at login - it will remember which DE you last used and you can also set the system default manually. If you want to actually replace GDM with XDM - logical, as you're using XFCE - it's easiest to just "apt-get remove gdm && apt-get install xdm" rather than mucking about with update-alternatives which I think still doesn't work properly. You can always "dpkg-reconfigure -plow xdm".

3) As Gordon says, just do it in CUPS and save yourself a headache.

Cheers,

Mat
 
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