[conspire] launching LXDE :-)

[Paul Zander]

Some times keeping things consistent is the best plan.    With LXDE, I have consistent desktop on Raspbian, a vintage laptop and a multi-core desktop.   


I did a re-install on the laptop a few months ago by downloading the then current wheezy/lxde CD.  No problems with display.   The install included lightdm and the lxde packages.  I know because I compared it against the other computer.


When I did re-install on the desktop, I got into the situation we have discussed.  I verified that the CD image was "LXDE".  After 
   update-alternatives --config  x-session-manager
   and selecting LXDE the display configurations are essentially the same on the laptop and desktop.


I can speculate on two possibilities:
  * something changed between Wheezy and Jessie.
  * The debian installation instructions say that gnome is the default.  


https://wiki.debian.org/DebianDesktopHowTo  


To select the desktop environment that the debian-installer installs, 
enter "Advanced options" on the boot screen and scroll down to 
"Alternative desktop environments". Otherwise, debian-installer will 
choose GNOME. 
KDE is of course a renown heavy alternative. 
Xfce is a fast and light alternative, and especially suited if you were using GNOME 2 and find GNOME 3 disappointing. 
For older computers, consider using LXDE or Xfce, because they are less resource-hungry than GNOME or KDE. Or, you may choose e17 (Enlightenment), a new candidate that also features a touchscreen mode. 

The "text" based installer did not the choice described.  There was a menu where i could have checked "laptop".  Maybe laptop implies LXDE, maybe not.  Anyway it is not worth the time to do a new install just to see if what happens.




----- Original Message -----
From: Rick Moen <rick at linuxmafia.com>
To: conspire at linuxmafia.com
Cc: 
Sent: Saturday, November 16, 2013 10:25 AM
Subject: Re: [conspire] launching LXDE  :-)

(Redirecting back to the mailing list from offlist mail.)


Quoting Paul Zander (paulz at ieee.org):

> Now that I am no longer struggling with the display manager, I did
> some more research.
> 
> Yes, update-alternatives is nicely modular.  `ls /etc/alternatives` 
> gave me more than 200 things.
> 
> Web searches moslty discussed either vi or java.  On my machine,
> `update-alternatives --config editor` gives choices of nano, emacs and
> vi
> 
> Oh, I did read the advice to install lxdm, but that is not a package
> name.  More detective work would be required to find the proper name.
> 
> My reference computer had Debian installed some time ago and
> occasionally updated. It was set up with lightdm and the alternatives
> for lxde.    

Hey, good point!  Web searching 'lxdm debian' finds that there's no
official Debian package for lxdm, though you find a fair amount of
grumbling about the lack of one, and an ITP (intent to package)
discussion that apparently went nowhere.

http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/48450/how-to-install-lxdm-instead-of-gdm3

  It looks like lxdm is not present in Debian wheezy; at least, it's not
  included in any packages according to the results of a package contents
  search. You may need to install it from source or from a third-party
  repository.

  If you did install an alternate display manager via dpkg, however, you
  would want to run something like dpkg-reconfigure gdm3 to get a
  display-manager chooser.

  Debian's display manager startup scripts look at the contents of
  /etc/X11/default-display-manager to see whether they should run. If you
  install one manually, you will probably need to empty that file and add
  your own startup script.

This post announces just such a third-party repository:
http://aptosid.com/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewtopic&p=15971

  I have restored my Debian repository, and for the beginning added
  fresh LXDM packages. Feedback is welcome, and will be forwarded to the
  LXDE Debian maintainer team. 

  To use my repo, first download and import my gpg-key, extend your apt
  sources, and install as usual: [...]

http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=56934
has the grumbling and some possible lightweight alternatives offered
when someone noticed the lack of that package, e.g.:

  You could try slim.  Or ldm, xdm, kdm, wdm, or gdm3. Or, you could 
  dispense with the display manager altogether. I log on from the 
  console and then do sx. I have a script somewhere that turns sx 
  into startx. I haven't had a display manager for at least a couple 
  of years.
  
'startx' is the X11 program to start an X11 session from the command
line after console (non-graphical) login, and is indeed one alternative
to a graphical X Display Manager.

Or you could go with dirt-simple and use xdm.  ;->


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