Trying to make Ubuntu run like Arch

[brucevangeorge]

K.Mandla:

You say that you do not use a Login Manager. I did the steps you mentioned to get a super lite desktop. But, I find it annoying to have to login every single time. Is there a way to auto-logon or what login manager for xfce would you reccomend?

[brucevangeorge]

startxfce4

This doesn't work. Says command start not found. Also doesn't work If I say sudo startxfce4.

How did you get the GUI running?

[bodhi.zazen]

This doesn't work. Says command start not found. Also doesn't work If I say sudo startxfce4.

How did you get the GUI running?

xfce4-session or startx. 8)

[brucevangeorge]

Thank you bodhi. That worked.

To the original poster: have you managed to get a decently working instalation? What does your desktop look like?

When I followed your steps, there were no icons on the desk, and all the windows and themes had a very harsh grey color. Nothing like the smooth lines of the original Xubuntu. It looked strange.

[K.Mandla]

That doesn't sound quite right. If you installed xfce4 with sudo aptitude install xfce4 you should get something strikingly similar to the default Xubuntu desktop. If it's harsh grey with a kind of lattice background and a big X for a cursor, I believe that's the default X desktop. That's not what you want.

I have noticed that the startxfce4 command doesn't seem to take effect until reboot (I don't know why, though). So you could restart and try startxfce4 after the login. That might do the trick.

Actually, with a lot of tweaks, I'm getting really good performance out of a 1Ghz machine. I rebuilt the 750mhz laptop I mentioned oh-so-long-ago and it's very spunky now as a music machine.

Edit: My best results thus far are described here. I know, it's not much of a blog.

[K.Mandla]

What about using initNG? There's some hype surrounding it.

I also found a speed increase over the xt3 filesystem by using jfs instead.

I poked around with InitNG for a little while but I couldn't get it to install. Isn't the new system init pegged for Edgy? Is that similar to InitNG?

EDIT: Just reread and saw xXx 0wn3d xXx's post. Sorry.

I've tried reiserfs, ext3 and xfs, and my best results were still with ext3 with the dir_index, journal-data-writeback and noatime tweaks. I'm 99 percent sure that's because I work with machines that are so slow, though. Faster processors can handle the file system demands better than mine can, so ext3 is best for me.

[brucevangeorge]

Have you run Open Office on your system? With XFCE?

You know how it keeps its owm theme? It uses a very dark dirt grey for its interface? (except for the colored frame from XFCE surrounding it). Well, that's what mine looked like.

I'll post a pic if you need an example.

It looked like the X desktop with XFCE borders. If that makes any sense.

Also, there were not any icons. Do I need those installed separatelly?

[brucevangeorge]

I poked around with InitNG for a little while but I couldn't get it to install. Isn't the new system init pegged for Edgy? Is that similar to InitNG?

EDIT: Just reread and saw xXx 0wn3d xXx's post. Sorry.

I've tried reiserfs, ext3 and xfs, and my best results were still with ext3 with the dir_index, journal-data-writeback and noatime tweaks. I'm 99 percent sure that's because I work with machines that are so slow, though. Faster processors can handle the file system demands better than mine can, so ext3 is best for me.

From what I read, XFS and Reiser both use more CPU than ext3. I use JFS becuase it has better performance than ext3, uses a little more CPU, but it also gives me more diskspace when formatting.

[K.Mandla]

From what I read, XFS and Reiser both use more CPU than ext3. I use JFS becuase it has better performance than ext3, uses a little more CPU, but it also gives me more diskspace when formatting.

Good call. The best file system is always going to be the one that works best for the user and the machine. That's one of the things I like about linux -- I'm not tied to a particular option because Microsoft says so.

Have you run Open Office on your system? With XFCE?

Actually, Abiword and Gnumeric (sudo aptitude install abiword gnumeric) do just about everything office-wise I need. If I need to make a pdf I print to a postscript file and convert with ps2pdf14. It's a little backward, but I don't have many office requirements.

OpenOffice might bog things down again, but it's worth a try.

You know how it keeps its owm theme? It uses a very dark dirt grey for its interface? (except for the colored frame from XFCE surrounding it). Well, that's what mine looked like.

I'll post a pic if you need an example. ... It looked like the X desktop with XFCE borders. If that makes any sense.

A snapshot might be a good idea, just so we can be sure we're all on the same page.

Also remember to check to see if XFCE is "managing" the desktop. Under Applications > Settings > Desktop Settings, make sure the box that says "Allow XFCE to manage the desktop" is checked. That's the only other thing offhand I can think of that might keep you from getting the proper background.

Also, there were not any icons. Do I need those installed separatelly?

You should get the default "Rodent" set installed, but you might also have to enable them under the User Interface Settings. If they're not there, try sudo aptitude install tango-icon-theme-extras, which will install the Tango suite, which is much more attractive in my opinion.

[brucevangeorge]

Yup. Did the Tango Suite. Also installed the GTK clearlooks theme. Now my windows look nice and smooth like gnome.

How much memory does your system use by default? When you just booted?