I have seen this question asked a few times without any real answer given, other then the fact that it can't be done. Some may ask, "why would you want to do this?" Simply put, the LXDE panel is ugly. The other question that my come to mind is "how will this effect my performance" Ironically, it wont. When running “top” the cpu and memory usage of gnome panel matches that of lxpanel which for me is usually around 2%. So if your concerned about performance on an older system, you should have no problems. I will also show you how to edit your mintMenu to logout of the lxsession instead of the gnome-session as well as how to completely replace nautilus with pcmanfm.
Replacing lxpanel with gnome-panel:
If you are running LXDE from the main version of Ubuntu or Mint: (which comes with Gnome)
Code:
sudo apt-get install lxde
If you have not already done so.
Once you installed LXDE, log out and change your session to LXDE. In order to replace the LXDE panel with the Gnome panel we will have to edit the autostart file in /etc/xdg/lxsession/LXDE/ . You can do this by pasting the following in the terminal.
Code:
sudo leafpad /etc/xdg/lxsession/LXDE/autostart
You should now see the following:
@lxde-settings
@xscreensaver -no-splash
@lxpanel --profile LXDE
@pcmanfm -d
Simply replace "@lxpanel --profile LXDE" with "@gnome-panel". Save the file, logout, then log back in to your LXDE session and you should now see the Gnome panel in place of your LXDE panel. It should now look like this.
@lxde-settings
@xscreensaver -no-splash
@gnome-panel
@pcmanfm -d
If you are running a version of Ubuntu or Mint that has kde, xfce, flux, etc. or if your installing from a mini.iso you will have to install gnome panel separately after installing LXDE.
Code:
sudo apt-get install gnome-panel
After you have installed gnome panel follow the same steps listed above.
Editing Gnome Main Menu
Note: This is simply a workaround that allows your to easily be able to logout of lxde without having to recompile gnome-menu and editing the source.
First you will have to download pessulus (don't worry you can remove it after we are done without effecting changes)
Code:
Sudo apt-get install pessulus
Start up pessulus. You will see some tabs that should include General, Panel, Epiphany Web Browser, and Gnome Screensaver. Click on panel and check the box that says Disable logout. This program will also allow you to disable several other options such as applets, which you may want to do if you want to disable gnome specific ones.
Now you can remove the program if you would like
Code:
sudo apt-get remove pessulus
Now we are going to make a custom logout button to go into the menu. Right click on the menu and select edit menu. You can put this logout anywhere you like but for easy access we will add it to the applications section. Simply click on applications, then the "new item" tab and add the following:
Name: Logout or shut down (which ever you prefer)
Command: lxsession-logout
Click ok and that's it.
Editing the Gnome Bar Menu
This is the same as the above steps accept you will need to add the custom logout to the system part of the menu. I would also suggest cleaning up your menu by going to
Code:
/usr/share/applications/
and get rid of the About GNOME.desktop and help.desktop which will put your custom logout closer to the bottom where it should be.
Editing mintMenu:
Go to
Code:
/usr/lib/linuxmint/mintMenu/plugins/system_management.py
and edit 125 and 131, replace "gnome-session-save --logout-dialog" with "lxsession-logout" on both lines.
Button5 = easyButton( "system-log-out", self.iconsize, [_("Logout")], -1, -1 )
Button5.connect( "clicked", self.ButtonClicked, "gnome-session-save --logout-dialog" )
Button5.show()
self.systemBtnHolder.pack_start( Button5, False, False )
self.mintMenuWin.setTooltip( Button5, _("Log out or switch user") )
Button6 = easyButton( "system-shutdown", self.iconsize, [_("Quit")], -1, -1 )
Button6.connect( "clicked", self.ButtonClicked, "gnome-session-save --shutdown-dialog" )
Button6.show()
To
Button5 = easyButton( "system-log-out", self.iconsize, [_("Logout")], -1, -1 )
Button5.connect( "clicked", self.ButtonClicked, "lxsession-logout" )
Button5.show()
self.systemBtnHolder.pack_start( Button5, False, False )
self.mintMenuWin.setTooltip( Button5, _("Log out or switch user") )
Button6 = easyButton( "system-shutdown", self.iconsize, [_("Quit")], -1, -1 )
Button6.connect( "clicked", self.ButtonClicked, "lxsession-logout" )
Button6.show()
Replace nautilus with pcmanfm (mintMenu):
You can download the mintMenu and it's dependencies here
sudo leafpad /usr/lib/linuxmint/mintMenu/plugins/places.py
Edit lines 104-105
Button2 = easyButton( "user-home", self.iconsize, [_("Home Folder")], -1, -1 )
Button2.connect( "clicked", self.ButtonClicked, "nautilus --no-desktop" )
To
Button2 = easyButton( "user-home", self.iconsize, [_("Home Folder")], -1, -1 )
Button2.connect( "clicked", self.ButtonClicked, "pcmanfm" )
and edit lines 135-136
Button4 = easyButton( "gnome-fs-desktop", self.iconsize, [_("Desktop")], -1, -1 )
Button4.connect( "clicked", self.ButtonClicked, "nautilus " + desktopDir )
To
Button4 = easyButton( "gnome-fs-desktop", self.iconsize, [_("Desktop")], -1, -1 )
Button4.connect( "clicked", self.ButtonClicked, "pcmanfm " + desktopDir )
Note: To my knowledge, there is no "my computer" or "network" folders for pcmanfm, so if you would like to keep the functionability of the "computer" and "network" button then just keep nautilus for those settings which are in buttons 1 and 3. If this changes I will update this, but as of lxpanel 5.1 these features have not been implimented. There also no trash at this moment for pcmanfm so anything you do delete through the pcmanfm file manager will be permanently deleted and the trash so you can either delete lines 119-162, leave them alone, or wait till pcmanfm has the trash feature and edit these lines in the future. There are a few work arounds for adding a trash system in pcmanfm which I may add to the tutorial in the future. Let me know if I'm missing anything.
Replacing nautilus with pcmanfm (gnome-menu):
Step 1
Code:
sudo leafpad /usr/share/applications/nautilus-computer.desktop
Edit the following lines
[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=Computer
Comment=Browse all local and remote disks and folders accessible from this computer
TryExec=nautilus
Exec=nautilus --no-desktop computer:
Icon=computer
Terminal=false
StartupNotify=true
Type=Application
Categories=GNOME;GTK;Core;
OnlyShowIn=GNOME;
X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Bugzilla=GNOME
X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Product=nautilus
X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Component=general
X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Version=2.26.2
X-Ubuntu-Gettext-Domain=nautilus
To
[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=Computer
Comment=Browse all local and remote disks and folders accessible from this computer
TryExec=pcmanfm
Exec=pcmanfm /
Icon=computer
Terminal=false
StartupNotify=true
Type=Application
Categories=GNOME;GTK;Core;
OnlyShowIn=GNOME;
X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Bugzilla=GNOME
X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Product=pcmafm
X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Component=general
X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Version=2.26.2
X-Ubuntu-Gettext-Domain=pcmanfm
Step 2
Code:
sudo leafpad /usr/share/applications/nautilus-folder-handler.desktop
[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=Open Folder
TryExec=nautilus
Exec=nautilus --no-desktop %U
NoDisplay=true
Terminal=false
Icon=folder-open
StartupNotify=true
Type=Application
MimeType=x-directory/gnome-default-handler;x-directory/normal;inode/directory;application/x-gnome-saved-search;
OnlyShowIn=GNOME;
X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Bugzilla=GNOME
X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Product=nautilus
X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Component=general
X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Version=2.26.2
X-Ubuntu-Gettext-Domain=nautilus
To
[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=Open Folder
TryExec=pcmanfm
Exec=pcmanfm %U
NoDisplay=true
Terminal=false
Icon=folder-open
StartupNotify=true
Type=Application
MimeType=x-directory/gnome-default-handler;x-directory/normal;inode/directory;application/x-gnome-saved-search;
OnlyShowIn=GNOME;
X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Bugzilla=GNOME
X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Product=pcmanfm
X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Component=general
X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Version=2.26.2
X-Ubuntu-Gettext-Domain=pcmanfm
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