Replacing Gnome desktop on 32bit with xfce

[Trynna3]

This is assuming you currently have Debian 12 32bit with Gnome installed.

I do, but the screen is a mess, graphics doesn't allow me doing the usual things. I asked the chat gpt and it suggested similar things as you did, but I don't just blindly trust the bot with such a complex thing (or so I think) so came for more brains here.
Thank you very much for your effort, I will save it for future reference.

 

[f33dm3bits]

I do, but the screen is a mess, graphics doesn't allow me doing the usual things.

I thought of that by including steps 1-3.

1. Logout of your system, so that you have the GDM login screen in front of you.
2. Press ctrl+alt+f3
3. You will get a login prompt in front of you, you can just login with you user credentials.

 

[charlie.corder]

What attitude. I'm just posiing FACTS!

It has been said "there's none so blind, as those who won't see".
Your attitude stinks!
OG TC

 

[Caluser2000]

This is assuming you currently have Debian 12 32bit with Gnome installed.

1. Logout of your system, so that you have the GDM login screen in front of you.
2. Press ctrl+alt+f3
3. You will get a login prompt in front of you, you can just login with you user credentials.
4. Run the following commands to remove Gnome.

sudo apt remove task-gnome-desktop gnome gnome-core

You will be prompted to verify if you want to remove those packages, press "Y" to continue. This process will take a few minutes, wait for it to finish.
5. Remove all the dependencies that aren't needed anymore.

sudo apt autoremove

You will be prompted to verify if you want to removed those dependencies, press "Y" to continue. This process will take a few minutes, wait for it to finish.
5. It seemed after the previous steps still some Gnome packages were there so then I ran the following commands.

sudo apt purge gnome*
dpkg --list | grep -i gnome | awk '{ print $1 }' | xargs apt purge -y

6. Now we are going to remove the dependencies left from the remove of those.

sudo apt autoremoved

You will be prompted to verify if you want to remove those packages, press "Y" to continue. This process will take a few minutes, wait for it to finish.
7. Now we are going to install the Xfce desktop environment.

sudo apt install xfce4 xfce4-goodies

xfce4-goodies is optional but it is is for users who want a full xfce desktop experience as stated by the Debian wiki.

You will be prompted to verify if you want to remove those packages, press "Y" to continue. This process will take a few minutes, wait for it to finish.
8. You can now reboot your system.

sudo reboot

Your system will reboot and then you will be greeted with the lightdm login manager. Where you can login with your credentials and the Xfce desktop environment will be loaded for you. The only thing remaining will be gnome configuration directories an files in your home directory. Those can be removed too if you want, then I can find them and tell you which ones to remove, if you don't care about that then you are done and can now use your installation with Xfce.

It's great to see members who who what they are talking about and willing to help new members out. Well done!

 

[Caluser2000]

Disabling the video compositor under "GUI Tweeks" in System Preference-Window Preferences- Compositor Manager tab will speed up the video response of older slower systems quite significantly.

 

[Trenix25]

If you really want to get rid of your DE and install another one you will need to know the names of the packages involved. Then use systemctl isolate multiuser.target to change run levels. Then apt remove <package name> to remove the unwanted desktop environment package. Then use apt install <package name> to install the correct one. I used remove here instead of purge so it would keep the config files in case this doesn't work out for you. Make sure you're logged in as root on the system console using a text display when you do all of this. Then you can use systemctl isolate graphical.target to switch back to X11.

Signed,

Matthew Campbell

 

[KGIII]

If you really want to get rid of your DE and install another one you will need to know the names of the packages involved.

That's not always the case. There's often a meta package that you can install that will pull in all the defaults and requirements. In this case, I think it might be just 'xfce4' from a quick search of the database on a Mint box. I'd expect to find that in Debian.

If they were using Ubuntu it'd be pretty simple - as they'd just install xubuntu-desktop, which is, again, a meta package that'd essentially turn their computer into Xubuntu with XFCE. Well, it'd give them the option on the login screen.