Arch Linux

ordinary.schreiber

Member

Registered: 2021-10-15

Posts: 142

[SOLVED] Xfce doesn't start after installation

Hello, I am running KDE Plasma installed with the official method following the archwiki.

Now I would like to try Xfce so I reinstalled Arch on the same machine, only on another hard drive (removing the previous installation's hard drive).

I followed the same steps and once I got the Desktop Environment installation I used the following packages

xfce4 xfce4-goodies

and then proceeded with the same process that worked for the previous KDE installation.

Although, installing xfce4 and xfce4-goodies seems not enough and after rebooting the system the Xfce session does not start and the system enters again in the command line.

I genuinely followed the exact same process of the KDE installation, only replacing

pacman -S plasma kde-applications xdg-user-dirs sddm

with

pacman -S xfce4 xfce4-goodies 

What am I doing wrong?

Last edited by ordinary.schreiber (2022-01-14 21:42:51)

Lone_Wolf

Member

From: Netherlands, Europe

Registered: 2005-10-04

Posts: 11,911

Re: [SOLVED] Xfce doesn't start after installation

Did you remove sddm and xdg-user-dirs ?

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Disliking systemd intensely, but not satisfied with alternatives so focusing on taming systemd.

(A works at time B)  && (time C > time B ) ≠  (A works at time C)

ordinary.schreiber

Member

Registered: 2021-10-15

Posts: 142

Re: [SOLVED] Xfce doesn't start after installation

I didn't include xdg-user-dirs and sddm in the Xfce installation because I wasn't sure they were necessary.

Is that where the problem is?

Last edited by ordinary.schreiber (2022-01-14 14:33:24)

Lone_Wolf

Member

From: Netherlands, Europe

Registered: 2005-10-04

Posts: 11,911

Re: [SOLVED] Xfce doesn't start after installation

You have to configure a method to start the graphical environment.

There are basically 2 methods : directly from commandline or from a Display Manager ( a simple GUI to make starting different graphical environments for diferent users easier ) .

SDDM is a display manager, but there are others.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Xinit has details about starting X from commandline, while https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Display_manager deals with the gui methods.

---

Disliking systemd intensely, but not satisfied with alternatives so focusing on taming systemd.

(A works at time B)  && (time C > time B ) ≠  (A works at time C)

Trilby

Inspector Parrot

Registered: 2011-11-29

Posts: 29,523

Website

Re: [SOLVED] Xfce doesn't start after installation

Now I would like to try Xfce so I reinstalled Arch

That makes about as much sense as buying a new house just to try a new coffee pot.  Why didn't you just install XFCE on the currently functional system?

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"UNIX is simple and coherent..." - Dennis Ritchie, "GNU's Not UNIX" -  Richard Stallman

ordinary.schreiber

Member

Registered: 2021-10-15

Posts: 142

Re: [SOLVED] Xfce doesn't start after installation

So adding sddm here:

pacman -S xfce4 xfce4-goodies 

and then enabling it should solve the issue?

ordinary.schreiber

Member

Registered: 2021-10-15

Posts: 142

Re: [SOLVED] Xfce doesn't start after installation

Well.. I guess I can't argue with that Lol

That makes about as much sense as buying a new house just to try a new coffee pot.  Why didn't you just install XFCE on the currently functional system?

I just liked the feel of a fresh installation with a single Desktop Environment.

ordinary.schreiber

Member

Registered: 2021-10-15

Posts: 142

Re: [SOLVED] Xfce doesn't start after installation

I am just trying to figure out what I missed in the process.

In the previous installation at some point I entered the following commands:

pacman -S plasma kde-applications xdg-user-dirs sddm
systemctl enable sddm

So now to make things work I should just replace that passage with this?

pacman -S xfce4 xfce4-goodies xdg-user-dirs sddm
systemctl enable sddm

Thank you for your help and patience by the way.

Last edited by ordinary.schreiber (2022-01-14 14:58:52)

Lone_Wolf

Member

From: Netherlands, Europe

Registered: 2005-10-04

Posts: 11,911

Re: [SOLVED] Xfce doesn't start after installation

yes, that should work

---

Disliking systemd intensely, but not satisfied with alternatives so focusing on taming systemd.

(A works at time B)  && (time C > time B ) ≠  (A works at time C)

ordinary.schreiber

Member

Registered: 2021-10-15

Posts: 142

Re: [SOLVED] Xfce doesn't start after installation

Great. thanks.