XFCE desktop environment¶

The XFCE desktop environment, created as a fork of the Common Desktop Environment (CDE), embodies the traditional Unix philosophy of modularity and re-usability. You can install XFCE on almost any version of Linux, including Rocky Linux.

It is also one of the most accessible desktop environments to combine with alternate window managers, such as Awesome or i3. This procedure, however, will get you up and running with Rocky Linux and a more typical XFCE installation.

Prerequisites¶

A workstation or notebook
A desire to run XFCE as your desktop instead of the default GNOME desktop
For this procedure, the ability to sudo to elevate privileges

Install Rocky Linux minimal¶

Note

Throughout this section, you will either need to be the root user or be able to sudo to elevate your privileges.

When installing Rocky Linux, we used the following sets of packages:

Minimal
Standard

Run System Update¶

First, run the server update command. The system will rebuild the repository cache. In this way, the system can recognize the packages available.

dnf update

Enabling repositories¶

You need the unofficial repository for XFCE in the EPEL repository, to run on Rocky 8.x versions.

Enable this repository by entering:

dnf install epel-release

Answer 'Y' to install it.

You also need the Powertools and lightdm repositories. Enable those now:

dnf config-manager --set-enabled powertools
dnf copr enable stenstorp/lightdm

Warning

The copr build system creates a repository that is known to work for installing lightdm, but is not maintained by the Rocky Linux community. Use at your own risk!

Again, you will be presented with a warning message about the repository. Go ahead and answer Y to the prompt.

Check the available environments and tools in the group¶

Now that the repositories are enabled, run the following commands to check everything.

First, check your repository listing with:

dnf repolist

You should get the following back showing all of the enabled repositories:

appstream                                                        Rocky Linux 8 - AppStream
baseos                                                           Rocky Linux 8 - BaseOS
copr:copr.fedorainfracloud.org:stenstorp:lightdm                 Copr repo for lightdm owned by stenstorp
epel                                                             Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux 8 - x86_64
epel-modular                                                     Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux Modular 8 - x86_64
extras                                                           Rocky Linux 8 - Extras
powertools                                                       Rocky Linux 8 - PowerTools

Run the following command to check for XFCE:

dnf grouplist

You should see "Xfce" at the bottom of the listing.

Run dnf update one more time to ensure all of the enabled repositories read into the system.

Installing packages¶

To install XFCE, run:

dnf groupinstall "xfce"

Also install lightdm:

dnf install lightdm

Final steps¶

You need to disable gdm, which gets added and enabled during dnf groupinstall "xfce":

systemctl disable gdm

Now you can enable lightdm:

systemctl enable lightdm

You need to tell the system after booting to use only the graphical user interface. Set the default target system to the GUI interface:

systemctl set-default graphical.target

Then reboot:

reboot

You should end up with a login prompt in the XFCE GUI, and when you login, you will have all of the XFCE environment.

Conclusion¶

XFCE is a light environment with a simplistic interface. It is an alternative to the default GNOME desktop on Rocky Linux.

Author: Gerard Arthus, Steven Spencer, Emre Camalan

Contributors: Steven Spencer, Antoine Le Morvan, K.Prasad, Ganna Zhyrnova