How to install XFCE in Debian

Debian is most often installed with the Gnome desktop environment. But if, after initializing your system, you change your mind and want a simple solution, install XFCE. This is not a bad environment. XFCE has a desktop, a panel with windows of running applications, and a dock with shortcuts to programs you can run. Debian works well with many environments. Let's see how to install XFCE in Debian 10.

How to install

First of all, update the package lists in the repositories and the system itself to the latest version. To do this, run:

$ sudo apt update

$ sudo apt full-upgrade

To install XFCE in Debian available in the official repositories just run:

$ sudo apt install task-xfce-desktop

The command installs a metapackage that pulls in all XFCE dependencies. During the installation you will have to choose a login manager, you can leave gdm3 as the default:

If you don't need to install all dependencies, but only the main environment packages, use:

$ sudo apt install xfce4 xfce4-goodies

When the installation is complete, you should restart the computer or simply terminate the current session. From the login menu, you should select an XFCE session. After the first startup XFCE will offer to customize the panel, but the user has the option to leave the default settings.

The repository contains XFCE version 4.12, but other distributions have 4.14. If you want this version, you will have to add the MX Linux repository and install a few components.

First, install GnuPG:

$ sudo apt install gnupg

Then add a line like this to /etc/apt/sources.list:

$ sudo vi /etc/apt/sources.list

deb http://mxrepo.com/mx/repo/ buster main non-free

To install the repository key, download and install this package:

$ wget http://mxrepo.com/mx/repo/pool/main/m/mx19-archive-keyring/mx19-archive-keyring_2019.5.31_all.deb
$ sudo dpkg -i mx19-archive-keyring_2019.5.31_all.deb

After that, update the package lists and install XFCE 4.14 as described above. You will get version 4.14. Execute to verify:

$ xfce4-about

After installation, delete this repository from the system so that no system packages are loaded from there.