desktop Archives - Complete, Concrete, Concise

Ubuntu 12.04 – How to Boot Directly to the Desktop

richardsplanet — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 11:17:46 +0000

These instructions are for Ubuntu 12.04 running the Unity interface.

They may be the same or similar for different versions of Ubuntu, or using a different (GNOME based) GUI interface, but no guarantee is made.

When you install Ubuntu, one of the options you are given is whether to automatically login (go directly to your desktop) or be required explicitly login using your password.

If you have chosen to require a login, you will boot to the login screen:

If you are the only user on the computer, it may be preferable to boot directly tot he desktop instead of being required to login each time:

1) Tap the Super (Windows) key to bring up the Dash Interface:

Note: tapping the Windows keys means pressing it as though you intend to type it. It does not mean holding down the key (holding down the key does something else).

Ubuntu calls this the Super key

Alternately, you can click on the Dash icon on The Launcher:

2) Type user accounts in the Dash query field:

3) Press the Enter key. This will automatically launch the User Accounts application.

When you type in a query, pressing the Enter key will automatically select the first (leftmost) application.

You can also:

Navigate to the application name using the arrow keys on your keyboard or
Click on the application icon using your mouse.

4) Click on the Unlock icon in the upper right corner (notice that Automatic Login is set to OFF:

5) Enter your password and click on Authenticate (or press the Enter key):

6) Slide the Automatic Login slider to ON:

The next time you restart your computer, you will be brought directly to your desktop without having to login first.

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Ubuntu 12.04 Server – How to Install a GUI

richardsplanet — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 17:08:12 +0000

This tutorial is for Ubuntu 12.04 Server. While the instructions are probably the same for other versions of Ubuntu Server (and, maybe, for other Linux Server distros), I make no guarantee.

In previous versions of Ubuntu, there were small differences between the kernel used for the Server and Desktop versions. In Ubuntu 12.04, there is no longer any difference.
The main difference between the two versions is that Ubuntu 12.04 Server is a bare-bones, no frills, down to the metal version of Ubuntu – which makes it the perfect version if you want to run Ubuntu but completely customize it to your tastes without the overhead / bloat of everything that goes into Ubuntu Desktop.

NOTE: Ubuntu Server is a pure command line driven system – at least until you add a GUI

The Basics of Getting a GUI

To get a GUI running you need three things:

graphics server
display manager
window manager

The graphics server just draws. Nothing it draws has any meaning or significance to it. The only option here is xserver-xorg (eventually, there is hope that wayland will be an alternative to X). Installing xserver-xorg accounts for about 66 MB of the size totals given below.
The display manager manages the graphics server (but this is all behind the scenes). The only thing users notice about the display manager is the login screen.
There are many display manager options, but I recommend lightdm-gtk-greeter or unity-greeter. If you want to have an Ubuntu style login screen, then install unity-greeter instead of lightdm-gtk-greeter (most of the instructions I give use the lightdm-gtk-greeter if the package does not automatically install a display manager). Even if a package installs a display manager, you can always add unity-greeter to the installation code to get the Ubuntu style login screen.
The window manager is responsible for the way the actual display looks and interacts with the user. Again, there are many options, I only recommend a few of them.

The most Commonly Recommended Method

Most sites recommend installing the ubuntu-desktop. Unfortunately, that defeats the purpose of having installed Ubuntu Server 12.04 in the first place – you may as well have installed Ubuntu 12.04 Desktop to begin with.

The Contenders

GUI options can be divided into three groups: light weight, medium weight, and heavy weight.
The amount of disk space taken up may vary depending on what you have installed on your system. If required libraries and components are already installed on you system, they do not need to be reinstalled. For example, if you already have Openbox installed on your system, installing Fluxbox or Blackbox will only add a few MB to your hard disk – not ~100 MB each.
The setup I used for testing is:

bare minimum Ubuntu 12.04 Server – no additional packages installed. It uses about 667 MB of disk space
installed as a guest in VirtualBox 4.1.16
8 GB hard drive
1024 MB memory
4 CPU cores

NOTE: many of the light weight and medium weight installs don’t include any applications – not even a terminal.
Many require additional packages to be even moderately useful.
If you need to access the command line and no terminal has been installed (very common for most of these installs) press Ctrl + Alt + F1. To return to your GUI, press Ctrl + Alt + F7

In Linux, Ctrl + Alt + F1 through Ctrl + Alt + F6 provide access to 6 command lines that are always available (you do need to login). You can then install additional packages using apt-get.
In Linux, Ctrl + Alt + F7 through Ctrl + Alt + F12 provide access to running X Servers. Normally, there is just one running and it is found at Ctrl + Alt + F7

For Users Running Ubuntu Under VirtualBox

In many cases it will be necessary to install additional packages in order to be able to install the VirtualBox Guest Additions.
(1) Find the kernel version by running:

uname -r

from a command line.
It should return 3.2.0-23-generic-pae (but, if the kernel has been updated or you are running a different kernel version, the numbers will be different). You will need this to install the correct header files.
(2) Enter the following in a terminal:

sudo apt-get install make gcc linux-headers-3.2.0-23-generic-pae

The text following linux-headers- should be the result returned by uname -r.
This may use up to 129 MB of disk space.

There is a reason why GNOME, KDE, Lxde, and Xfce are the most popular GUIs. They are well developed and reasonably familiar, although GNOME and KDE are moving to a different user interface paradigm.
Those desktops can usually be customized to look and behave the way you want by installing themes and configuration tools.
Many of the other alternatives listed are either highly specialized (e.g. Xmonad, Dwm, Xmii and others) are keyboard driven environments and are for power users.
Other GUIs are quaint throwbacks to the late 1980s / early 1990s.

Why no Screenshots?

I’m not including any screenshots because:

many of them aren’t that interesting
it would make this article even longer than it is

I expect you to do due diligence when choosing a GUI by further investigating before installing.

NOTE: take any screenshots you find with a grain of salt. Oftentimes, they have been heavily customized and don’t represent the out-of-the-box experience.
Case in point: Unity is a customized version of GNOME

Light Weight Options

I consider these GUIs “light weight” because they use the least amount of disk space – generally, less than 200 MB. They are also likely to be completely bare bones and not install any additional applications.

awesome

A minimalist windowing environment designed for power users who like to navigate using the keyboard. It seems to be based on Dwm. You will find the main menu in the top left corner.
More information about awesome, using it, and configuring it can be found here

sudo apt-get install awesome lightdm-gtk-greeter

The installation will use 111 MB of disk space.

Blackbox

An early style GUI.
Right-click on the desktop to get a menu.

sudo apt-get install blackbox lightdm-gtk-greeter

The installation will use 92.5 MB of disk space.

Dwm

A very minimalist windowing environment designed for power users who like to navigate using the keyboard. You will need a tutorial to get started. A tutorial for Dwm can be found here.
Press Shift + Alt + q to exit.

sudo apt-get install dwm lightdm-gtk-greeter

The installation will use 105 MB of disk space.

Fluxbox

sudo apt-get install fluxbox lightdm-gtk-greeter

The installation will use 101 MB of disk space.

icewm

A mid 1990s style GUI.

sudo apt-get install icewm lightdm-gtk-greeter

The installation will use 98.8 MB of disk space.

LXDE Core

sudo apt-get install lxde-core lightdm-gtk-greeter

The installation will use 175 MB of disk space.

LXDE

This will install lxdm and an alternate display manager (LXDM).

sudo apt-get install lxde

The installation will use 216 MB of disk space.

Openbox

After logging in you will be presented with nothing but an empty screen.
Right-click to get a menu.

sudo apt-get install openbox lightdm-gtk-greeter

The installation will use 110 MB of disk space.

TWM

A minimalist windowing environment designed for power users who like to navigate using the keyboard. You will need a tutorial to get started. A TWM tutorial can be found here.

sudo apt-get install twm lightdm-gtk-greeter

The installation will use 93.7 MB of disk space.

Wmii

A minimalist windowing environment designed for power users who like to navigate using the keyboard. You will need a tutorial to get started. Two different tutorials can be found here and here.

sudo apt-get install wmii lightdm-gtk-greeter

The installation will use 93.1 MB of disk space.

Xfce

sudo apt-get install xfce4 lightdm-gtk-greeter

The installation will use 225 / 229 MB of disk space.

Medium Weight

I consider these GUIs to be “medium weight” because they use a moderate amount of disk space – generally, greater than 200 MB and less than 1 GB. Some may install additional applications, but the system is, generally, still going to be far from a fully usable, full fledged desktop.

GNOME Session Fallback

GNOME Session Fallback is the minimal GNOME window manager. It does not rely on any 3D hardware acceleration and most closely resembles the traditional/classic desktop experience.

sudo apt-get install gnome-session-fallback lightdm-gtk-greeter

The installation will use 668 MB of disk space.

If you want to have the Ubuntu look and feel (without Unity), add ubuntu-artwork to the installation line. Or you can install ubuntu-artwork afterwards.

To allow installing VirtualBox Guest Additions, you will also need to install make and gcc

GNOME Shell

This will install the GNOME shell, but it will not look like Ubuntu because it doesn’t have the artwork, widgets, themes, etc. GNOME Shell requires 3D hardware acceleration – if not available, it will default to GNOME Session Fallback.

sudo apt-get install gnome-shell lightdm-gtk-greeter

The installation will use 499 MB of disk space.
Alternatively, you can use gdm (GNOME Display Manager) instead of lightdm-gtk-greeter, this will increase used disk space to 502 MB.

To allow installing VirtualBox Guest Additions, you will also need to install make and gcc

GNOME Shell with Ubuntu Look and Feel

If you want GNOME to have the look and feel of Ubuntu, minus Unity, then you need to install ubuntu-artwork. In that case you might also prefer to install unity-greeter as well (this adds 1 MB to the installed size).

sudo apt-get install gnome-shell unity-greeter ubuntu-artwork

The installation will use 499 MB of disk space.
Alternatively, you can use gdm (GNOME Display Manager) instead of lightdm-gtk-greeter, this will increase used disk space to 502 MB.

To allow installing VirtualBox Guest Additions, you will also need to install make and gcc

KDE

This will automatically install kdm (KDE Display Manager), so there is no need to install lightdm-gtk-greeter.
It will also install a web browser (Konqueror), file manager (Dolphin), text editor (Kwrite), and a few other applications.

sudo apt-get install kde-plasma-dekstop

The installation will use 528 MB of disk space.

Lubuntu Core

This will install LXDE, the Lubuntu artwork and a few extra applications. It will give you the look and feel of Lubuntu Desktop without the weight of all the extra applications bundled with it.

sudo apt-get install lubuntu-core

The installation will use 657 MB of disk space.

Xubuntu Core

This will install Xfce as well as the artwork and settings for Xubuntu. It will give you the look and feel of the Xubuntu Desktop but without the weight of all the extra applications bundled with it.

sudo apt-get install xfce4 xubuntu-artwork xubuntu-default-settings

The installation will use 268 MB of disk space.

XMonad

A very minimalist windowing environment (the display is completely blank). You will need a tutorial to get started. A tutorial can be found here.

sudo apt-get install xmonad lightdm-gtk-greeter

For a minimalist environment it uses a lot of disk space.
The installation will use 523 MB of disk space.

Heavy Weight

I consider these GUIs to be “heavy weight” because they use the greatest amount of disk space – all over 1 GB.
These are full fledged desktop environments that come with numerous bundled applications.

GNOME

This will install gdm (GNOME display manager) an alternate display manager.

sudo apt-get install gnome

The installation will use 1.5 GB of disk space.

Ubuntu Desktop

This will install the Ubuntu Desktop. The end result will be the same as if you had installed the desktop version of Ubuntu 12.04 (minus the restricted components – which you can install later).

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop

The installation will use 1.5 GB of disk space.

Kubuntu Desktop

This will install the Kubuntu Desktop. The end result will be the same as if you had installed the desktop version of Kubuntu 12.04 (minus the restricted components – which you can install later).

sudo apt-get install kubuntu-desktop

The installation will use 1.3 GB of disk space.

Lubuntu Desktop

This will install the Lubuntu Desktop. The end result will be the same as if you had installed the desktop version of Lubuntu 12.04.

sudo apt-get install lubuntu-desktop

The installation will use 1.2 GB of disk space.

Xubuntu Desktop

This will install the Xubuntu Desktop. The end result will be the same as if you had installed the desktop version of Xubuntu 12.04.

sudo apt-get install xubuntu-desktop

The installation will use 1.4 GB of disk space.

The post Ubuntu 12.04 Server – How to Install a GUI appeared first on Complete, Concrete, Concise.

Ubuntu 12.04 – Installing the Cinnamon Desktop

richardsplanet — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 16:32:12 +0000

NOTE: For Cinnamon to work, your system must provide 3D hardware acceleration. If your system does not have 3D hardware acceleration, you will only see the “traditional” GNOME desktop.

This is a limitation of GNOME 3 (on which Cinnamon is built). According to gnome.org:

GNOME Shell uses relatively primitive 3D capabilities that have been available from essentially all computing devices made in the last four or five years.

This seems to imply that the if your video card is pre-2007, there is a good chance Cinnamon (and GNOME) will not display as expected.

These instructions are for installing the Cinnamon Desktop v.1.4 on Ubuntu 12.04 running the Unity interface.

Installation instructions may be the same or similar for other version combinations or for other Linux distros, but no guarantee is made.

The latest information about the Cinnamon Desktop can be found here.

The Cinnamon Desktop is one of the desktops provided with Linux Mint.

Linux Mint is derived from Ubuntu and it is possible to install Cinnamon under Ubuntu instead of installing Linux Mint. This is the closest we come to being able to upgrade from one distro of Linux to another.

The Cinnamon desktop is similar to the traditional Windows type of desktop, with a Start menu in the lower left hand corner (the same is true of LXDE). It opens up a rather nice large panel divided in 4 parts: (1) quick launch icons (red), (2) menu categories (green) and (3) applications (blue), (4) search (yellow):

If you are changing desktops because you are totally lost / confused by Unity, I suggest reading this tutorial and giving Unity a chance.

Of course, if you really hate Unity, then Cinnamon Desktop is an alternative desktop.

Cinnamon Desktop will install 63MB of files and data to your hard disk.

Some images may be clicked for full sized versions.

What it Looks Like

The basic, straight-out-of-the-box, look of the desktop is:

Quick Instructions

If you are comfortable using a terminal entering commands then open a terminal and enter the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gwendal-lebihan-dev/cinnamon-stable
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install cinnamon

Restart your system.

Note: it may be sufficient to simply logout and log back in, but I don’t think it hurts to restart.

Detailed Instructions

If you are not comfortable opening a terminal and entering commands, or have never done so before, these step by step directions should guide you through the process:

Opening a Terminal

Press Ctrl+Alt+T to open a terminal. (Detailed instructions for opening a terminal can be found here.)

Pressing Ctrl+Alt+T means “While holding down the Ctrl and Alt keys, press the T key as though you intend to type it”. Do not press or hold down the Shift key. It does not matter if the Caps Lock key is on or off.

You should now have something that looks like this:

Adding Software Sources

Cinnamon Desktop is not part of the regular software sources used by Ubuntu, so you have to add the sources for Cinnamon.

1) Enter the following line exactly in the terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gwendal-lebihan-dev/cinnamon-stable

You can type it or cut and paste it.

To cut and paste the line into the terminal:

1) Select the line and press Ctrl+C.

2) Right-click on the terminal. This will pop up a menu. Select Paste from the menu:

Note: the traditional keyboard shortcut Ctrl+V will not work in the terminal.

It should look something like this when you are done:

2) Press the Enter key.

3) Enter your password (this is the password you use to log into Ubuntu) and press the Enter key:

Note: when you type your password, nothing will happen in the terminal. It gives no feedback as the password is typed in. This is normal.

When you are done, it will look like this:

Updating the Software Sources

Before Cinnamon can be installed it is necessary to update the software sources so Ubuntu knows where to fetch the required packages from.

1) Enter the following exactly:

sudo apt-get update

2) Press the Enter key.

3) Enter your password and press the Enter key.

Ubuntu will then spend several minutes updating your software sources. The amount of time will depend on the speed of your Internet connection.

When it is done, it should look something like this:

Installing the Cinnamon Desktop

1) Enter the following exactly:

sudo apt-get install cinnamon

2) Press the Enter key.

Some text will scroll across the screen showing exactly what is going to be installed. You will be prompted to continue with the installation:

3) Press the Enter key to proceed with installation. (You can also type y followed by Enter.) If you don’t want to install it, then press n followed by the Enter key.

Installation time will depend on your Internet connection speed (how quickly you can download the code) and computer speed (how quickly you can compile everything).

4) After installation is finished, click on the System icon in the upper right corner of the desktop and select Shut Down… from the drop down menu:

5) Click on Restart:

Selecting the Desktop

After the system has restarted, it is necessary to select the new desktop from the login screen.

It is only necessary to select the desktop the first time after installation. Ubuntu will remember your your desktop for future logins.

You can even install multiple desktops and switch between them.

1) Click the icon in the top right of the Login box:

2) Select Cinnamon:

3) Login:

Notice the icon in the upper right hand corner has changed to a blank circle. Some, not all, desktop environments will present an icon there.

If an icon is present, this provides a quick way to see which desktop environment you are logging into.

The post Ubuntu 12.04 – Installing the Cinnamon Desktop appeared first on Complete, Concrete, Concise.

Ubuntu 12.04 – Replacing the Unity Interface

richardsplanet — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 10:00:00 +0000

Starting with Ubuntu 11.10, Canonical has made the Unity interface / Desktop the default one.

Canonical has done a poor job explaining the Unity interface (I think they should have some sort of script that walks you through the interface on a new install) and this leaves many people bewildered by the new interface.

Unity in Ubuntu 12.04 is more feature rich than the version shipped with Ubuntu 11.10 (it includes the HUD interface) and is much more usable.

I like Unity and now find the standard desktop rather annoying.

I found Unity easy to learn (once I got over being totally bewildered by it) and I would advise you to give it a chance before changing your desktop.

You can find a basic Unity tutorial here

This article lists a number of alternatives for replacing Unity along with a brief description. Installation of each desktop is described on a separate page. I’ve done this because the similar article I wrote for replacing Unity on Ubuntu 11.10 was just too long.

There are a number of replacement desktops available for Ubuntu 12.04.

My main criteria for choosing / recommending the following desktops are:

It should be easy to install.
It should offer a reasonably familiar environment.
It should work with core Ubuntu features – most specifically Ubuntu Software Center.

LXDE

There are two versions of this: LXDE Core and LXDE.

LXDE Core will occupy 19.7MB on your hard disk. It is the lightest installing desktop environment. Installation instructions can be found here.

LXDE will occupy 46.9MB on your hard disk. It installs everything LXDE Core installs as well as some additional applications (like arj, leafpad, lxterminal, lxappearance and some others). Installation instructions can be found here.

The basic, out of the box, LXDE desktop looks like this:

Lubuntu Desktop

There are two versions: (1) just the desktop, and (2) the desktop along with all the applications that are bundled with Lubuntu.

This is the desktop that ships with Lubuntu (an Ubuntu derivative based on the LXDE desktop environment).

Installing the full desktop will occupy 321 MB on your hard disk and installs many applications – many of which are alternates to applications already installed with Ubuntu. For example, it will install abiword (an alternative to LibreOffice Writer), galculator (an alternative to gcalctool), Ace of Penguins (a collection of card games), etc.

Installing only the desktop will occupy 66.3 MB on your hard disk.

The basic, out of the box, Lubuntu Desktop looks like this:

Installation instructions for just the desktop (no additional applications) can be found here.

Installation instructions for the full desktop can be found here.

XFCE

This is another reasonably light weight desktop environment.

It will occupy 67.8MB on your hard disk.

It also installs a number of applications including thunar (a file manager, basically, this duplicates nautilus) and xscreensaver (a screen saver application).

The basic, out of the box, XFCE Desktop looks like this:

Installation instructions can be found here.

Xubuntu Desktop

There are two versions: (1) just the desktop, and (2) the desktop along with all the applications that are bundled with Xubuntu.

This is the desktop that ships with Xubuntu (an Ubuntu derivative based on the XFCE desktop environment).

The full Xubuntu Desktop installation will occupy 283MB on your hard disk and install many applications – many of which are alternates to applications already installed with Ubuntu. For example, abiword (an alternative word processor to LibreOffice Writer), thunar (and alternative file manager to nautilus), bison (a tool used by programmers to generate parsers), etc.

Installing only the Xubuntu Desktop will occupy 111 MB on your hard disk (the only extra application it will install is Thunar (an alterntive file manager to Nautilus).

The basic, out of the box, Xubuntu Desktop looks like this:

Installation instructions for just the desktop (no additional applications) can be found here.

Installation instructions for the full Xubuntu Desktop can be found here.

GNOME

There are at least three versions of this desktop: (1) GNOME Session Fallback, (2) GNOME Shell and (3) GNOME Desktop.

GNOME Session Fallback is the lightest. GNOME Shell is a little heavier weight. GNOME Desktop is the heavyweight contender and installs a number of additional applications.

You get three desktops installed: GNOME 3, GNOME Classic, and GNOME Classic (No effects). Gnome Session Fallback does not include the GNOME 3 desktop.

Canonical based its Ubuntu Desktop on GNOME. When GNOME took a development direction Canonical didn’t agree with, they started working on Unity.

The GNOME desktop will be unfamiliar to the average user – it is the direction GNOME feels the desktop UI should be evolving.

The GNOME Classic desktop (also known as GNOME 2) is reasonably familiar (this was the desktop Ubuntu built theirs on). Though, not quite what you were used to.

The GNOME Classic (No effects) desktop is the same as the Classic desktop – just without fancy effects.

GNOME Session Fallback will occupy 34.8MB on your hard disk.

GNOME Shell will occupy 72.3MB on your hard disk.

GNOME Desktop will occupy 414MB on your hard disk. Like Lubuntu and Xubuntu desktops, it installs many applications – many of which are alternate to applications already installed with Ubuntu. For example, it will install the epiphany browser (alternate to FireFox), many games (gchess, grobots, etc), synaptic package manager (an alternative to Ubuntu Software Center), etc.

The basic, out of the box, GNOME Shell (new desktop) looks like this:

The basic, out of the box, GNOME Classic looks like this:

GNOME Session Fallback installation instructions can be found here.

GNOME Shell installation instructions can be found here.

GNOME Desktop installation instructions can be found here.

Despite being called GNOME Classic, the desktops are still GNOME 3. They are just configured to look like GNOME 2.

MATE Desktop

Of all the replacement desktops, this is the closest to the original or classic desktop before Unity (or GNOME 3 or KDE Plasma).

It will occupy 316MB on your hard disk.

It is a fork of GNOME 2.

A fork means it split off the main GNOME 2 development project. GNOME 2 no longer exists – it is now GNOME 3.

Linux Mint offers a customized version of MATE as one of its desktops. If you were thinking of installing Linux Mint, you can get pretty much the same desktop experience by installing MATE (of course, you will have to customize the desktop yourself to get that Minty look).

Unlike the other desktops mentioned, the process to install this desktop is a little more involved. Though, it is still straightforward.

The basic, out of the box, MATE desktop looks like this:

Installation instructions can be found here.

Cinnamon Desktop

Cinnamon offers a fairly traditional looking desktop with the menubar at the bottom of the screen and a Start menu button (similat to Windows or LXDE).

Cinnamon is one of the desktops offered when you install Linux Mint. If you were thinking of installing Linux Mint, you can get pretty much the same desktop experience by installing Cinnamon.

It will occupy 63MB on your hard disk.

The installation procedure for Cinnamon is simpler than MATE, but still a little more involved than the other desktops mentioned. Nevertheless, it is still straighforward.

The basic, out of the box, Cinnamon Desktop looks like this:

Installation instructions can be found here.

Notably Missing

I do not recommend either KDE or Kubuntu (which is based on KDE) because (1) the Ubuntu Software Center does not work with it and (2) Muon (which is the KDE equivalent to Ubuntu Software Center) doesn’t work either.

Of course, if you are a hardcore geek, you probably don’t care if Ubuntu Software Center or Muon work, since you likely use the command line or synaptic package manager to install and remove software.

The post Ubuntu 12.04 – Replacing the Unity Interface appeared first on Complete, Concrete, Concise.

Ubuntu 11.10 – How to Completely Uninstall / Remove the Lubuntu Desktop

richardsplanet — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 00:45:52 +0000

These instructions are for Ubuntu 11.10 on which the Lubuntu Desktop was installed using either the Ubuntu Software Center or sudo apt-get on the command line.

The instructions may be the same for other versions, but no guarantee is made.

When the Lubuntu Desktop is installed in Ubuntu 11.10, it installs several additional packages and libraries. Not all these packages and libraries are uninstalled when you uninstall the Lubuntu Desktop – several packages, Abiword, do not get removed.

Quick Uninstall

This is not recommended because it will remove all packages that are installed with Lubuntu Desktop. This may include packages you previously installed (like Abiword).

NOTE: this uninstall command assumes Lubuntu Desktop was installed on a fresh Ubuntu 11.10.

1) Open a terminal (instructions can be found here).

2) Enter the following command (it is very long and a single line):

sudo apt-get remove --auto-remove abiword abiword-common abiword-plugin-grammar abiword-plugin-mathview ace-of-penguins audacious audacious-plugins chromium-browser chromium-browser-l10n chromium-codecs-ffmpeg elementary-icon-theme esound-common galculator gdebi gdebi-core giblib1 gnome-icon-theme-full gnome-mplayer gnome-system-tools gnome-time-admin gnumeric gnumeric-common gnumeric-doc gpicview gtk2-engines-pixbuf guvcview hardinfo indicator-status-provider-pidgin leafpad libabiword-2.8 libaiksaurus-1.2-0c2a libaiksaurus-1.2-data libaiksaurusgtk-1.2-0c2a libaudclient2 libaudcore1 libaudiofile0 libbinio1ldbl libcddb2 libcompfaceg1 libcue1 libdiscid0 libencode-locale-perl libept1 libesd0 libexo-1-0 libexo-common libexo-helpers libfile-listing-perl libfluidsynth1 libfm-data libfm-gtk-data libfm-gtk1 libfm1 libfont-afm-perl libgdome2-0 libgdome2-cpp-smart0c2a libglade2-0 libgoffice-0.8-8 libgoffice-0.8-8-common libgringotts2 libgsf-1-114 libgsf-1-common libgtkmathview0c2a libhtml-form-perl libhtml-format-perl libhtml-parser-perl libhtml-tagset-perl libhtml-tree-perl libhttp-cookies-perl libhttp-daemon-perl libhttp-date-perl libhttp-message-perl libhttp-negotiate-perl libimlib2 libio-socket-ssl-perl libjpeg-progs liblink-grammar4 libloudmouth1-0 liblwp-mediatypes-perl liblwp-protocol-https-perl libmailtools-perl libmcrypt4 libmcs1 libmenu-cache1 libmowgli2 libmusicbrainz3-6 libnet-dbus-perl libnet-http-perl libnet-ssleay-perl libobrender27 libobt0 libonig2 liboobs-1-5 libopenal1 libopts25 libots0 libpisock9 libpolkit-gtk-1-0 libresid-builder0c2a libsidplay2 libsvga1 libtar0 libtie-ixhash-perl libtimedate-perl libuniconf4.6 liburi-perl libvdpau1 libwebcam0 libwv-1.2-3 libwvstreams4.6-base libwvstreams4.6-extras libwww-perl libwww-robotrules-perl libxfce4ui-1-0 libxfce4util-bin libxfce4util-common libxfce4util4 libxfcegui4-4 libxfconf-0-2 libxml-parser-perl libxml-twig-perl libxml-xpath-perl libxss1 libxvidcore4 link-grammar-dictionaries-en lm-sensors lubuntu-artwork lubuntu-core lubuntu-default-settings lubuntu-desktop lubuntu-icon-theme lxappearance lxappearance-obconf lxde-common lxde-core lxdm lxinput lxkeymap lxlauncher lxmenu-data lxpanel lxpanel-indicator-applet-plugin lxrandr lxsession lxsession-edit lxshortcut lxtask lxterminal mplayer mtpaint ntp obconf openbox openbox-themes osmo pcmanfm pidgin pidgin-data pidgin-libnotify pidgin-microblog plymouth-theme-lubuntu-logo plymouth-theme-lubuntu-text python-xklavier scrot sylpheed sylpheed-doc sylpheed-i18n sylpheed-plugins synaptic system-tools-backends transmission ttf-lyx uvcdynctrl uvcdynctrl-data wvdial xfburn xfce-keyboard-shortcuts xfce4-power-manager xfce4-power-manager-data xfconf xfonts-100dpi xpad xscreensaver xscreensaver-data

It is easiest to copy the line and paste it into the terminal (right-click on the terminal and select Paste from the popup menu).

Preferred Uninstall

The better way to uninstall it is to follow the directions on this page. This will allow you to uninstall only the packages that were installed when Lubuntu Desktop was installed. The instructions are generic and work for any installed package.

This involves (1) identifying which packages were installed and (2) creating a command to uninstall only those packages.

This leaves intact any packages you may have installed (like Abiword) instead of blindly assuming that they were installed as part of Lubuntu Desktop.

The post Ubuntu 11.10 – How to Completely Uninstall / Remove the Lubuntu Desktop appeared first on Complete, Concrete, Concise.