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I use Ubuntu 12.04 (I have not upgraded to 14.04 for performance reasons) but I don't like Unity. How can I install XFCE as my default graphic system, and completely remove Unity?

Jos
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wwwjsw
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2 Answers2

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You can install the entire xfce ubuntu package using the following commands:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install xfce4

Alternatively, you can install the entire xubuntu package:

sudo apt-get install xubuntu-desktop

To uninstall unity:

sudo apt-get purge ubuntu-desktop unity-*
mchid
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  • Installing the xubuntu-desktop package could leave you with many duplicate applications. – briankip Mar 18 '16 at 14:57
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    @briankip Duplicate applications? Do you mean like nautilus and thunar? Personally I like having the option to use either nautilus or thunar as nautilus is pretty resource intensive but thunar doesn't have the automatic search capabilities that nautilus has. – mchid Mar 21 '16 at 16:42
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Test this:

Switch on your computer.

Press and hold the Shift key, which will bring up the Grub menu.

In the Grub menu select the line which starts with ---- Advanced options.

Select the line ending with ---- (recovery mode) something like:

Ubuntu GNU/Linux, with Linux 3.2.0-26-generic (recovery mode)

Press Enter key and your machine will begin the boot process.

Your pc should display a menu with a number of options.

Select the line will be ---- Drop to root shell prompt, press enter with this option highlighted.

In the terminal run it:

mount -o remount, rw /
mount --all
apt-get update
apt-get install --reinstall aptitude deborphan

aptitude remove '?and(?reverse-depends(gnome),?not(?reverse-depends(?exact-name(xubuntu-desktop))))'

aptitude remove '?and(?reverse-depends(ubuntu),?not(?reverse-depends(?exact-name(xubuntu-desktop))))'

apt-get install --reinstall xubuntu-desktop
apt-get dist-upgrade
deborphan
apt-get --purge remove $(deborphan)
deborphan --libdevel
apt-get --purge remove $(deborphan --libdevel)
deborphan --find-config
dpkg --purge $(deborphan --find-config)
apt-get autoremove
apt-get clean
reboot
kyodake
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  • I tried this, but got stuck at the first aptitude remove '?and(... step. It spent a very long time searching for a solution. – tprk77 Aug 06 '15 at 18:40