[SOLVED] Problem getting LXDE to work with Vector Linux Light v 6.0

[Silent Music]

Hi,
After a gap not using VLL on my old machine, I am back to using it again. I would like to install LXDE on version 6.0. I know I should really have installed Vector Linux Standard 6.0 in the first place to get LXDE, but I didn't and I don't want to lose the customisation I have already done on VLL.
Using Gslapt, I installed:
lxappearance
lxde-common
lxnm
lxpanel
lxsession-lite
lxtask
openbox
However, LXDE does not appear as an option in the "Session" menu at the login window. Openbox does, but that's not much use.
Am I missing a package or something? Do I have to configure something somewhere to get LXDE to work?
Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

[Daniel]

I know I should really have installed Vector Linux Standard 6.0 in the first place to get LXDE

VL 6 Standard comes with XFCE, not LXDE.

Using Gslapt, I installed:
lxappearance
lxde-common
lxnm
lxpanel
lxsession-lite
lxtask
openbox
However, LXDE does not appear as an option in the "Session" menu at the login window. Openbox does, but that's not much use.
Am I missing a package or something? Do I have to configure something somewhere to get LXDE to work?

It looks to me that you are missing the "lxde" package. All the packages you listed look like lxde packages but I think you need the main "lxde" package. (without the quotes)

[Silent Music]

Yes I thought that, but it is not available in the repository. My Gslapt does not list it.
slapt-get --install lxde   returns:
no such package: lxde

[GrannyGeek]

You are correct that VL6 Standard comes with LXDE. It is the non-default desktop environment.

According to /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.lxde, the command to start lxde is
/usr/bin/startlxde

At the end of that /usr/bin/startlxde file is this:
# Start the LXDE session
exec /usr/bin/lxsession -s LXDE

It seems there is no lxde command or program as such. Play around with these and see if it starts. I've started it just once, so I don't remember any details, but it did start.
--GrannyGeek

[newt]

You can grab the lxde.tlz package that's included in VL6StandardGold here: http://www.mediafire.com/?oyzt2yoglym

[Daniel]

You are correct that VL6 Standard comes with LXDE. It is the non-default desktop environment.

I stand corrected. Didn't realize Standard had LXDE.

[Silent Music]

I am having internet connection problems with Vector LL today, and I am having to reply using Zenwalk Linux, which is on the other hard drive of my old machine.
I logged into the forum using "Opera" and immediately got this warning:

Site not secure
The content of forum.vectorlinux.com is insecure and should not be used to exchange sensitive information.
The communication is done in plain text and there is no way to guarantee the identity of the server.

Probably just an Opera annoyance, but thought I'd mention it.

Anyway, thanks newt for the link. I have downloaded LXDE.tlz to the Desktop. Excuse my ignorance, but what is the best way to proceed now? I can code in a terminal:
unlzma LXDE.tlz
This changes the LXDE.tlz file into an archive, (LXD), which is an archive that Xarchiver can now handle. I could extract the parent folders inside the archive, (etc, usr, var) onto the desktop and then, as root, mv their contents into the relevant folders of the root folder /. But this would be laborious. Is there a safer and easier procedure?

Granny Geek it seems that you were wrong. The "lxde" package is missing in the repository, packaged presumably as lxde.tlz, and this is vital to get LXDE up and running, but thanks for your help. Please would the repository maintainers look into why this essential package for LXDE is not there.

Daniel, yes, I was advised that I should have installed Vector Linux Standard if I wanted LXDE, but I had already downloaded the iso for Vector Linux Light 6.0, assuming LXDE was there, (as it was in VLL5.9), burnt the CD, installed VLL and done some customisation for IceWM. I would like to add LXDE to this distro, rather than go to the trouble of downloading another iso and reinstalling everything. I think LXDE and IceWM would make a nice combination, and if I can get LXDE running I will delete JWM. It is just not as good.

[nightflier]

To extract/install an archive to your system, as root, issue command:

Code:

cd /
lzma -cd /path/to/the/file/lxde.tlz | tar xp

[GrannyGeek]

Granny Geek it seems that you were wrong. The "lxde" package is missing in the repository, packaged presumably as lxde.tlz, and this is vital to get LXDE up and running, but thanks for your help. Please would the repository maintainers look into why this essential package for LXDE is not there.

It's entirely possible that I'm wrong. HOWEVER...
I did check /var/log/packages on my VL6 Standard and there is no such package as lxde installed. And yet, LXDE can be started and does work. So I'm not sure lxde.tlz gives you any more than what are already in the repos.

Just to see what would happen, I booted to text mode and tried to start LXDE with startlxde and /usr/bin/lxsession -s LXDE . Neither command worked. I got a message about a missing library. Then I remembered what I was told when I asked how to start LXDE on this forum some months ago. You have to start VASM as user, then XWMSET, then pick lxde as your default window manager. Then you type startx at a prompt and LXDE will start. No rebooting necessary. Seems like a lot of work to be able to start LXDE, but that's what you do in Standard.

I wondered the same thing you did: if someone wants to install LXDE in Light or the new KDE Classic VectorLinux, why isn't the lxde.tlz package in the repos if it's necessary? And now I'm wondering why you'd have to extract the package. Generally, you install a tlz package by typing as root at a prompt:
installpkg lxde.tlz

Is there something different about this package?

Let us know if/when you get it going and what you had to do.
--GrannyGeek

By the way, I always log in to this forum with Opera 10 and I don't recall seeing the message you got.

[M0E-lnx]

Just my 2 cents here.
the file you guys are looking for is "lxde.tlz" and will most certainly not be in the repositories. Allow me to explain.
Packages in the repository follow the naming scheme "foo-var-0.1-i586-1vl60.tlz"

You may obtain this package from a install CD or ISO image only.

The fact that "lxde.tlz" does not follow that should tell you this is what we call a BULK package for installation via the Vectorlinux installer. It is a collection that includes all the packages needed for a working lxde environment. And no... it is not "vital" to get lxde to work.

If you install lxde from gslapt, that should give you the desktop environment. Now, depending on which version of VL you are running, which login manager you use, the location of your lxde.Desktop may need to change also.

Because this is no ordinary package, you dont want to install it using "installpkg" but rather using the following command

Code:

lzmadec < lxde.tlz | tar -xp -C /

After that, move or copy the xinitrc.lxde to the appropriate location for your login manager.

[GrannyGeek]

Thanks for the explanation. I never would have guessed any of that.
--GrannyGeek

[Pita]

I am a fluxbox aficionado with a xfce4-panel and somehow I must have installed
or did it come with VL-6-Light. Anyhow I just type in the xterm startlxde and it started
right on top of fluxbox like a skin which I can even move. I am not aware of others
like xfce4 or gnome that this can be done. They need a new X. (-- :2)

[Silent Music]

Thanks for the useful suggestions everyone who has contributed. This is a helpful forum.

Without installing the LXDE.tlz file, I am able to start LXDE by choosing the "failsafe" option from the "Session Type" or "Session" menu drop-down-list at the login screen. I then get an xterm console. If I code, (as normal user), /usr/bin/startlxde then LXDE starts. By the way, gdm is my login manager, (and the theme used is the "std" Vectorlinux theme, rather attractive IMHO). Obviously, since I have started the desktop with a console, the LX desktop environment disappears if I inadvertently close xterm, and I am back to the login screen.

I stand corrected therefore, GrannyGeek and MOE-lnx are right - I don't need the lxde.tlz package to operate LXDE. Installing lxde from gslapt should give you a working LXDE. The problem is that lxde is not showing up as one of the "Session Type" options in the drop-down-list, (Keyboard shortcut Alt+T). What I want is to be able to choose LXDE from among the various "Session Type" options and not have to start LXDE with with a "failsafe" console, which is a bit hammy.

GrannyGeek, you are using Vectorlinux Standard and said:

According to /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.lxde, the command to start lxde is
/usr/bin/startlxde

Well after installing the LXDE components with gslapt no /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.lxde file was created. In VLL there are such files for IceWM and JWM - /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.icewm and /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.jwm respectively. So I tried to create an xinitrc.lxde file in the same folder by modifying the xinitrc.icewm file and changing everything that said icewm into lxde. Then I coded: updatedb so that the system would see this new file. It is now seen for locate xinitrc.lxde purposes, but gdm is not seeing this file.
GrannyGeek please could you post the contents of your /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.lxde file, so that I can compare. Thanks in advance.

MOE-lnx you wrote:

If you install lxde from gslapt, that should give you the desktop environment. Now, depending on which version of VL you are running, which login manager you use, the location of your lxde.Desktop may need to change also.

I am not sure what you intend I should do here. Given that I am using VLL6.0 and gdm as my login manager, please could you suggest what might be changed or moved where.

After that, move or copy the xinitrc.lxde to the appropriate location for your login manager.

As I said above, no /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.lxde file was created for me when I installed the VLL components from gslapt. I need to check that I have got the xinitrc.lxde file that I created configured correctly, but it contains at the end the all important command:
exec /usr/bin/startlxde
which is what I am doing when I start lxde in a "failsafe" console.
Which file in gdm reads /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.lxde (and the xinitrc.icewm and xinitrc.jwm in the same folder, which presumably are being read because IceWM and JWM appear as options in the "Session" drop-down-list)? Which file or files do I need to modify so that I can get LXDE to appear there as a viable option as well?

[GrannyGeek]

Here are the contents of the /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.lxde file on VectorLinux 6 Standard:

Code:

#!/bin/sh
# $Xorg: xinitrc.cpp,v 1.3 2000/08/17 19:54:30 cpqbld Exp $

userresources=$HOME/.Xresources
usermodmap=$HOME/.Xmodmap
sysresources=/usr/lib/X11/xinit/.Xresources
sysmodmap=/usr/lib/X11/xinit/.Xmodmap

# merge in defaults and keymaps

if [ -f $sysresources ]; then
    /usr/bin/xrdb -merge $sysresources
fi

if [ -f $sysmodmap ]; then
    /usr/bin/xmodmap $sysmodmap
fi

if [ -f $userresources ]; then
    /usr/bin/xrdb -merge $userresources
fi

if [ -f $usermodmap ]; then
    /usr/bin/xmodmap $usermodmap
fi

exec /usr/bin/startlxde

I don't know if that will help. Let us know what happens.
--GrannyGeek

[Pita]

If you start LXDE from xterm end the command with an & (ambersand).
 /usr/bin/startlxde &.
I think you should not need the /usr/bin even may be in failsafe.

Then in xterm type exit and press enter, that wil close xterm and LXDE will stay.