Xfce is an alternative to GNOME or KDE and a pretty colorful and well-configurable desktop environment. Learn the commands to install XFCE desktop on Debian 11 Bullseye Linux.
Xfce is designed to run easily on slightly less powerful computers, mainly because of the somewhat lower system requirements. This lightweight desktop environment is very easy to use with the mouse and can be used to run all GNOME and KDE programs. Friends of Compiz can use Xfce too.
Ubuntu has been available with Xfce as the desktop environment in its official version – Xubuntu. However, since it is no longer a “pure” Xfce (various GNOME components have been integrated to increase comfort). Nevertheless – if you are a Debian Linux user with a command-line interface or graphical user interface with Gnome or any other, still we can install XFCE directly using the official Debian package source repository.
Steps to install XFCE Desktop environment on Debian 11 Bullseye
#1st Method
1. Requirements
To install XFCE Desktop on Linux, we need the following things:
• Debian 11
• A Non-root sudo user
• Internet connection
• CPU: 1.0Ghz+
• RAM: 512MiB+
• Hard drive space: 7.5GB
• Display of 800×600 resolution
2. Run APT system update
The packages we require to install is XFCE4 on Debian 11 are already available from the system’s official source repository. Hence, before going further, let’s first run the system update command to make sure our system is up to date.
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade
3. Install Tasksel
Once the system is up to date, let’s use the APT package manager to install tasksel. It is a tool that can be used to download and install various desktop environments including Server software stacks such as Web servers.
sudo apt install tasksel -y
4. Install XFCE Desktop on Debian 11
Let’s now use the tasksel to easily install and configure the XFCE desktop environment on Debian 11 Bullseye Linux. For that run:
sudo tasksel install xfce-desktop
Wait for some time, the new Desktop user interface will be on your system.
5. Reboot
Once the process of installing the XFCE desktop is done, just reboot your system:
sudo reboot
6. Select XFCE Desktop
The users who are using the command-line interface on their Debian 11 Bullseye Linux will get the login interface. Whereas, those who are already using Gnome or any other Linux desktop environment need to select the user and then click on the Gear icon to select XFCE. After that select the user and log in.
#2nd method:
7. Install XFCE using APT
Well, if you don’t want to use Tasksel to automate the installation process, we can use the APT package manager to install this desktop environment on your system.
sudo apt install task-xfce-desktop
sudo systemctl get-default
sudo systemctl set-default graphical.target
Now, again reboot your system.
sudo reboot