Setting up Xubuntu

Switching from default Ubuntu installation to Xubuntu

Default installation of Ubuntu 20.04 takes a minimum of 1 GB of RAM to handle its GUI applications. If you are not a GUI person and more of a CLI person, I would highly recommend you to chuck GNOME and start using Xfce. Its lightweight and has a decent GUI. Xubuntu is just a Ubuntu varient which comes with Xfce desktop environment.

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sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y xubuntu-desktop

Other tweaks

After installing Xfce, I faced few issues.

1. The desktop is blank after it wakes up from suspension.

   Solution:

   1 2	sudo apt install -y xscreensaver sudo apt remove -y light-locker

2. Workspaces are disabled. Even when enabled, it doesnt allow moving applications from one workspace to another workspace.

   Solution:

   • Enable workspaces. Goto Settings Manager -> Workspaces and enable the number of required workspaces.
   • By default, you cannot move application from one workspace to another. To enable the shortcut, head over to Settings Manager -> Window Manager -> Keyboard. Check for the actions “Move window to left workspace” and “Move window to right workspace” and add your keyboard shortcut there.

3. The login screen doesn’t allow me to enter password after auto locked. This is an annoying bug since some time (Look at the bug thread)

   Solution 1:

   • Click Ctrl + Alt + F1
   • Login to user account
   • sudo service lightdm restart

   Remember: This is auto close all the applications that were open before the auto lock.

   Solution 2:

   • Click Ctrl + Alt + F1
   • Login to user account
   • killall xfce4-screensaver - this will remove the login screen
   • Click Ctrl + Alt + F7 to go back to the GUI.
   • As the xfce4-screensaver is not running, commands like lock doesnt work. Make sure you run the command xfce4-screensaver in the background. A simple suspend would automatically restart the screensaver.

Shortcuts

List of important shortcuts: