Xfce Forum

apperrault

Member

Registered: 2007-01-23

Posts: 1

How to install on CentOS

Greetings all,
I am a relatively new Linux user.  My company uses CentOS for most of our Linux installations.  I had an available laptop so i decided to install CentOS on it.  I like the look and feel of Xfce and want to install it on CentOS, but i am unsure how to do this.  I have the X11 window, and i can start firefox and download the files for installation, but I am not sure how to install the app.  Someone suggested that i run

yum install xfce4

but that doesn't work. 

Can anyone offer any assistance?

Thanks much

app

Nick

Dev

From: ~

Registered: 2005-02-17

Posts: 1,144

Website

Re: How to install on CentOS

Maybe the group xfce4 is not in the repository. You can also try 'yum install xfwm4' (xfce window manager only), if this also fails, then there are probably no xfce packages known by the repo's you've installated. (I have absolutely no experience with YUM...).

You probably have a quicker (and better reply) when you try the CentOs forums.

---

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dzver

Member

Registered: 2007-04-24

Posts: 2

Re: How to install on CentOS

This is intended (and tested) for clean install with CentOS5 (assumes installed only "base" from CD1)

Create install.sh file as follows:

-------------------

#!/bin/sh


echo "---- Update the system (note: if kernel is updated you will have to reboot)"
yum -y update
echo ""
echo ""

echo "---- Ensure fastest mirror plugin is installed"
yum -y --enablerepo=extras install yum-fastestmirror yum-plugin-fastestmirror
echo ""
echo ""

echo "---- Install X Window System..."
yum -y groupinstall "X Window System"
echo ""
echo ""

echo "---- Install X Window library dependencies..."
yum -y install `yum search libX*-devel | grep base | awk "{ print \$1 }"`
echo ""
echo ""

echo "---- Install other dependencies... "
yum -y install vte-devel gcc gcc-c++ autoconf automake gettext gettext-devel libtool pkgconfig intltool libSM-devel startup-notification-devel libpng libpng-devel libjpeg libjpeg-devel libxkbfile libxkbfile-devel python python-devel dbus dbus-devel libXpm libXrender libXcomposite libXdamage libXfixes gdm cups cups-devel cdrecord cdrdao mkisofs perl-XML-Parser libxml2 libxml2-devel alsa-lib alsa-utils alsa-lib-devel libXinerama hal-devel dbus-glib-devel libusb-devel pcre-devel
echo ""
echo ""

echo "---- Install RPMForge repo (for taglib), and taglib itself"
rpm -Uhv http://apt.sw.be/packages/rpmforge-release/rpmforge-release-0.3.6-1.el5.rf.i386.rpm
yum -y install taglib-devel
echo ""
echo ""

echo "---- Download installers in /usr/src directory....  "
cd /usr/src
wget http://www.us.xfce.org/archive/xfce-4.4.0/installers/xfce4-4.4.0-installer.run
wget http://www.us.xfce.org/archive/xfce-4.4.0/installers/xfce-goodies-4.4.0-installer.run
wget http://www.us.xfce.org/archive/xfce-4.4.0/installers/Thunar-Bundle-0.8.0-installer.run
wget http://www.us.xfce.org/archive/xfce-4.4.0/installers/Thunar-0.8.0-installer.run
chmod +x xfce4-4.4.0-installer.run
chmod +x xfce-goodies-4.4.0-installer.run
chmod +x Thunar-Bundle-0.8.0-installer.run
chmod +x Thunar-0.8.0-installer.run
echo ""
echo ""


echo "---- Done."
echo "You must go into graphics mode (telinit 5 or better reboot in case of kernel update occured), and from the default WM (twm on clean install) start installers from /usr/src ."

-------------------

chmod +x the file, run it. It will install all dependencies and download installers for XFCE 4.4.0 .
Reboot in graphics mode (restart and telinit 5 if your default initlevel mode is not 5), run the installers (eventually from twm if no other environment is installed).  All should compile cleanly.

Optionally, you may want to follow these steps after installation:

- Remove unnecessary *-devel packages to free disk space (this however will keep the kernel and gcc devel packages):
yum remove `yum list *-devel | grep installed | grep -v kernel | grep -v libstdc | grep -v glibc | awk "{ print \$1 }"`

- Download fonts and fix font bytecode rendering:
Create a file with the following content, chmod +x and run it:
-------------------

cd /usr/src
wget http://www.osresources.com/files/centos-windows-fonts/msfonts.tbz

yum -y update freetype
yum -y install gcc-c++ rpm-build xorg-x11-deprecated-libs-devel xorg-x11-devel automake autoconf libtool zlib-devel libX11-devel
echo "---- Wait..."

mkdir -p /usr/src/redhat/SPECS

ARCH=`uname -i`
FILENAME=`yum list freetype | grep installed | awk "{ printf(\"%s%s\",\\$1 \\$2,\".src.rpm\") }" | sed "s/.$ARCH/-/"`

rm -f $FILENAME

wget ftp://ftp.redhat.com/pub/redhat/linux/enterprise/5Client/en/os/SRPMS/$FILENAME

rpm -Uvh $FILENAME
sed -i 's/%define without_bytecode_interpreter    1/%define without_bytecode_interpreter    0/' /usr/src/redhat/SPECS/freetype.spec

cd /usr/src/redhat/SPECS
rpmbuild -ba freetype.spec

cd /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/$ARCH
rpm -Uvh --force *

cd /usr/src
mkdir /usr/share/fonts/TTF
tar xvjpf msfonts.tbz -C /usr/share/fonts/TTF/
rm -f msfonts.tbz*

echo ""
echo ""
echo "---- Done. "
echo "---- Make sure the directory /usr/share/fonts/TTF is listed as <dir> in /etc/fonts/fonts.conf !"
echo "---- Also, to avoid reverting at the next update, add/change the following line in /etc/yum.conf, [main] section: 'exclude=freetype freetype-demos freetype-devel' "
echo "" 

-------------------

Then you may need to fix your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file and eventually install video drivers.

If you want to install the XFCE 4.4.1 version, just change the links for downloading installer appropriately. I think XFCE 4.4.1 will work with most goodies installed using 4.4.0 goodie installer, but I am not sure whether it is stable.
The only problem I noticed is thunar settings option from settings manager cannot be launched - complains something about d-bus. I do not know how to fix that.

grantmasterflash

Member

Registered: 2007-04-03

Posts: 1

Re: How to install on CentOS

Anyone working on rpms? I've emailed the person that created the rpms for CentOS4 and gotten no reponse and I emailed the person that created the rpms for Fedora and the email bounced. We use XFCE at work but we have multiple machines using it that are different and need to be installed as simple as possible vi a script. The GUI stops us in our tracks because it's intereactive. If RPMs were in the works I'd be willing to help build them and test if needed.

Grant

dzver

Member

Registered: 2007-04-24

Posts: 2

Re: How to install on CentOS

I wrote

The only problem I noticed is thunar settings option from settings manager cannot be launched - complains something about d-bus. I do not know how to fix that.

The missing library is dbus-x11:

yum -y install dbus-x11

I am running XFCE 4.4.1 with goodies 4.4.0 (installed using 4.4.0 goodie installer) and it is rock stable for now (installed it on several machines using the script above).

I will also be happy to see it as rpms.
Unfortunately I do not know how to do it.