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clean install of other desktops

Posted: Thu May 22, 2014 2:45 pm
by krsn
has anyone ever installed another desktop on kxstudio? i mean installed it so everything is clean and doesn't require any tunings.
i tried mate 2 weeks ago on the new kx 14.04, but there were too much bugs and weird things appearing and disapearing (panel or icons going crazy)...
i really would like to replace kde with xde on my laptop, as its rather old.
any experiences of that? are there any cleaning to do once the desktop is installed?

Re: clean install of other desktops

Posted: Thu May 22, 2014 3:36 pm
by Shupacabras
unity operating correctly
disable only a couple of effects

Re: clean install of other desktops

Posted: Thu May 22, 2014 4:24 pm
by bazsound
I havnt tried 14.04

but i installed lxde after installing kx studio live dvd on my desktop machine without any issues. kde is still there but i mainly use lxde.

on my laptop i installed lubuntu and added the kx studio repos installed all the packages and so far its working fine, though ive not really used it for much audio work.

14.04 as i keep saying is bound to have problems until they work out the bugs and developers work out what they need to change in there software to fix issues changes in libraries are causing.

Re: clean install of other desktops

Posted: Thu May 22, 2014 4:27 pm
by i2productions
If you want a clean install with other desktops, consider adding kxstudio repos to a well tweaked desktop of choice. I used Linux Mint 13 Cinnamon as a base. If you like MATE, you may want to use Linxu Mint MATE. If you are looking for lightweight, try XFCE edition. If you want a REALLY REALLY low resource desktop, I suggest Bohdi(e17 desktop) or Peppermint OS(LXDE). They do a great job of tweaking the respective desktops! The guide to upgrading Ubuntu/Mint/Debian is here:

http://linuxmusicians.com/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=9666

Re: clean install of other desktops

Posted: Thu May 22, 2014 4:52 pm
by krsn
thanks all.
in fact, i want to keep the install from the kxstudio iso but make it a little lighter. so i won't install another distro and add the kx repos to it, i like the kx iso as is, ready and fully packaged... but i would take it in another flavor for the laptop.
maybe i'll try installing the xde desktop again and just live with the mixed menus. it's not like it's thaaat bad anyway.
i will nevertheless still take any cue on that.

Re: clean install of other desktops

Posted: Thu May 22, 2014 5:09 pm
by i2productions
The thing is all the tweaks and everything that's present in the ISO(except KDE) is exactly what you end up with, with 8 copy and paste terminal commands. Unfortunately you can't have it both ways. That's why there's so many different distro's of Ubuntu. Everyone like's there's tweaked a little differently. All the audio and system tweaks in the KXStudio ISO get made to other setups. If's there's a particular desktop of setup you like, there's probably an Ubuntu based disto for it! And that's what makes KXStudio so special. Eveyone has their different way of doing things, and it's made easy to work the way you want and not sacrifice the nice goodies. Just my opinion though.

Re: clean install of other desktops

Posted: Fri May 23, 2014 8:04 am
by bazsound
If you install another desktop envirment in kx studio, logout and then change it from kde to the de you just installed and log in. It should set that as defualt and each time you login it will login to the DE.

KDE will still be installed, but not loaded. so you will be running a lighter DE. I have KDE still installed but use lxde with openbox and on login use about 300mb of ram and with firefox open abour 600mb ram.

From what i remember if i log into kde the initial ram load jumps upt to around 500-600mb with nothing loaded.

You can still be lightwieght while having multiple DE's installed.

Re: clean install of other desktops

Posted: Fri May 23, 2014 3:36 pm
by i2productions
The original problem stated was that a DE was downloaded, but it wasn't polished. Which is the case when you just add a DE from repos on top of an existing install. It has no tweaks to the DE, and can be a pain in the butt to get, for the example of the original post, MATE to work as well as a second DE from a repo as it will work if you pick a distro like Mint MATE with a well tweaked desktop, then add all the kxstudio stuff. The KX stuff works just as well added from a repo, but no so much on DE's. The other problem you can run into the multiple desktops is some of them save things to the same places in the file system, and something you do in KDE might affect how the other runs or vice-versa. I've tried it a lot of different ways, and I've found it's best to find the right distro to begin with that's tweaked to your liking(or to the limits of your computer) and build on top of it. You end up with all the same studio creation tools and tweaks, but on a desktop you're comfortable with(or your computer is comfortable with.)

Talking about RAM loads. Bodhi linux will load with the full kx set of tools into less than 100MB of RAM. Peppermint in about 150MB.

Re: clean install of other desktops

Posted: Sat May 24, 2014 5:22 am
by krsn
what i like about the kde iso is that i don't have to install anything, that's one, and for two, i just like the fact that it comes already without pulseaudio. that's a big plus for me. for the rest, kde can indeed be a monster on some machines. it runs just fine on my main workstation but as for the laptop it's just too cool of a de.
nothing to kill about. i'll live with the imperfections.

Re: clean install of other desktops

Posted: Sat May 24, 2014 5:29 am
by krsn
as a second thought, i found that:
Don't mix desktop environments: choose Ubuntu (Gnome/Unity), Xubuntu (Xfce) or Kubuntu (KDE)
6. An Ubuntu in which both the full Unity/Gnome and the full KDE desktop environments has been installed, turns your system into a hopelessly polluted mess. This pollution will decrease performance and may cause instability and malfunctions.

If you want to ensure that your operating system continues to work well, then you'll install either Ubuntu (Gnome/Unity) or Kubuntu (KDE). And then you won't install any KDE applications in Ubuntu, that upon installation pull in half of the KDE desktop as dependent files (like for example DVD burner K3B does)...

Tip: when you install applications by means of Synaptic Package Manager, then you can check beforehand what a particular application needs as dependent files.

Desktop environments that share a lot "under the hood", you may install alongside each other, if you wish. Xfce (the desktop environment of Xubuntu) fits pretty nicely alongside the Gnome/Unity of Ubuntu. But even then some pollution is inevitable...

Have you made this mistake and do you wish to undo it? Then the best approach is unfortunately a clean re-installation.
here: https://sites.google.com/site/easylinux ... almistakes

which now makes me wonder if after all i won't prefer forcing myself to getting used to pulseaudio anyway...

Re: clean install of other desktops

Posted: Sat May 24, 2014 6:14 am
by sysrqer
Yeah the main problem is the conflicts you might create. The other problem is that a lot of them want to pull in pulseaudio which is a pain. It would be better to download some ISOs and test them in a live environment and just install which you like rather than install multiple DEs.

Re: clean install of other desktops

Posted: Sat May 24, 2014 9:21 am
by bazsound
http://namakutux.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05 ... me-on.html

the default lubuntu theme i agree is a bit uggly.

The above link tells you how to polish your LXDE DE, however this does add a little to your system load, but it looks nice and doesnt slow things down too much.

I use this on a lubuntu installation on my laptop which has 2gb of ram and a core 2 duo 2.4ghz cpu. I was able to use it live as a system EQ with the onboard soundcard at 5ms latency without any problems.

I do agree that it is better to start with a distro that has the DE you want, but on my desktop machine i already had kx studio installed and needed a quick change. I have a large hard drive so dont mind some extra packages and libriaries installed. There is still a huge performance increase simply by switching to lxde while still hvaing kde installed on my old machine.

Plus i prefer some of the kde applications. I use the kde burning programs.

Re: clean install of other desktops

Posted: Sat May 24, 2014 11:02 am
by Thad E Ginathom
As it is from quite a while back, probably some of the repository information may have changed, but I would expect that the basic principles and procedures are still the same: KXstudio without branding and KDE

I prefer to be KDE-free right from the start. It gets too confusing with its own admin stuff that it adds to the menus.

It's been a while since my last install, but if I remember correctly, to remain free of KDE, or bits of it, one needs to uncheck Consider recommended packages as dependencies in Synaptic, preferences, general, and use the appropriate commandlien equivalent.

Re: clean install of other desktops

Posted: Sat May 24, 2014 3:32 pm
by i2productions
You don't have to live with anything. Like I''ve been saying, if you follow the upgrade guide you'll end up with a system just like the ISO. No pulse. Technically it's still there, but totally disabled. The upgrade process doesn't take any longer than waiting for an ISO to download either. Merging 2 DE's is usually a bad idea, as you found out.

@Thad http://linuxmusicians.com/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=9666 The guide you posted is out of date, as well as the documentation on the KXStudio Website. It hasn't been updated since the repos were switched to debian. I keep this guide up to date. The guide is long winded for new user's benefit, but all you need to do is install a linux distro, and copy and paste 8 commands into terminal. That's all there is to KXStudio without KDE branding. You get all the same tools as the ISO. It disables pulseaudio, it sets Cadence to autostart JACK just like the ISO. The only thing you don't get is any KDE specific tools.

Re: clean install of other desktops

Posted: Sat May 24, 2014 6:26 pm
by Thad E Ginathom
Ahh... You are way ahead of me :o.

I've updated my bookmarks and my mind on this. It will be just what I need when the next install time comes around. Thanks.