How to Install XFCE Desktop in Linux [Guide]

What Is the XFCE Desktop Environment?

XFCE is a lightweight desktop environment developed for Linux and other Unix-like operating systems. It uses a collection of independent components instead of placing every desktop function inside one enormous package. Core components include the XFWM window manager, XFCE Panel, Thunar file manager, XFCE Settings, and the XFCE Session Manager.

This modular design makes XFCE responsive on older computers while still providing modern necessities such as multiple workspaces, keyboard shortcuts, panel plugins, power management, notifications, removable-drive handling, and desktop theming.

Why install XFCE?

• It usually consumes fewer resources than heavier desktop environments.
• Its traditional panel-and-menu layout is easy to understand.
• Nearly every part of the desktop can be customized.
• It works well in virtual machines and remote desktop sessions.
• You can install it beside GNOME, KDE Plasma, Cinnamon, or another desktop.
• It remains useful on both older hardware and powerful modern systems.

XFCE 4.20 is the current stable upstream series at the time of writing. It includes early Wayland-related work, but upstream documentation still describes Wayland support as experimental. For a dependable daily desktop, the regular XFCE session using X11 remains the safer option unless your distribution explicitly recommends otherwise.

Before Installing XFCE

Installing another desktop environment is normally safe, but it adds packages, applications, themes, configuration files, and possibly another display manager. A little preparation prevents the desktop equivalent of opening a kitchen drawer and discovering six identical bottle openers.

1. Identify your Linux distribution

Run the following command:

Look for values such as Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, Arch Linux, openSUSE, Alpine, or Rocky Linux. The correct installation command depends on the distribution and its package manager.

2. Update your system

Updating first reduces the chance of dependency conflicts. Use the command for your distribution:

3. Back up important files

Installing XFCE should not delete personal documents. Nevertheless, save important data before making significant system changes. If your system supports snapshots through Timeshift, Snapper, Btrfs, or another tool, create one before continuing.

4. Check available disk space

A minimal XFCE installation may require only a modest amount of space, while a complete desktop bundle can install browsers, office tools, media applications, themes, and utilities. Keeping several gigabytes free is sensible.

How to Install XFCE on Ubuntu and Linux Mint

Ubuntu users can choose between a relatively clean XFCE installation and the complete Xubuntu desktop experience.

Install the standard XFCE desktop

The xfce4 package installs the core desktop. The xfce4-goodies package adds useful panel plugins, utilities, and supporting applications. This combination is a good choice when you want XFCE without replacing your distribution’s branding and application collection.

Install the complete Xubuntu desktop

The Xubuntu metapackage installs XFCE along with Xubuntu themes, default settings, utilities, and recommended applications. It creates a more complete environment, but it also downloads considerably more software.

During installation, Ubuntu may ask you to choose a display manager. LightDM is commonly associated with Xubuntu and XFCE, while GDM is Ubuntu’s usual GNOME login manager. Either can launch an XFCE session, so you do not have to change a working display manager merely because a dialog looks dramatic.

Linux Mint users can generally install xfce4 and xfce4-goodies through APT. However, people who want a thoroughly integrated Mint XFCE system may prefer installing the official Linux Mint XFCE edition rather than combining multiple Mint desktop editions on one installation.

How to Install XFCE on Debian

Debian provides both a full desktop task and smaller individual XFCE packages.

Install the complete Debian XFCE desktop

The task package installs XFCE together with supporting software that Debian considers appropriate for a complete desktop system. It may also install a display manager if your system does not already have one.

Install a smaller XFCE environment

This option is useful on minimal systems or when you want greater control over installed applications. On a command-line-only Debian installation, you may also need an X server and a display manager:

Enable graphical startup if the system currently boots to a console:

How to Install XFCE on Fedora

Fedora provides an official XFCE desktop environment group. On current Fedora releases using DNF, run:

After installation, reboot or log out. At the login screen, open the session selector and choose XFCE before entering your password.

If DNF reports that it cannot find the environment, inspect the available groups:

Some Fedora versions or configurations may expose the desktop through a group-oriented command instead:

Fedora also offers an official XFCE installation image. For a new computer, installing the Fedora XFCE Spin is often cleaner than installing Fedora Workstation with GNOME and adding XFCE afterward.

How to Install XFCE on Arch Linux and Manjaro

Arch Linux separates the main desktop components from optional utilities. Install the core group with:

Add the supplementary applications and plugins:

A minimal Arch installation may also require an X server and display manager:

Reboot afterward:

Manjaro users can generally use the same pacman package names. Because Manjaro already offers an official XFCE edition, a fresh Manjaro XFCE installation may provide a more polished result than adding XFCE to an existing KDE or GNOME edition.

How to Install XFCE on openSUSE

openSUSE organizes complete desktop environments into patterns. First refresh the repositories:

Then install the official XFCE desktop pattern:

You can inspect available patterns before installation:

YaST provides a graphical alternative. Open YaST Software Management, change the view to Patterns, select the XFCE desktop environment, and apply the changes.

How to Install XFCE on Alpine Linux

Alpine Linux includes a convenient desktop setup script. On a supported Alpine installation, run:

When prompted, select xfce. The script installs the desktop and required supporting packages.

For a more manual setup, Alpine documentation commonly starts with:

Alpine configurations vary depending on whether the machine began as a minimal, virtual, or standard installation. Follow Alpine’s current graphics-driver, input-device, D-Bus, and seat-management guidance when building the desktop manually.

How to Install XFCE on Rocky Linux

XFCE availability differs between Rocky Linux releases. Rocky Linux 8 and 9 users may obtain it through EPEL and an available XFCE package group. Do not assume that the same command works on every future major release.

If an XFCE group is listed, install it using the exact displayed group name. A commonly documented command is:

On a minimal installation, you may also need a display manager and graphical boot target:

Repository availability should be checked before proceeding. Rocky Linux documentation notes that XFCE may not be available for every major version, including configurations where the necessary EPEL packages have not yet been published.

How to Start and Select the XFCE Session

After the packages finish installing, log out of your current desktop. At the login screen, look for a gear, session icon, menu, or desktop selector. Choose one of the following entries:

• XFCE Session
• Xfce
• Xubuntu Session

Then log in normally. Most display managers remember the last selected session for that user.

Start XFCE from a console

Without a graphical login manager, you can start an XFCE session using:

For systems using startx, place the following line in ~/.xinitrc:

Use startxfce4 rather than calling xfce4-session directly. The startup wrapper prepares the environment and launches the correct XFCE components.

What to Configure After Installing XFCE

Choose the preferred applications

Open Settings Manager > Preferred Applications and choose your browser, mail client, file manager, and terminal. This prevents the system from opening a GNOME application one minute and a KDE application the next, creating the impression that three computers are sharing one monitor.

Customize the panel

Right-click an empty area of the panel and select Panel > Panel Preferences. From there, you can change its position, size, opacity, length, and contents. Useful additions include the Whisker Menu, workspace switcher, system load monitor, clipboard manager, and notification area.

Enable window compositing carefully

XFWM includes a compositor for shadows, transparency, and smoother visual effects. Open Settings Manager > Window Manager Tweaks > Compositor. Disable compositing if an older graphics processor shows tearing, sluggish window movement, or strange visual artifacts.

Review power settings

Laptop users should open Power Manager and check screen blanking, sleep, lid-close, and battery behavior. Desktop defaults are not always ideal for laptops, especially when an external monitor or docking station is involved.

Common XFCE Installation Problems

XFCE does not appear on the login screen

Confirm that the session file was installed:

You should see an XFCE-related .desktop file. If it is present, restart the display manager or reboot:

Restarting the display manager immediately closes graphical sessions, so save your work first.

The computer still boots to a text console

Replace display-manager with the actual service, such as lightdm, when the generic alias is unavailable.

The panel or desktop fails to load

Restart the affected components:

If settings have become corrupted, log out and temporarily rename the XFCE configuration directory:

XFCE creates fresh defaults at the next login. This resets your custom panel, keyboard shortcuts, and desktop preferences, so use it as a repair step rather than recreational entertainment.

Duplicate applications appear in the menu

Multiple desktop environments often install their own terminals, text editors, file managers, settings tools, and screenshot utilities. This is normal. Remove only packages you recognize, because aggressively deleting one desktop’s dependencies can damage another desktop or its login manager.

Wayland features do not work correctly

Select the standard XFCE session instead of an experimental Wayland session. Upstream XFCE documentation continues to warn that Wayland support may contain incomplete functionality and bugs.

How to Remove XFCE

Removing a desktop environment is more delicate than installing one. Do not remove the display manager currently responsible for your login screen until another working display manager is enabled.

Ubuntu or Debian

If you installed the complete Xubuntu bundle, remove its metapackage separately:

Fedora

Arch Linux

Review the proposed removal list carefully before confirming. Package managers are obedient, not psychic.

Practical XFCE Installation Experiences and Lessons

One of the most consistent experiences after installing XFCE is that the desktop feels familiar almost immediately. The application menu, taskbar-style window buttons, system tray, and desktop icons make the transition straightforward for users arriving from Windows, Cinnamon, MATE, or older Linux interfaces. There is less time spent guessing where basic controls have moved and more time spent actually opening applications.

On older laptops, the most noticeable improvement is often responsiveness rather than a miraculous transformation in benchmark numbers. Menus tend to open quickly, window movement feels less heavy, and login time may improve. However, XFCE cannot make a modern browser with 40 tabs behave like a pocket calculator. Web browsers, video-conferencing clients, and large development tools may still dominate memory and CPU usage. The desktop helps, but it does not negotiate peace treaties with badly behaved applications.

Installing XFCE beside another desktop is excellent for testing because both environments can share the same user account and files. It also reveals one of the most common annoyances: duplicated applications. A system may suddenly contain two file managers, three text editors, multiple terminals, and several settings utilities. The safest approach is to live with the duplication for a few days. Once you know which programs belong to which desktop, remove only the unnecessary standalone applications rather than randomly uninstalling packages with official-sounding names.

Another common lesson involves display managers. Users sometimes assume they must replace GDM, SDDM, or another login manager with LightDM to use XFCE. Usually they do not. Most modern display managers can launch multiple desktop sessions. Keeping the existing login manager minimizes changes and makes rollback easier. Switching makes sense when the current manager is unusually heavy, incompatible with a specific setup, or missing features you neednot simply because an installation dialog offered a shiny choice.

Panel customization is where many new users accidentally create extra work. XFCE allows panels to be moved, resized, hidden, duplicated, or filled with plugins. It is tempting to redesign everything during the first five minutes. A better experience comes from using the default layout for a day, noting genuine frustrations, and then changing one element at a time. Exporting a panel profile or backing up ~/.config/xfce4 before major experiments makes recovery much easier.

Virtual-machine users often find XFCE particularly pleasant because it remains responsive with modest virtual CPU and memory allocations. Installing the virtualization platform’s guest tools is still important for dynamic resolution, shared clipboard support, mouse integration, and shared folders. Without those tools, a perfectly healthy XFCE installation may appear clumsy simply because the virtual display driver is doing its best impression of technology from 1998.

Remote desktop installations require additional planning. XFCE frequently works well with VNC or XRDP because of its relatively modest resource requirements, but session startup commands, D-Bus variables, and authentication agents must be configured correctly. Test XFCE locally before blaming the remote protocol. If the local session works and the remote session does not, the problem is usually session initialization rather than the desktop packages themselves.

The final practical lesson is to avoid compiling XFCE from source unless there is a clear reason. Distribution packages receive dependency handling, security updates, menu integration, and tested defaults. Source builds are valuable for developers and advanced testers, but they add maintenance work. For most users, the package manager provides the fastest route to a stable XFCE desktopand leaves more time for the truly important task of debating whether the panel belongs at the top or bottom of the screen.

Conclusion

Learning how to install XFCE desktop in Linux is mostly a matter of choosing the correct package for your distribution. Ubuntu and Debian use APT packages such as xfce4 or task-xfce-desktop, Fedora provides an XFCE environment group, Arch offers the xfce4 package group, openSUSE uses a desktop pattern, and Alpine includes a desktop setup script.

After installation, log out, select the XFCE session, and test it before removing your previous desktop. Keeping both environments temporarily gives you an easy fallback while you configure panels, preferred applications, power settings, and keyboard shortcuts.

XFCE is not limited to ancient hardware. It is a stable, configurable desktop for anyone who values predictable controls, low overhead, and a workflow that stays out of the way. Install it carefully, customize it gradually, and your Linux desktop may feel considerably faster without requiring a new computeror a ceremonial sacrifice of your favorite wallpaper.