How To Install xfce4 on Debian 10

Learn how to install xfce4 on Debian 10 with this tutorial. xfce4 is Meta-package for the Xfce Lightweight Desktop Environment

Introduction

In this tutorial we learn how to install xfce4 on Debian 10.

What is `xfce4`

xfce4 is:

Xfce is a lightweight desktop environment for unix-like operating systems. It aims to be fast and lightweight, while still being visually appealing and easy to use. Designed for productivity, it loads and executes applications fast, while conserving system resources.

This package is a metapackage; it depends on the core packages of the Xfce4 desktop environment and recommends some extra Xfce4 packages. If you intend to use Xfce4 and want the full experience then installing this package and the packages it Recommends is a great place to start.

If you just want to pick and choose the core components then feel free to remove this package.

There are three methods to install xfce4 on Debian 10. We can use apt-get, apt and aptitude. In the following sections we will describe each method. You can choose one of them.

Install xfce4 Using apt-get

Update apt database with apt-get using the following command.

sudo apt-get update

After updating apt database, We can install xfce4 using apt-get by running the following command:

sudo apt-get -y install xfce4

Install xfce4 Using apt

Update apt database with apt using the following command.

sudo apt update

After updating apt database, We can install xfce4 using apt by running the following command:

sudo apt -y install xfce4

Install xfce4 Using aptitude

If you want to follow this method, you might need to install aptitude first since aptitude is usually not installed by default on Debian. Update apt database with aptitude using the following command.

sudo aptitude update

After updating apt database, We can install xfce4 using aptitude by running the following command:

sudo aptitude -y install xfce4

How To Uninstall xfce4 on Debian 10

To uninstall only the xfce4 package we can use the following command:

sudo apt-get remove xfce4

Uninstall xfce4 And Its Dependencies

To uninstall xfce4 and its dependencies that are no longer needed by Debian 10, we can use the command below:

sudo apt-get -y autoremove xfce4

Remove xfce4 Configurations and Data

To remove xfce4 configuration and data from Debian 10 we can use the following command:

sudo apt-get -y purge xfce4

Remove xfce4 configuration, data, and all of its dependencies

We can use the following command to remove xfce4 configurations, data and all of its dependencies, we can use the following command:

sudo apt-get -y autoremove --purge xfce4

Dependencies

xfce4 have the following dependencies:

References

Summary

In this tutorial we learn how to install xfce4 package on Debian 10 using different package management tools: apt, apt-get and aptitude.