In this tutorial, you will learn how to install XFCE on Arch Linux.
Arch Linux supports multiple Desktop environments, so during the installation process of Arch Linux, you need to select one of the supported Desktop environments.
Depending on your choice, for example, let's say you chose GNOME as your main desktop environment for your Arch Linux machine, and now want to install XFCE on it.
XFCE can be easily installed on any linux distro, and in Arch Linux, there are also several ways of installing it.
Install XFCE on Arch Linux
In this tutorial, we'll be installing XFCE on Arch Linux via terminal.
Step 1 - Update pacman database
First thing that you need to do before installing XFCE in Arch Linux is to update the pacman database.
Updating pacman database is needed to avoid any issue when downloading XFCE.
To update pacman database, simply run the command below.
sudo pacman -Syupacman requires sudo permissions, so enter your password when asked in order to proceed updating pacman database.
If there are packages that needs to updated, simply press Y to confirm and update them.
Step 2 - Install XFCE
Now you can proceed to install XFCE in your machine. XFCE and xfce4-goodies packages are available in the extra repository of Arch Linux, so you can easily install both packages via pacman.
First, launch your terminal by pressing CTRL + ALT +T.
Once terminal is opened, proceed to install xfce4 group and xfce4-goodies package which contains extra plugins and utilities.
sudo pacman -S xfce xfce4-goodiesThe xfce4 group contains 15 packages, and xfce4-goodies contains 36 packages, so once you run the command above, you need to confirm that you want to install the xfce4 group first, to do so simply press Enter on this prompt.
Next, you will need to confirm installing xfce4-goodies, press Enter again to confirm and proceed installing both packages.
Next, you need to press Y key, to finally install xfce4 and xfce4-goodies.
Once you confirm, the downloading process will begin.
Make sure to keep the terminal window, while xfce4 and xfce4-goodies are being downloaded.
Step 3 - Reboot Arch Linux
By now xfce4 and xfce4-goodies should be installed in your system, which means you can now proceed to reboot your machine in order to use XFCE.
To reboot Arch Linux, simply run the command below.
reboot
Step 4 - Use XFCE
Once your Arch Linux machine is booted up, you need to choose "XFCE" as the desktop environment that you want to use.
To do so, simply click to the "Desktop environment" button, and select "Xfce session", once you do, proceed to login to your username.
And you should be able to use XFCE desktop environment now.
Uninstall XFCE in Arch Linux
If you no longer need xfce4 and xfce4-goodies on your system, then you can easily uninstall them.
To do so, simply run the command below.
sudo pacman -R xfce4 xfce4-goodies
Conclusion
In this tutorial, you learned how to install XFCE desktop environment on Arch Linux. And also how to use XFCE desktop environmen in Arch Linux.
