Adding GUI components & desktop to xbmclive 911 without breaking it
#1
For me and many others it adds some value to have access to a desktop/gui for tasks we dont want to do in command line.
In 9.04 this was quickly accomplished by installing gnome-core.
In 9.10 Karmic this is not possible. When gnome is installed usb automount breaks.
I have not been able to fix that instead I have had to find a workaround.

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Basic GUI
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For a while I have been running with fluxbox and only some basic components from xfce.

I run it in nxserver but you can also exit xbmc and type startx.

sudo apt-get install thunar arora deluge

I dont like the fluxbox default menus so we add
sudo apt-get install fbpanel

sudo nano ~/.fluxbox/startup
before "exec fluxbox" add
fbpanel &

This is fine, but I have to be very careful not to bring in too much gnome components. E.g installing brasero will break usb mount.

I guess the best solution is to keep bringing in xfce components like
xfburn instead of brasero.

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adding a simple desktop
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We can of course continue with xfce
sudo apt-get install --no-install-recommends xfce4

but I have never liked it. If we should go light I prefere lxde.
sudo apt-get install --no-install-recommends lxde

Be careful not to omit --no-install-recommends. If you do gdm and enough gnome stuff to break xbmc will be installed.

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advanced components/desktop
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A basic desktop or wm is fine but I miss some of the gnome functionality like sharing a folder by righ-click in nautilus and I also miss just picking the components I need for my setup from the great gnome repository.

Until someone figure out the xbmc/gnome issue we will have to make due with kde which I guess offer the same functionality as gnome.

The problem with kde, more than that I dont know it, is that it seems much less suitable as a base for a "minimal" setup. The desktop it self is much heavier also when stripped down. The biggest problem however is that it is not possible to just install a kde component and use it in other desktops/wm. If you install any component you also get the desktop. (? at least thats the case with k3b)

The closest I can come is
sudo apt-get install --no-install-recommends kdebase-workspace-bin k3b dolphin
to enable file sharing
sudo apt-get install --no-install-recommends samba smbclient kdenetwork-filesharing libsmbclient


You can still use the kde compenents in fluxbox but kde have now taken over startx. This can of course be amended but I down know how.
It is not a problem for me since I still get fluxbox in nx with custom: /usr/bin/startfluxbox.

The quickfix is to install e.g lxde or openbox after kde then they will take over startx.
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#2
I normally use gdebi but thats enough to break stuff. Instead use
gdebi-kde

I now use lxde k3b dolphin gdebi-kde arora xarchiver
+nxserver and opera
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