[arch-general] Arch is ummnn different: my 1st installation: tried to install xfce...OOPS!

[Peter Cannon]

Joe(theWordy)Philbrook wrote:

> Hello, I've been using various Linux distros for a while now. I just
> decided to give Arch Linux a try. But I'm a little bit lost. I'm used to
> distros like Xubuntu, PCLinuxOS, OpenSuSE, etc... Where I don't need to
> personally understand what order I need to install which packages to get 
> at least one GUI desktop up & running...

You don't need to understand the *Order* in Arch either?

> The install itself went ok. But I needed to add a few things.
> 
> First I used the list of typical tasks for pacman from the installation
> guide, to figure out how to look for a package and install it with pacman.
> 
> I installed mc and vim without a problem. Then I thought it would be nice
> if I could get a desktop up.

Well it would those are non GUI apps as you know with your opensuse ect experience.

I did a:
> 
> pacman -Si xfce|less 
> 
> and looked for a package that might get me to a minimal desktop I could work with.
> I thought maybe xfdesktop...
> 
> pacman -S xfdesktop

Why have you done this? If you look at the 'man' page you will see
http://linux.die.net/man/1/xfdesktop

xfdesktop manages the desktop itself in the Xfce 4 Desktop Environment.

You should have done pacman -S xfce4

By the sound of it you've only installed part of the desktop environment.

<cut>

> More to the point: Will I need to figure out how to uninstall xfdesktop to resolve
> the error?

No.

> Could some nice Arch user point me at enough step by step instructions so
> that I can get enough of a gui up to use a browser like firefox so I can
> try to find solutions via the web while Arch is actually running???

You need to do as others have suggested and read the beginners guide
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Beginners%27_Guide especially the "Setting up
X" section.