Xubuntu with a *pure* Debian Base (Part 2)

If you have followed part 1 of this tutorial, you should have a minimal XFCE Debian Jessie installation with working sound and login manager.

If you are building this in VirtualBox, you may want to install the VirtualBox Guest Additions at this stage to enable full screen resolution, USB 2 support, shared folders and clipboard and seamless mouse integration. Click here for a how to. Skip this if you are installing on real hardware.

Continue reading to complete the configuration...

6. Install Extra XFCE Packages

A quick look through the XFCE applications menu will tell you that you only have some basic applications. Quite a number of additional packages need installing to get a fully functional system akin to that offered by Xubuntu.

If you have had enough of apt-get on the command line, you may want to install Synaptic to cover off all the remaining package installations graphically. In my opinion this is 18.4MB well used:

apt-get install synaptic = 18.4MB

I would suggest installing all of the below packages, but I have listed the approx size in case you decide to leave something out.

• mousepad = 5,274KB (of course you can swap this for your favourite text editor)
• thunar-archive-plugin = 7,927KB
• xfce4-artwork = 10.4MB
• xfce4-power-manager = 2907KB
• xfce4-power-manager-plugins = 114KB
• xfce4-terminal = 4,640KB (or you can stick with Xterm or install your favorite terminal)
• xfce4-whiskermenu-plugin = 918KB

After installing all of the above, du reported 2.0G disk usage and free reported 184MB RAM used whilst running XFCE with the XFCE terminal open.

7. Xubuntu Theming

At this point, it would be prudent to take a look at the current Xubuntu theme:

And also to look at what the core components are (amongst others):

• Plymouth - boot splash with custom xubuntu theme
• Lightdm - log-in/session manager with custom theme
• Light-locker - screensaver/screen lock
• GTK Theme - Greybird from Shimmer Project
• Icon Theme - Elementary-Darker from Shimmer Project, DMZ-White Cursors
• Network: Firefox, Thunderbird, Pidgin, XChat, Transmission
• Office: Abiword, Gnumeric, evince
• Multimedia: Parole, gmusicbrowser
• Graphics: GIMP, Ristretto, Screenshooter, Simple Scan
• Accessories: Catfish, File-roller, Bluetooth Manager, GParted
• Games: Gnome mines and sudoku

I am going to outline how to install what is required to get the theme looking like Xubuntu. The remaining packages are user choice, but I will offer a few lighter alternatives for those looking to keep the install size down.

7.1 Desktop Theme

1. The Shimmer project Greybird GTK theme depends on the murrine GTK2 engine:
1. Install gtk2-engines-murrine murrine-themes = 7533KB
2. XFCE menu - Settings - Settings Manager... 
3. Appearance:
1. Style = Greybird
2. Icons = elementary-xubuntu-dark
3. Font = Droid Sans, 10
   Enable anti-aliasing
   Hinting = Slight
   Sub-pixel order = RGB
4. Notifications:
1. Theme = Greybird
2. Opacity = 84%
5. Window settings
1. Style = Greybird
2. Font = Droid Sans, 9, bold
6. Window Manager Tweaks
1. Enable compositor
7. Desktop
1. Background image = xfce-blue (we'll download the exact Xubuntu 14.04 wallpaper later)
2. Icon size = 48
3. Custom font size = 10
8. Workspaces = 2
9. Power Manager:
1. Click on Run when prompted
2. An icon will appear in the notification area
10. Panel:
1. Display tab:
1. Row size = 24
2. Appearance tab:
1. Alpha = 80 (use system style)
3. Items tab (add/remove until you have these icons):
• Whisker Menu
• Windows buttons (no handle)
• Separator (transparent/expand)
• Notification area (no frame) (icon size =20)
• Audio Mixer
• Separator (transparent)
• Clock (no frame) (custom format = %d %b, %H:%M) 
4. Remove panel 2

The cursor theme is from the DMZ Cursor set:

1. Install dmz-cursor-theme = 3500KB
2. Whisker Menu - All Settings Icon - Mouse and Touchpad
1. Theme = DMZ (White)
3. You'll need to log off to see the changes.

You are probably thinking that this doesn't look very much like Xubuntu! For a start the folder icons are brown and not blue. This is because the default Greybird theme that ships with Debian is out of date. You will need to grab it off the Shimmer Project website:

1. Open a terminal
2. su <enter root password>
3. cd Downloads
4. wget https://github.com/shimmerproject/Greybird/archive/master.zip
5. unzip master.zip
6. mv Greybird-master /usr/share/themes
7. rm master.zip
8. Now go back to XFCE Settings Manager and change the above styles to "Greybird-master" (Appearance, Window Manager and Notifications)

Now get the icon set:

1. wget https://github.com/shimmerproject/elementary-xfce/archive/master.zip
2. unzip master.zip
3. cd elementary-xfce-master
4. mv * /usr/share/icons
5. rm /home/user/Downloads/master.zip
6. Now go back and change the icon theme to "elementary Xfce darker"

And the wallpaper

1. wget http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/xubuntu-trusty.jpg
2. mv xubuntu-trusty.jpg /usr/share/xfce4/backdrops/
3. Now change the wallpaper accordingly

If you want the wallpapers from the Xubuntu theme competition go to this website (after installing a web browser and download the ones you want):

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Xubuntu/Roadmap/Specifications/Trusty/CommunityWallpapers/Winners

The Whisker Menu icon on Xubuntu is slightly darker than the default to tie in with the theme better:

1. Right-click on the Whisker Menu icon
2. Select properties
3. Click on the icon to change it
4. Change the category to all icons and type dist in the search box
5. Click on the distributor-logo icon to select it.

Here's the final look:

Now got to Part 3 for theming lightdm and plymouth...