Installing LXQt under a Debian derivative distributions

LXQt is a very functional and light environment which offers a lot of potential for configuration. 

The installation is very quick when using the LXQt meta-package provided by Debian.

In these videos I will show you how to install LXQt. First from a bare bones devian installation and the second from an installation that already includes a graphical environment.

 Installing LXQt on a bare bones Debian Buster installation

The first one shows how to install it on top of a bare bones Debian installation.

This path is perfect if you are a minimalist, or want the system for a specific purpose, as you will be able to install just the applications you want.

Steps

 1. Install what we want

sudo apt-get install lxqt

 

And that's it! The package contains all the dependencies to have a fully functional LXQt desktop. It comes with the Xfwm window manager which already comes with a composition engine.

 

Replacing Cinnamon With LXQt on Linux Mint 20

The second video shows how to install it on top of a Linux Mint 20 Cinnamon but it is similar for other distribution and desktop environments

This path is perfect if you are happy with a distribution but want or need a lighter desktop environment.

In this case, on top of installing LXQt, I've installed OpenBox as the window manager and Compton as the compositor.

Steps

1. Install what we want

sudo apt-get install lxqt openbox obconf-qt compton compton-conf

2. Remove what we don't want sudo apt-get purge cinnamon* metacity* libxfce* libxfconf* xfconf* xfwm4*

sudo apt-get purge cinnamon* metacity* libxfce* libxfconf* xfconf* xfwm4*

3. Optionally remove the applications with duplicated functionality

• rythmbox / audacious
• SMPPlayer / mpv media player / celuloid
• xed / featherpad
• xreader / qpdf
• viewgnote / feathernotes
• lximage-qt / screengrab
• lximage-qt / pixq
• ps / gnome-system-monitor

For example:

sudo apt-get remove --purge audacious mpv xreader gnote screengrab pix gnome-system-monitor

And that's it!

Don't forget to read my post and watch the video on How to configure LXQt