Debian Lenny : how to install xfce 4.6 instead of lenny's 4.4
 

Hello, LQ.

I've got this problem ones may already heard of.
Installed debian lenny, i was trying to use gnome and kde but i don't like them. I tried xfce and it seem to fit my needs but...
My computer is used to be powered on for a weeks. While time passes, a process xfdesktop begin to use more and more memory and to free RAM i need to log out and log in again (it's crazy, don't you think?).

I tried squeeze yesterday on my virtual machine and it has 4.6 and seem not to have that bug, RAM usage is static(yes it still works when i write this and have memory usage 34492k, which is not changing for an hours of usage already), also 4.6 is MUCH better than 4.4.

Advice? how to do that safe?
i already tried adding squeeze to "sources.list" but i can see too many dependencies which should be upgraded if i install 4.6, i'm beginning to afraid it can crash entire GUI(or entire system, i can see there is libc6 required to be updated). is it the only way?

The easiest way would be to use Backports:

http://packages.debian.org/lenny-backports/xfce4
http://www.backports.org/dokuwiki/doku.php

yeah im using backports, thanks for the link, i will try that.

Don't forget to remove Squeeze from your sources.list also!.

it won't work. i tried to remove xfce4 package and install this, but no luck ( http://codepad.org/n202O9y2 ), or directly install .deb i fetched, but still no luck(it still won't install xfce4 with apt-get -f install )
i upgraded it partially and it still seem to work but the version is same, bug is present... what would i do?
any idea how to get that fixed?
even tried removing main mirrors, leaving only backports... nothing helped.

i really begin to believe this system is trying to tell me it is smarter than me.

try this

no way... http://codepad.org/zwdbb8E6
what am i doing wrong? maybe i need to go another way of installing?

maybe i need to remove all packages associated with xfce and start from scratch?

Start from the beginning.

Then,add your entries for the main Debian repositories and Backports in /etc/apt/sources.list
When you have added these post back here with the output of

And then we will go from there.

What about doing this for each dependency

what is "purge ~c"?
sources.list is
2 worm5252: i believe it does upgrade on entire system, not the package.

So Xfce is purged successfully,yes?.
Then the next step is to work on your sources.list.
We'll borrow Craigevils' example,make yours look something like this:

Obviously you can change the US entries for ones more appropriate to your location.
Post back with yours when you have modified it.

Removes any leftover config files.

cat /etc/apt/sources.list
already run "aptitude update" what's next?

If you had no errors after running aptitude upate,then we can install Xfce again.
So install with:

See how that goes.

no way... tried Y also, nothing helps. http://codepad.org/k9J6oY7t
either it's too smart or too stupid. im beginning to think i will need to reinstall system entirely. or remove it and install something else which isn't so damn smart.

Try running:

Again.
When it offers solutions say no,and see what other options it gives you.

I can only think this is because you have packages leftover from Xfce 4.4:

See how you get on.
I'll check back tomorrow to see how it's going.
Any more problems,post back here.
I'm sure there are other people that can help.

kk thank you very much for your time =)

do i need to remove all packages of current xfce in this case?

I thought you had already purged your existing Xfce4 installation?.
Remember i gave you the purge command in post #9?.
You can also check for installed Xfce files with:

Run this after you have used the purge command,to see what packages/libs are left.
If you find more Xfce packages purge them also.
Then try installing Xfce from Backports again.

well, i removed every package from xfce, i removed ALL repos from sources.list leaving only backports and it STILL wants to install 4.4 packages and leave xfce4 package still uninstalled like everything else... whatdaheck?
after i removed all packages:
i think it's because backports don't have a build for i386 which seem ... i don't know how to name that.
i suppose the only way to get through this is either install squeeze(but i wasted too damn much time on this system) or build xfce4 from sources, as the only one solution.
if anyone have better idea, please share it. (or i guess there is no better idea than build from scratch, it's proven by years of this experience)

oh wait i didn't run purge for newly removed packages... maybe that'll help, hold on...

update: now it's like this
i run "aptitude purge ~c" before this. "dpkg -l | grep xfce" is now empty.

seem to be interesting... i have same problem with xfce and no time to fix it. i thought backports can help.
useful thread, i hope you can solve it without rebuilding from sources-it takes damn much time.
it's been three years since that bug with memory leak first was noticed. this is a stable bug as my friend said :)

Why did you do this?.
You may need the usual Debian repositories for dependencies.
The only option i can suggest now is put your sources.list back to how we had before.
Then try installing again remembering to use the command for Backports.
When you get to this point:

Type n and keep pressing n until you get the option to install the relevant package versions i.e Xfce 4.6.

See how you go.
Check back again tomorrow.

i restored it to one we had before, then "aptitude update" again, then http://codepad.org/9ZqLlWZ0
you know, sometimes i solved problems downloading .deb. I can't do it now: there are no .deb's for i386 on backports.

cloacms maybe this will help you: http://www.linuxquestions.org/blog/w...n-debian-2499/
in fact i couldn't install it via aptitude either.

Decided, on 2nd thought, that my suggestion wasn't all that useful; so, I've deleted it.

If the backports.org repo isn't working you may want to consider a one of the "unofficial" repos.

Add the repo.
# unofficial kde4/xfce4.6 backports http://www.debian-desktop.org/doku.php/start
# XFCE 4.6.0 # i386,amd64
# deb http://www.debian-desktop.org/pub/linux/debian/xfce46 lenny xfce460
# deb-src http://www.debian-desktop.org/pub/linux/debian/xfce46 lenny xfce460

Add the gpg key:
fetch gpg key from server

wget http://www.debian-desktop.org/pub/li...esktop.org.key

import into apt

apt-key add ./debian-desktop.org.key


After adding the repo and gpg key, aptitude update && aptitude install xfce4 xfce4-goodies

thanks, if there will be a chance i will, by now the one i built myself works just perfect ;)

thanks!
 

big thanks to everyone helped!
i really appreciate your help and attention!
thanks for a post, Web31337, it would also be good if you add an order of packages building. but i think i can sort it out myself when i will be in process of building.
currently in KDE.
i'll track your post, web31337, you will add a response when you discover if the bug was fixed by installing 4.6, won't you? i think i will keep away from building or installing it from apt(but i really had enough) for a while, and, if that doesn't fixes bug, i'll try using another more minimal DM.

You could try enabling the source directory for sid, and installing that way. See how to install source packages page for tips. It would be a lot of effort, and likely would not work (it's a great thing to do with smaller packages, but for larger ones, there's just too much that can go wrong).

My other suggestion is to install lxde. It's great. I just installed it today. It's a very good, lightweight desktop environment.

PS, apparently there's a newer methodology behind installing source packages (see porting a package to stable). Mind you, I don't completely understand these newer instructions; so, I'll likely stick with the older method myself.