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PREFACE:

The reason

I am not a Linux expert, I have just started to play with Linux distros and Virtual Box.

I would love to build up a custom Ubuntu installation with:

  • Lightdm
  • Qtile
  • Kitty

to customize a portable programming workspace since the programming language I know the most is Python, and I don't really like programming in Windows

N.B. I have already succeeded to do it on a VM with Ubuntu 18.04

Command-line commands I have run after minimal Ubuntu Installation

I started with installing xinit:

sudo apt install xinit

then I installed git and pip3:

sudo apt install git python3-pip

then I followed the official step-by-step Qtile installation guide (installed from source as suggested):

http://docs.qtile.org/en/latest/manual/install/index.html

THE ISSUE:

when I reboot the VM I get this:

login_image and this desktop-image after

2 problems here:

1. Why do I get a GUI login (that I suspect to be part of gnome desktop ) since I haven't installed one login manager like Lightdm yet

in 18.04 this didn't happen, I just got the regular GUI-less login

2. Why there is a different window manager that auto-boots different than Qtile

in 18.04 at this point of installation I had to manually type startx on the terminal to see a GUI

MrCont
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  • For a non-expert, you will probably prefer doing a standard installation in a VM, then in the VM, add a tiling WM of your choice. Proceeding to building your own linux setup is challenging even for experienced linux users. – vanadium Mar 14 '21 at 16:13
  • @vanadium thanks for the suggestion, but I have already tried it and I am not satisfied with the result, too slow on boot and heavy for what I would love to get even more I would love to learn how really the system works :). Since i succeded in doing it with Ubuntu 18.04 i cant stand the idea to not be capable in 20.04 – MrCont Mar 14 '21 at 16:20
  • The login screen indeed is gdm3. I wonder also why that would be installed after just installing xinit. I would however think you install X with the package xserver-common or xorg. – vanadium Mar 14 '21 at 16:33

1 Answers1

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The packaging for xinit has changed between 18.04 and 20.04.

If you apt install xinit on a bare Ubuntu 18.04 system, you'll get:

0 upgraded, 244 newly installed, 0 to remove and 11 not upgraded.
Need to get 84.1 MB of archives.
After this operation, 551 MB of additional disk space will be used.

On a bare Ubuntu 20.04 system, installing xinit alone pulls in a lot more:

0 upgraded, 513 newly installed, 0 to remove and 23 not upgraded.
Need to get 172 MB of archives.
After this operation, 951 MB of additional disk space will be used.

That'll be why you're seeing more things installed, and a different behaviour.

popey
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