Re: Does LXDE really require lightdm?

[davidson@ling.ohio-state.edu]

On Sun, 22 Jun 2014, David Dušanić wrote:
> 22.06.2014, 02:31, "Steve Litt" <slitt@troubleshooters.com>:
> > Hi all,
> >
> > I installed LXDE on a no-X, no-desktop virgin network Wheezy 64bit
> > install with non-free software allowed, and on the next boot it went
> > into lightdm. The only thing I could find that installed and required
> > lightdm was LXDE. I uninstalled LXDE, installed Xfce, installed
> > whatever bestows startx, and bang, X from the CLI command line, no *dm
> > needed.
> >
> > 1) Am I correct that Debian's LXDE package installs lightdm?
> >
> > 2) Does that come from the LXDE project, or is it a Debian thing?
> >
> > 3) Is there a way to turn off LXDE's install of lightdm?
> >
> > The whole reason I'm switching from Xubuntu to Debian is to get away
> > from both Plymouth and *dm. Fortunately, I find LXDE desireable, but no
> > way do I find it necessary.
>
>
> I am sure it is just a recommends, so install it without:
>
> *apt-get install --no-install-recommends <package>*

and in case you don't want to guess, run first

 $ apt-cache depends lxde

(or whatever package besides lxde...)

> Also, *lxde* is a metapackage. Meta packages usually come with a ton
> of recommended packages by Debian to facilitate installs for the
> user, you can even switch it off in apt for all packages you want to
> install.

...and thereby assume responsibility for any subsequent difficulties
that stem from having changed a sensible default for new users, yes.

-wes