Ubuntu desktop with LXDM display manager XFCE4, Mate, LXDE and OpenBox desktops

[IgorS]

If you don't like autologin in Armbian Ubuntu desktop, or if yo want to have several desktops to choose, here is how I did this.

Tested on legacy image, but I belive that same setup should work on mainline too.

 

1. Install ubuntu desktop image on MMC (I did it using Etcher)

2. Install display manager. Because of simplicity, I choose LXDM.
   sudo apt-get install lxdm
   
3. Set default session and disable nodm
   Edit /etc/lxdm/lxdm.conf
   Find line:
     session=/usr/bin/startlxde
   Replace it with:
     session=/usr/bin/startxfce4
     
   Fix for XFCE session entry from LXDM session menu:
     Open the /usr/share/xsessions/xfce.desktop file with a text editor.
     Find the name value and replace the space with a dash or hyphen.
     
   Disable nodm:
     sudo systemctl disable nodm

 

4. Reboot.
   
Now you should have login screen, and after login you should have XFCE4 desktop running.

 

Optionally, you can install more desktops:

 

MATE
sudo apt-get install mate-desktop-environment-extras indicator-application atril desktop-base engrampa mate-applets mate-media mate-notification-daemon mate-power-manager mate-screensaver mate-system-monitor mate-themes caja-gksu caja-image-converter caja-open-terminal caja-sendto caja-share caja-wallpaper dconf-editor mate-gnome-main-menu-applet mate-netspeed mate-sensors-applet mate-user-share

 

LXDE
apt-get install lxde lxde-common lxsession lxsession-logout lxlauncher

 

If you did all of this, you can choose to login in XFCE4, Mate, LXDE or OpenBox desktop.

Best regards! 
 

[jeff]

I made a modification of IgorS method to install the lxde interface known from Lubuntu. Apart from that there is a more simple method to disable nodm. For this method I used Armbian_5.25 Ubuntu Xenial desktop.

 

First I installed the img file on a microSD card (instead of Etcher I used the Linux utility dd from cli). With this fresh microSD card I booted the Orange Pi 2. First of all I did an sudo apt-get update/sudo apt-get upgrade.

 

After that I installed lxdm as described by IgorS. Because I wanted to use lubuntu instead of xfce after installing lxdm I installed lubuntu: sudo apt-get install lubuntu-desktop I did not change /etc/lxdm/lxdm.conf

 

Then I altered the file /etc/default/nodm and changed NODM_ENABLED=true in NODM_ENABLED=false. The first time I used IgorS method to disable nodm but that method resulted in ugly warnings (which I didn't quit understand nor did I know how to solve the described problems) and after reboot I got a black screen and no interface.

 

After reboot I got lxdm and selected in the menu lubuntu and after login I got the lubuntu interface.

 

I noticed one problem. In Lubuntu the screensaver is activated but moving the mouse or touch a key on the keyboard did not activate the screen again.... After a reboot I disabled the screensaver.