Do you want to have the latest Xfce features and bugfixes without upgrading to the Xubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) development release? Sure, we all do, but did you know that you can get Xfce 4.4.2 on Xubuntu Gutsy Gibbon or Feisty Fawn just by using the Xubuntu team’s Personal Package Archive [1]? Neato.
Here’s how you do it:
If you’re running Xubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn), type: “sudo mousepad /etc/apt/sources.list” (without the quotes) and copy and paste the following lines to the bottom of your sources.list file:
# Xubuntu team personal package archive (Feisty Fawn)
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/xubuntu-team/ubuntu feisty main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/xubuntu-team/ubuntu feisty main
Be sure to save and close your file once you are done.
Similarly, if you’re running Xubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon), type “sudo mousepad /etc/apt/sources.list” (without the quotes) and copy and paste the following lines to the bottom of your sources.list file:
# Xubuntu team personal package archive (Gutsy Gibbon)
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/xubuntu-team/ubuntu gutsy main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/xubuntu-team/ubuntu gutsy main
Again, be sure to save and close your file once you are done.
After you’ve saved the file, just type “sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade” into a terminal, and the Xfce packages in the Xubuntu PPA will be updated to their most recent versions. Enjoy.
Or, of course, if you prefer a graphical option: open
Applications->System->Software Sources, go to the Third Party Software tab, click Add… and then enter the corresponding lines (e.g.deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/xubuntu-team/ubuntu gutsy main). After you then update your system you’ll have got the latest versionThanks for the info it worked perfectly!
[...] Campbell posts in his XFCE blog about udpating the XFCE in Feisty/Gutsy Ubuntu to the latest XFCE 4.4.2 release. This release [...]
Wow! thanks for this great tutorial! I love Xubuntu/XFCE and I was just wondering about how to upgrade to the latest version of XFCE. This comes in “hand-in-glove”.
regards.
Thanks for your notes. I couln’t do it without them
Anyway, I’m curious, are there any noticeable look differences with 4.4.1? I’m telling you this because after upgrading, I got some icons changed and a better font display… then I rebooted and everything went back to old 4.4.1 look, though I have in fact 4.4.2 installed now.
Regards
Alvaro,
I thought that most of the changes from 4.4.1 to 4.4.2 were just bugfixes, but I could be wrong! Sorry that I couldn’t really tell you more.
Jim
I think those icons were gnome’s. Somehow they showed for a while -don’t ask me why, I thought I had not gnome installed since I use xubuntu 7.10 now.
– alvaro
Hi
I followed all your instructions to the letter, but nothing changed for my xfce??? could there be a problem with what i did, and if there could be, how would i ch eck to see what i did wrong?
Hi Lisa,
I would recommend entering “dpkg -l xfce4-panel” (without the quotes … and that is a lowercase “L” after the dash)into a terminal, and checking the output. If the version shows as 4.4.2-#ubuntu#… (the # just stand for a different version number…) then you have been upgraded to Xfce4.4.2. Xfce4.4.2 doesn’t really look noticeably different from 4.4.1, but it does have some bug fixes.
If that command shows a different version number (4.4.1-…), just hop on IRC in the #xubuntu channel on irc.freenode.net, and someone will be able to help you.
Good luck!
Jim