Fresh install of Linux Lite shows stock XFCE desktop

[Tan Aid]

Hello,

I have just installed a FRESH copy of Linux Lite 5.4 on my laptop. I loved the live USB system so decided to give it a go.

To my dismay this is what I booted into on my first boot (see attached pictures). What is this? I don't remember being asked for a raw Xfce desktop with nothing there. How can I fix this without reinstalling again? If this can't be fixed, Linux Lite is useless for me and I will need to look for another distro. What about those google ads in Firefox that cannot be closed? This surely is weird.

I'm a 16 year + Linux user and never in my life have I had something like that happen on a fresh installation. Can anyone offer suggestions on what went wrong? Thanks.

I can't even attach a photo in this forum.

[Moltke]

That is weird indeed, never ever happened to me with Lite, and I've no idea how to solve that, sorry. Regarding the ads, you need to install an ad blocker extension like uBlock Origin in FF. As for attaching screenshots, you can include images in your post by using BBcode,  just click on the img icon



You'll see [ img ][ /img ] insert the URL of the service you uploaded the img to in between, and it will be visible in the post.

[Valtam]

Images are embedded so that people can see them straight away, zip files, txt files are attached. What is your partition set up? eg. Where is your home folder and all other partitions mounted. Title changed to more accurately reflect issue.

[Artim]

Where did you get your copy of Linux Lite? If it's from Softpedia or one of those 2nd-hand vendors you may have a copy of something else. The only answer I know if to follow the links here on this site (there's one in Jerry signature) to download your copy of the iso. There are pretenders and counterfeits out there. There's no need to run to another distro because one bogus download disappointed you. As a 16-year Linux user you probably know that... check the iso, and install it from a Live session.

[TheDead]

I agree with Artim and would add that I have had this problem in the past when an installation/computer bugged (not just Linux Lite) and did not complete successfully or the XFCE crashed or when I tried installing other desktop environnements on test machines.

You could also not "check" the box to download updates/third party apps during install.
ADD: Also leave the default language during install, just in case.

[firenice03]

[member=48332]Tan Aid[/member]

I agree with others..
1) Where did you download from?
  a) Check MD5 perhaps not a complete download
2) What do your partitions look like
3) How did you install - the process, options/prompts
  a) Where there other OS's installed - did you reuse /home or other config settings...
4) System specs, what hardware are you running.

Why do you NOT want to reinstall?
LL installs in no time and is simple in the process - did you have problems installing - is there configs you want to keep???

Answering the above will help with troubleshooting/validating along with any other info you can provide...

For myself, I would download from LL and confirm the hash..
Then reinstall - If you are trying to reuse partitions, I would suggest otherwise. Copy those off or rename to something like DATA where its not "/home" or other directly in use Linux directories.
You may be using configurations for a different desktop/OS or just something LL doesn't recognize.

Good Luck

[Artim]

Also, downloading updates during installation is often problematic. Wait 'til it's installed and booted from the hard drive.

[Tan Aid]

OK I would like to THANK all of you who replied with helpful tips. Here's the rundown of what I did:

1. downloaded iso from linuxliteos.com website
2. checked the md5sum and it is correct
3. created usb stick with the iso
4. ran the live system - loved it - decided to install it
5. Ran the default installer from the live iso and at partitions level (which I have done hundreds of times before so I thought I had got it, always choose "Something else" and attach my home dir to /home, and format /) it said I needed an EFI partition, but there were none to choose from the available options. This gave me a head scratch (or two) and after a while I rebooted, disabled UEFI, booted again and proceeded with the installation of Linux Lite. Again at partitions level it said I needed a min 2MB boot partition (?? I never ever had to do that with other distros) so I created it. I unchecked "download updates during installation" and only checked "install third party software".
6. There are no other operating systems on this laptop. Before I had Fedora and then Linux Mint installed here, no problems whatsoever. I am attaching a sys report below.
7. Everything seemed to install without any problems. First clean boot and I see a stock XFCE desktop... Nooooooooo!  :019:

My partitions are the following:
https://ibb.co/yPcRh7R

My only guess is that something went wrong at the partitions level, but I have no clue, really. I am willing to reinstall, I guess my emotions were running high in my first post (sorry). Could you please help me figure out what went wrong and how I could fix it. THANK YOU so much for your effort, I really appreciate it.

[Artim]

Something in your preserved /home partition is messing it up. Preserving /home between distros is never clean and tidy, since it preserved settings and all kinds of other things. Save your important stuff to a USB stick and re-install formatting the /home partition. When I installed Linux Lite over SalixOS (Slackware-based, Xfce desktop) I saved my /home partition and messed up the desktop. There's a lot more stuff in that partition than most people realize. Not just bookmarks and passwords, docs, pics, and tunes.

[firenice03]

[member=48332]Tan Aid[/member]
I 2nd that of [member=6925]Artim[/member]

Like I eluded to in 3a of my above post; something in /home has pooched ya... If you show hidden files - likely one of the many dot files (.file)...

If you want to preserve a filesystem, I would suggest a /data or some other. You can have /home build onto "/" vs having it separate, then shortcut/link from /data to /home for directories you want. Let most OS configs reside in/home, if you want these can copied to /data later or as needed and if you should change distros or when you upgrade to the next LL series you won't have the possibility of this reoccurring....