Hello LXLE'ers,

I have been trying other distros, such as SparkyLinux, Mint and RoboLinux, and find myself coming back to LXLE.  It remains one of the best distros insofar as speed and stability are concerned.  It's very lightweight, and yet comes with a nice install suite.

Not content to leave well enough alone, I am trying to make it look like Windows 7 or XP.  I have been reading on the Net that will require a *different* DE like MATE, Xfce or Cinnamon. 

I've loaded LXLE with Cinnamon, and it looks very nice.  MATE is very lightweight, but seems to come at a cost of utility of the file managers (I've experimented with Nautilus and Dolphin, b/c they are supposedly less vulnerable to exploits).  Those FMs, in MATE, seem to be missing a lot of capability.

Invariably, the online articles and sometimes fora, refer to the theming versatility of Xfce / Xfce4.  So, loading Xfce via SYNAPTIC gives you now that option, but what happens then?  Boot, blank screen, plus cursor.

Other Fora with the Xfce Blank screen Problem:

https://dev.to/an3223/xfce-blankblack-screen-with-cursor-after-login-solution-5fce

https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=311978

https://askubuntu.com/questions/554399/how-to-fix-blank-screen-with-mouse-pointer-on-ubuntu-install-...

https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/101261/how-to-solve-problem-related-to-black-screen-with-cu...

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=250494

If you check the links above, you'll see that some are dealing with Arch Linux, others Mint, and so forth, but all deal with Xfce and the blank screen issue.

I did try some of the fixes that worked in those fora, but it did not work when I tried them in LXLE.

I am reinstalling LXLE 18.04.3 32 bit on a testbed.  I am hopeful that one of you can provide a fix.


In the alternative, I understand that LXLE is very good in and of itself, but that being the case, can it be configured to have the taskbar along the bottom margin, a START button in the lower L/H corner, and a status bar on the bottom R/H corner?

I have seen (repositories?) such as "Xfce-look" and so forth, which provide downloadable theme and icons.  Does Openbox have a similar repository, and thus, obviate the need to try loading a different DE like Cinnamon, MATE or Xfce?

Thanks in advance.

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EDIT: Apparently there exists BOX-LOOK, GNOME-LOOK and other such places, and then there is this package:
https://www.gnome-look.org/p/1079152/

Now I have tried creating /.icons and /.themes folders, downloading the themes/icon package and get stuck in the installation stage. 

That solution would allow me to avoid Xfce altogether.