Well, after trying multiple desktops I found one that I like. It's Xfce4, it has a look and feel that work for me and it doesn't lag the computer down. So that's good. But last night I started having trouble with updates. My update manager shows a bunch of updates, much more than usual but when I try to update I get a message telling me I have to fix the broken packages first. In the past I've went to the Package manager and did a custom search for broken packages then fixed them. This time no broken packages show up. I consulted the mint forum and tried all of the suggestions but one and none of them worked. The last one tells me to start in safe mode and check the option to try to fix broken packages.
I researched how to start in safe mode and it said to hold down the esc key while it booted, I tried that and it doesn't work.
But on the good side is that the way I got good at Windows was to fumble through and fix my problems as they popped up. It looks like Linux is going to be the same way. I can say right now with no reservations that if it wasn't for the software that I have to have in Windows and all my PS plugins I use for Gimp, I could easily make the switch from Windows to Linux comfortably.

I had a problem with broken packages as well as packages unable to be downloaded. I had been using the update manager on a wireless connection. What I had to do was to connect via an ethernet cable to the modem. Believe it or not, that works. Even now if I am trying a new OS in LiveUSB with netbootin or other startup disk creator, I have to connect physically to update some of the packages.

Maybe . . .

Are you on a wireless connection? If so, try cabling in and updating.

I use Gentoo Linux exclusively,no Windows.
From time to time I try a binary distro just to know what is out there.
Couple of months ago I tried Mint.
I have an nVidia graphics card so Mint installs nouveau as a driver.
I wanted to replace it with the proprietary nVidia driver and got the same message about broken pkgs.
How can I have broken pkgs on a fresh install?
In the end I managed to install the nVidia driver but things still didn't work right.
I checked the Xorg.log: the system was trying to mix nouveau and nVidia drivers.
I wiped it off the HD.
Mint IMHO is just garbage.
Ubuntu is much better.
BTW I am on a wired internet connection.

When I try a binary distro I always feel like trying to fix a car blindfolded.
Suse and Fedora are much better because they comply to Linux rules.

But nothing beats Gentoo.
Gerard.

Nope, that computer is only on a wired connection. I tried a usb wireless connection on it but could never get it to connect. But that's ok because where it's located it doesn't need to be wireless.

I originally tried mint because a friend at church recommended it. Then I stuck with it because it seemed to me that there are a lot more software options with it. The software manager in ubuntu said there were 9600+ packages avaiable and mint said 32000+. Clearly I must be misunderstanding something. Anyway, I don't have anything really important on that computer yet and I've considered switching back to ubuntu. I think i will now if i can get the desktop I like. I think I'll pop in the Ubuntu live CD and see of it's available in the software list and if it is I'll switch over again. That's why i dedicated a whole computer just for the purpose of learning Linux. My big thing now is I like the Xfce desktop a lot, but I'm not a dedicated fan of Mint, although I've not had any major problems with it yet. But then I might not know enough to know when i have a big problem with it yet. It's nothing but rain here for the last 3 weeks, Everything is flooding, dams are breaking, really crappy weather so there isn't much to do but sit here and reinstall linux or play with the ferrets. Or both:)

Try the following. Open a terminal and type:This will resyc the package list.
Next, in the terminal type:This will use apt-get to fix broken packages. Sometimes synaptic will not properly fix broken package errors.

As I feared, I looked for Xfce in the ubuntu software list and it isn't there. The Xfce site says this: Building

To compile a complete Xfce desktop from source requires some information about the dependency chain and the various configure options available in each module. This page will describe this in detail, so you can compile your own Xfce desktop; both system wide as well as in your $HOME directory.

I think it's way beyond my ability to do that. I can't find KDE in the software list either or electric sheep, which is very minor but it illustrates my point. I wish i had a 5th computer to dedicate to ubuntu.This might as well be written in Klingon for me.

Search synaptic for xfce4 (may be v4.6.2). You will want the one with the description of meta-package, which will pull in needed dependencies.

You may prefer Xbuntu, which is Ubuntu with xfce as the default desktop.

I had some other issues so i reinstalled everything. I'll look into Xbuntu, thanks, hat might be just what I want. I've noticed some things that Gnome desktop that Xfce doesn't seem to do so i need to research some more. Except for trying in vain to post something to Gimpchat in Firefox Linux everything is going along wonderfully.

Rather than the kind of "safe mode" that's available in Windows, Linux uses a basic set of Runlevels. Runlevel 5 (which is normally the default Runlevel in most distros) will start up in multi-user mode, enable networking and load your display manager (X Windows). Runlevels below 5 don't load up the display manager and it's sometimes beneficial to update your system (or run other system commands) without the display manager running.

Package manager operations can be ran just as easily from the bash prompt as they can using the package manager's GUI. For example, you can boot into Runlevel 3 and execute your updates or other package manager (apt-get quikref ) operations from the command line (as root).

You can run into problems when updating in Runlevel 3 if you use certain GUI based Network Applications (like NetworkManager Applet) to make you network connection. That's because you don't connect to the network/router unless you have the GUI running. If that's the case, you'll have specify to load network services at startup. If you just want to get over to the bash prompt for updating or other apt-get functions, go ahead and load up the DE, connect to the Internet and Ctrl-Alt-F2 to get to the command line (Ctrl-Alt F1 takes you back to the DE).

In Fedora, I have the option to select run level on the fly (at boot-up) using GRUB. You'll have to check to see how Runlevels are specified on your specific Linux distro.

Sorry to ramble on but I'm just trying to pass along some information that you will hopefully find useful at some point.

By the way, Fedora has official spins of both LXDE & XFCE.

I poked around and figured out how o start in safe mode but when I did it locked me up so bad I couldn't start Linux again even from a cold start. That was what caused me to just do a re install. Now everything works much better and faster.