I’ll post my screenshot I went to the special effort to make so I could upload it here, when the system decides I’m no longer a “new user” unable to post screenshots. But I got LXDE fully working. Downloaded and installed the XFCE Garuda, searched in the Arch page for LXDE packages, downloaded them all (forgot Openbox at first, which is embarrassing), individually installed the packages through Octopi, then started removing the XFCE stuff. Some steps in between, cleanup I had to do. I’ll return and mention those when I remember them. I never understood the hate for LXDE. It does EVERYTHING I want in a desktop. It looks good without trying to be super-flashy with effects. The panel works better in my experience than those for most other desktops (the tray in particular), the file manager has things I use that other file managers seem to be removing as time goes on (THE UP ARROW FOR MOVING UP A DIRECTORY) And it’s snappy-fast, which is a no-brainer. Do you want things to happen now or after 100s of milliseconds? 
Now, if I’m in a steam game, I can alt-tab out if any other window is open, or ctrl-alt-tab to open lxtask. I seemed to have no such option with XFCE by default. It wanted to shut the computer down 
I realize that was something I could have changed in keyboard hotkeys, but instead I went straight for what I wanted, my preferred desktop, and Garuda let me do it. Not as easy as I should think though, having to go outside the Garuda repos to do it. But, I’m happy in the end. Arch is a great base for an excellent gaming Linux and I thank you all for doing a great job here.
Afterthought: Tip: To those out there like me who like super-snappy performance in their desktop, if you choose to get the XFCE, try turning off compositing in XFCE’s settings. I forget how you get into it, maybe right-clicking the task bar? Once I did that, I liked how fast it was, nearly as good as LXDE there. And XFCE is a nice desktop environment. It does several things LXDE doesn’t try to do when it comes to customization, added conveniences, etc. I just like LXDE so much I don’t have a need for those extras personally, and LXDE is just a bit lighter.
It would be nice to see your
garuda-inxi
To see what hardware you are using
Right now, it’s only a 500GB SSD just to test this OS, but I think I’ve settled on this as my gaming OS, so I’ll be migrating to something bigger soon. 
System:
Kernel: 6.1.64-1-lts arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 13.2.1
clocksource: tsc available: hpet,acpi_pm
parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/@/boot/vmlinuz-linux-lts
root=UUID=3b93f791-5520-43c6-ae1c-de9aff1eba15 rw rootflags=subvol=@
quiet loglevel=3 ibt=off
Desktop: LXDE v: 0.10.1 info: lxpanel wm: Openbox v: 3.6.1 vt: 7
dm: LightDM v: 1.32.0 Distro: Garuda Linux base: Arch Linux
Machine:
Type: Desktop Mobo: ASRock model: B450M Steel Legend
serial: <superuser required> UEFI: American Megatrends v: P3.60
date: 11/03/2020
CPU:
Info: model: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Zen 3+ gen: 4
level: v3 note: check built: 2022 process: TSMC n6 (7nm) family: 0x19 (25)
model-id: 0x21 (33) stepping: 0 microcode: 0xA201009
Topology: cpus: 1x cores: 8 tpc: 2 threads: 16 smt: enabled cache:
L1: 512 KiB desc: d-8x32 KiB; i-8x32 KiB L2: 4 MiB desc: 8x512 KiB
L3: 32 MiB desc: 1x32 MiB
Speed (MHz): avg: 2199 high: 2200 min/max: 2200/4850 boost: enabled
scaling: driver: acpi-cpufreq governor: schedutil cores: 1: 2200 2: 2200
3: 2200 4: 2200 5: 2200 6: 2198 7: 2200 8: 2200 9: 2200 10: 2196 11: 2200
12: 2199 13: 2198 14: 2200 15: 2199 16: 2200 bogomips: 121660
Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm
Vulnerabilities: <filter>
Graphics:
Device-1: NVIDIA GA104 [GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Lite Hash Rate] vendor: ZOTAC
driver: nvidia v: 545.29.06 alternate: nouveau,nvidia_drm non-free: 545.xx+
status: current (as of 2023-10; EOL~2026-12-xx) arch: Ampere code: GAxxx
process: TSMC n7 (7nm) built: 2020-2023 pcie: gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s
lanes: 16 link-max: gen: 4 speed: 16 GT/s ports: active: none
off: HDMI-A-1 empty: DP-1,DP-2,DP-3 bus-ID: 06:00.0 chip-ID: 10de:2489
class-ID: 0300
Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.9 driver: X: loaded: nvidia
unloaded: modesetting alternate: fbdev,nouveau,nv,vesa
gpu: nvidia,nvidia-nvswitch display-ID: :0 screens: 1
Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1920x1080 s-dpi: 76 s-size: 641x361mm (25.24x14.21")
s-diag: 736mm (28.96")
Monitor-1: HDMI-A-1 mapped: HDMI-0 note: disabled model: 6Series58
built: 2022 res: 1920x1080 hz: 60 dpi: 61 gamma: 1.2
size: 800x450mm (31.5x17.72") diag: 1469mm (57.8") ratio: 16:9 modes:
max: 3840x2160 min: 640x480
API: Vulkan v: 1.3.269 layers: 7 device: 0 type: discrete-gpu name: NVIDIA
GeForce RTX 3060 Ti driver: nvidia v: 545.29.06 device-ID: 10de:2489
surfaces: xcb,xlib
API: OpenGL Message: Unable to show GL data. glxinfo is missing.
Audio:
Device-1: NVIDIA GA104 High Definition Audio vendor: ZOTAC
driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: gen: 3 speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 16
link-max: gen: 4 speed: 16 GT/s bus-ID: 06:00.1 chip-ID: 10de:228b
class-ID: 0403
Device-2: AMD Starship/Matisse HD Audio vendor: ASRock
driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: gen: 4 speed: 16 GT/s lanes: 16
bus-ID: 08:00.4 chip-ID: 1022:1487 class-ID: 0403
API: ALSA v: k6.1.64-1-lts status: kernel-api with: aoss
type: oss-emulator tools: N/A
Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.0.0 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse
status: active 2: wireplumber status: active 3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin
4: pw-jack type: plugin tools: pactl,pw-cat,pw-cli,wpctl
Network:
Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet
vendor: ASRock driver: r8169 v: kernel pcie: gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1
port: f000 bus-ID: 04:00.0 chip-ID: 10ec:8168 class-ID: 0200
IF: enp4s0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Drives:
Local Storage: total: 465.76 GiB used: 61.28 GiB (13.2%)
SMART Message: Required tool smartctl not installed. Check --recommends
ID-1: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: Western Digital
model: WDS500G2B0A-00SM50 size: 465.76 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B
logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s tech: SSD serial: <filter> fw-rev: 20WD
scheme: GPT
Partition:
ID-1: / raw-size: 465.46 GiB size: 465.46 GiB (100.00%)
used: 61.28 GiB (13.2%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/sda2 maj-min: 8:2
ID-2: /boot/efi raw-size: 300 MiB size: 299.4 MiB (99.80%)
used: 576 KiB (0.2%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/sda1 maj-min: 8:1
ID-3: /home raw-size: 465.46 GiB size: 465.46 GiB (100.00%)
used: 61.28 GiB (13.2%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/sda2 maj-min: 8:2
ID-4: /var/log raw-size: 465.46 GiB size: 465.46 GiB (100.00%)
used: 61.28 GiB (13.2%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/sda2 maj-min: 8:2
ID-5: /var/tmp raw-size: 465.46 GiB size: 465.46 GiB (100.00%)
used: 61.28 GiB (13.2%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/sda2 maj-min: 8:2
Swap:
Kernel: swappiness: 133 (default 60) cache-pressure: 100 (default) zswap: no
ID-1: swap-1 type: zram size: 31.27 GiB used: 1.5 MiB (0.0%) priority: 100
comp: zstd avail: lzo,lzo-rle,lz4,lz4hc,842 max-streams: 16 dev: /dev/zram0
Sensors:
System Temperatures: cpu: 46.6 C mobo: N/A gpu: nvidia temp: 55 C
Fan Speeds (rpm): N/A gpu: nvidia fan: 0%
Info:
Processes: 339 Uptime: 2h 0m wakeups: 0 Memory: total: 32 GiB
available: 31.27 GiB used: 5.1 GiB (16.3%) Init: systemd v: 254
default: graphical tool: systemctl Compilers: gcc: 13.2.1 Packages:
pm: pacman pkgs: 1293 libs: 464 tools: octopi,paru Shell: Bash v: 5.2.21
running-in: lxterminal inxi: 3.3.31
Garuda (2.6.19-2):
System install date: 2023-12-02
Last full system update: 2023-12-03 ↻
Is partially upgraded: No
Relevant software: snapper NetworkManager dracut nvidia-dkms
Windows dual boot: No/Undetected
Failed units:
So, correcting myself and adding some info for noobs. On the subject of starting with Garuda XFCE and switching to LXDE… Firstly, in Octopi in Garuda, it has software groups. One of those is LXDE and everything absolutely needed for LXDE is there and easy to conveniently install. I don’t know why they don’t seem to appear on the main list individually without clicking on the group [shrug]. After that, I recommend installing also gtk-engines so you can set the LXDE skin to something less ugly like Clearlooks. Also, gnome-icon-theme because the eject button in pcmanfm needs them. After that, I just removed the xfce-session package and reboot. For some reason I don’t know, the first boot into LXDE will have a couple minor weird things happen (you might see a remnant of the XFCE wallpaper appear momentarily and you see a password prompt in a strange place which you need to enter your password into) and then every reboot after is fine. Except! Lxpanel acts up in a couple different ways in Garuda if you don’t fix it. One, it doesn’t seem to save settings of some panel items, such as volume control. Also, certain items will seem not to show up, even though you have lxpanel configured so they should. The fix for the first problem is copy the /etc/xdg/lxpanel/panels/panel file and overwrite your /home/{username}/.config/lxpanel/panels/panel file with it. I don’t know why this works, but it does. You’ll need to reboot before you see that take effect. And the fix for the second problem is… It seems to be something to do with lxpanel starting before something else is ready, so I just made a little startup script that runs this:
sleep 2
lxpanelctl restart
which restarts lxpanel after a couple seconds every boot and things work fine then.
