Ubuntu Feisty comes with an xubuntu-desktop package delivering a Xfce4.4.0 Desktop environment.
However, some of us (like me) want the latest of the latest, so if you are not faint hearted and feel like upgrading your Xfce desktop to the latest stable version here is how.
sudo apt-get install build-essential libglib2.0-dev libgtk2.0-dev libxml-dev libvte-dev libstartup-notification0-dev libhal-storage-dev libdbus-glib-1-dev libxrender-dev libxdamage-dev libjpeg62-dev libxml++2.6-dev
Now the needed dependencies should be installed, it was all I needed and hopefully that goes for you too.
Now its time to download the Graphical installer:
wget http://mocha.xfce.org/archive/xfce-4.4.1/installers/xfce4-4.4.1-installer.run
Now simply run the installer with this command:
sudo sh xfce4-4.4.1-installer.run
The installer should after uncompressing fire up and before continuing you can even check if there is a missing depency. I could not find the xrender dependency but it did not cause any problems with the installation.
Make sure the alsa mixer flag gets unchecked! Its not needed in Ubuntu and will therefore break the installation.
The default installation folder is /usr/local/ and suited me fine.
The installer compiles all packages and takes about 20- to 30 min.
If you wish you can easy remove Xfce4.4.1 in: Applications > System Tools > Software Uninstaller.
I noticed that in GDM there are to different entries for Xfce4 now, but both lead to Xfce 4.4.1 so it seems it overrules the original Xfce4 of (X)Ubuntu.
Beryl runs perfectly the latest Xfce4 and I am enjoying it greatly.
Resources:
Xfce4 homepage.
Xfce4 downloadpage to select a Mirror for the Graphical installer.
Some (outdated) documentation.
And some trial and error.
Tuxicity.
Tuxicity's source 
Hmmm.. Worked great–but I have no audio now… I UNchecked the alsa mixer box (as you suggested)…
Comment by scott — May 13, 2007 @ 8:45 pm
if you want to the sound goes on ( buy pci sound card named creative audigy 7.1)
and install it in your hardware and then start up your computer and press f2 or del or the button to get access to the bios and then go to the on board devices and disable the the sound chip for example:/ac97 disabled
restart your computer and it will get sound back with no configuration in the software
my best wishes finder18
Comment by finder18 — September 9, 2009 @ 2:05 am
Any idea how to remove this install?
Comment by scott — May 24, 2007 @ 4:49 am
anyone else got problems?
Comment by orup eriksson — May 29, 2007 @ 7:45 pm
[…] Note：本文基本步骤按照Tuxicity的文章 Howto: Install Xfce 4.4.1 on (X)Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn) […]
Pingback by Linux桌面中文网 » 在 Ubuntu7.04 上编译安装 Xfce 4.4.1 — May 30, 2007 @ 5:45 am
Many thanks for the guide. This fixed a problem I was having with cedega (although not wine). I have noticed over the past few weeks that it was using my previous 4.4.0 panel plugins. It turned out that startxfce4 sets XDG_DATA_DIRS to be:
XDG_DATA_DIRS=”usr/local/share:/usr/share://usr/local/share”
This seemed odd so changed to:
XDG_DATA_DIRS=”/usr/local/share:/usr/share”
Also changed the other line to place /usr/local/share before any previous declaration of the variable.
This seemed to work and so it uses any new plugins I install, this is especially important for the mixer plugin as it always ran the previous version of the mixer when clicked which is when I first spotted the problem.
Maybe it will help some people out there.
Tom
Comment by tom — August 5, 2007 @ 5:17 pm
well I read on some other site that by typing only this you can get xfce installed sudo aptitude update && sudo aptitude install xubuntu-desktop , I didn’t try it yet but I am trying it and its downloading files for now
Comment by waleed khamis — September 16, 2007 @ 11:00 am