Thanks again guys. I had some trouble with cabal-install dependencies on Mint, but would prefer stable packages anyway. Mint/Mate is now stable as long as I'm willing to start with 'xmonad --replace &' in a terminal after login. Xmonad from XDG/Login might be possible (with first two files below) if I start up a session manager and a bunch of utilities (in third file); I haven't tried. I would like to try with LXDE. # apt-get install xmonad libghc-xmonad-contrib-dev libghc-xmonad-dev ==> /usr/share/xsessions/xmonad.desktop <== [Desktop Entry] Name=XMonad Comment=Lightweight tiling window manager Exec=xmonad.start Icon=xmonad.png Type=XSession ==> /usr/share/applications/xmonad.start.desktop <== [Desktop Entry] Type=Application Name=Xmonad Exec=/usr/local/bin/xmonad.start NoDisplay=true X-GNOME-WMName=Xmonad X-GNOME-Autostart-Phase=WindowManager X-GNOME-Provides=windowmanager X-GNOME-Autostart-Notify=true ==> /usr/local/bin/xmonad.start <== #!/bin/bash #mate-panel & exec xmonad ==> xmonad.hs <== import XMonad import XMonad.Config.Desktop main = xmonad $ desktopConfig { modMask = mod4Mask , terminal = "mate-terminal" }