[solbero]

Thank you very much for your tutorial, everything works well (just had some crashes with latest Kodi build) ! I am just wondering why do you use Minimal Xubuntu desktop, isn't Lubuntu minimal installation lighter ? (it also already includes openbox)

After some tests, it seems to work a bit better with Lubuntu (less ressources consumption), I'll report my experiences when I will have time !

I’m glad that you enjoyed the guide.

I considered using Lubuntu Minimal Desktop. However, my reasons for choosing Xubuntu Minimal Desktop are:

• Xubuntu includes PulseAudio. Needed by quite a lot of Steam games. However some (such as Hyper Light Drifter) work with ALSA.
  
• Xubuntu includes Bluez for Bluetooth. I need it to pair PS3 controllers.
  
• Xubuntu includes NetworkManager. I use NetworkManager to manage my VPN.
  

Also, I’m more familiar configuring stuff in Xubuntu, and XFCE comes with some nice default apps. Even though this guide consists of terminal commands, I worked from the Xubuntu desktop a lot while figuring stuff out. So I wanted something I’m familiar with, and I do not have a lot of experience with LXDE.

For a setup like this, where you boot directly into Kodi, the desktop environment that is installed doesn’t really matter—you never boot in to it, you boot into Openbox instead. However, the other choices in the MinimalCD installation such as Unity or Gnome would bundle a bunch of processes that would begin at startup and slow everything down (notice that they do not have a minimal version). That‘s why you‘d want the minimal desktops. They are just the minimal needed.

As such, Lubuntu Minimal Desktop is as a good a choice as Xubuntu Minimal Desktop. In Lubuntu, you wouldn’t have to install Openbox as you point out, but you might have to install some other programs which are included in Xubuntu Minimal Desktop. Both work for this kind of setup, so choose the one you like.

TL;DR: Both Xubuntu Minimal Desktop and Lubuntu Minimal Deskop work for this kind of setup.