Xfce Does Xfce requires less or simpler hardware drivers (compared to KDE)?

I'm using KDE with the drm-kmod graphics driver and just experienced a hang issue. I'm just wondering if I switch over to Xfce, would it work without this drm-kmod driver? My gut feeling is it would require the same hardware drivers. But however, I remember that many years ago things were much simpler when I used Xfce on FreeBSD. Well, re-installation is a lengthy process and would appreciate some tips/pointers. Thanks! :)
 
Does Xfce requires less or simpler hardware drivers (compared to KDE)?
I don't think so.

I've seen a lot of conflicting opinions on this subject and can only vouch for my own experience. I've had no luck with drm-kmod alone, but I have good graphics since I also installed xf86-video-ati. It seems I need both.

I'm running 13.0-RELEASE-p2 and I have radeon graphics on an AMD cpu, but this reportedly applies to intel graphics drivers as well. You might need to use xf86-video-intel instead of xf86-video-ati; I simply don't know. But...

If I try to load any modules in /boot/loader.conf or in /etc/rc.conf, my configuration fails and I see a lot of error messages. If I use drm-kmod by itself, the graphics drivers fail, with a lot of errors. The only thing I've tried which works for me is to install the packages drm-kmod and xf86-video-ati, and then do no other configuration changes.

My working understanding, which might be wrong, is that drm-kmod is a "meta-port" which provides various useful modules to the xf86-video-ati driver, but it needs the xf86-video-ati driver to work correctly.

I don't use sddm. I have lightdm_enable="YES" in my /etc/rc.conf file. This works with kde5, and also, on another install on the same hardware, it works with MATE.

I was able to get sddm to work before, but I just don't like it, because sddm is such a resource-hog.
 
Xfce is able to run with the xf86-video-vesa driver (but if you want to use features of compositor, session will crash, otherwise everything is fine).
 
Both allow you to disable their compositor and should therefore work with basic drivers. Both will need better drivers to use compositing. I don't think there's a difference in requirements.

Well, re-installation is a lengthy process and would appreciate some tips/pointers.
What reinstallation?
 
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