How to install Lubuntu Desktop Environment and ONLY the desktop environment?
You can also use
sudo apt-get install --no-install-recommends lubuntu-desktop
Which will install the Lubuntu desktop without all the recommended applications, though things that rely on these applications will not work.
I think a better way to do it would be to install all of lubuntu-desktop with:
sudo apt-get install lubuntu-desktop
and then use the Lubuntu Software Center to remove applications you aren't going to use. You can then remove lubuntu-software-center with:
sudo apt-get remove lubuntu-software-center
The only difference between this approach and Ringtail's is installing lxde will give you the generic LXDE desktop, while installing lubuntu-desktop will give you more of an Ubuntu specific LXDE, with custom wallpapers for example.
Kinda like asking for a vanilla ice cream cone but I don't want the cone
That being said. Lubuntu-Desktop will bring in a lot of dependencies.
For a list of Applications
How to get Lubuntu
How to Install Lubuntu
If it were me I would just open a terminal and
sudo apt-get install lxde
Which gives you the lightweight distro without the extras.
See LXDE wiki
do the Minimal Ubuntu + LXDE Installation
I recently installed Lubuntu from the latest alternative disk http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/precise/daily/current/ as a minimal install by installing it to command line.
Then I installed lubuntu-core
sudo apt-get install lubuntu-core
It then had none of the extra software install. Originally I tried with --no-install-recommends but this left it too bare and seemingly with missing dependencies. After doing this I installed lxappearance and obconf to allow me to change the themes easily
sudo apt-get install lxappearance obconf
I installed firefox without any recommended software as the addons are for Gnome.
sudo apt-get install firefox --no-install-recommends
I had some errors in my xsession-errors file that cleared up after installing the below
sudo apt-get install gtk2-engines-pixbuf
Network manager needs setting up after lubuntu-core has been installed from a minimal install https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Lubuntu/Documentation/MinimalInstall#Unmanaged_Wired_Network The nm-system-settings.conf is now called NetworkManager.conf as written below
Change Network Manager settings Start an LXTerminal session, then issue:
sudo nano /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf
In section [ifupdown] find the line managed=false and replace it with managed=true. Save and quit. Get back to LXTerminal and issue:
sudo service network-manager restart
After a short while you should see "Connection established" message above the Network Manager applet tray icon.