Introduction
In most instances, the Linux servers I setup are used to host the Oracle database software and
only require using the Command-Line Interface (CLI) for the OS. This is beneficial because
I only need to perform a minimal installation and can add only those required Linux packages (RPMs)
needed to support the database.
However, there are situations where I need to access a graphical desktop in order to install or run certain
Graphical User Interface (GUI) applications.
This guide provides the steps needed to add the GNOME Desktop to a CentOS minimal
installation where the OS was installed without the X Window System.
CentOS 6
In this section, the GNOME desktop will be added to a new server running
CentOS 6.2 (x86_64) after performing a "Minimal" install.
Install Desktop Packages
# yum -y groupinstall "Desktop" "Desktop Platform" "X Window System" "Fonts"
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You can also install the following optional GUI packages.
# yum -y groupinstall "Graphical Administration Tools"
# yum -y groupinstall "Internet Browser"
# yum -y groupinstall "General Purpose Desktop"
# yum -y groupinstall "Office Suite and Productivity"
# yum -y groupinstall "Graphics Creation Tools"
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Finally, if you wanted to add the K Desktop Environment (KDE).
# yum -y groupinstall kde-desktop
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When using
yum groupinstall, the
groupinstall option
only installs
default and
mandatory packages from the group.
There are times when you also want to include
optional packages within
a group. I have not figured out (yet) how to control which package types to
install (group package "policy") from the command-line using
yum. The only method I know of to also include
optional packages is to edit the
/etc/yum.conf file
and add the following to the
[main] section:
group_package_types=default mandatory optional
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The reason I mention this is because I wanted to install
"Terminal emulator for the X Window System" (
xterm) which
is under the group "Legacy X Window System compatibility".
xterm
happens to be an optional package and did not get installed until I added
group_package_types=default mandatory optional to
/etc/yum.conf.
# yum -y groupinstall "Legacy X Window System compatibility"
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I did find a plug-in for
yum that allows users to specify which package types
within a package group should be installed when using
yum groupinstall.
http://projects.robinbowes.com/yum-grouppackagetypes/trac
Enable GNOME
Since the server was previously running on CLI mode, we need to change the
initialization process for the machine to boot up in GUI mode.
Open
/etc/inittab using a text editor and change following line:
To:
After making the change, reboot the machine.
Note that you can switch from GUI to CLI mode manually by using following method:
GUI to CLI: Ctrl + Alt + F6
CLI to GUI: Ctrl + Alt + F1
Installing Additional Applications
After logging in to the GNOME Desktop, you can now go to
System > Administration > Add/Remove Software to manage application in CentOS.
By using this wizard, you can install various applications similar to
yum but through a GUI.
Applications installed using this method will appear in the
Application menu list.
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