How to install RHEL without GUI packages?

[Jun Yu]

Hello all,

This maybe a stupid question but actually i have to face it.
The environment is completely server oriented. And no post installation operation allowed(includes no post packages install/remove operation allowed as well)in this case.

We tried to install RHEL4 Update4(x86) on DL380G4 server by normal way.(normal way means the staff insert the CD and boot the computer, follow the installation instruction step by step, no PXE+kickstart or network installation allowed to this site).

The customer want to have a non-GUI server environment after installation.So during the installation, when we at the stage of "Package selection" , we did deselect X, GNOME, KDE categories and add web server, ftp Server, MySQL database server,development(totally deselect 3 categories and select four categories).But after system reboot, the X & KDE still appear, then we tried other selection sets such as deselect server administrator utility category(those graphic system-config-*), deselect development package, print category and more, still got the same result.

At last we've even tried to select "Minimal" mode during the "Package selection" stage. It looks like the GUI packages still forced to be installed and the server still came up with X.

We got confused because it is very easy to fulfill such requirement on SLES9's installation stages. And now we can't do the same thing on RHEL's installation routine.

Any tips or suggestion to work it out?

Thanks a lot,

Jun

[sandeep_raman]

Hello Jun,

Not sure why the GUI packages are installed inspite of deselecting them.
However atm,you can change the runlevel to 3.
http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/enterprise/RHEL-4-Manual/sysadmin-guide/ch-services.html#S1-SERVICES-RUNLEVELS

SRH

[Manuel Wolfshant]

choosing minimal install + deselecting all unneeded stuff and adding just the required server packages should definitely leave you with a text-only installation.
I suggest reading the logs which can be found after installation in the root directory and examine what packages are triggering the installation of GUI. Beware, RH's version of mc requires some X libs (for the mouse I guess...).
You could also watch the way in which anaconda does dependency solving, the process is printed in real time during the initial installation phase (in the third console, I think).

as a sidenote: a list of an almost minimal RHEL 4 install is included in http://trac.samhart.net/trac/attachment/ticket/28/centos43?format=raw'

[Jun Yu]

Thanks Manuel,

If choose minimal mode during the package selection, the user haven't chance to adjust other packages because they are turned to gray and disallow to click. So the post installation adjustment is necessary, in this case of the site, the customer don't want to do any post procedures after normal installation.

Anyway, your link is very useful.

Regards,

Jun

[Vipulinux]

Hi Jun

Just a thought...while selecting the packages select X, gnome and kde and then go inside each of these heads and deselect all the packages that are selected ....give it a shot

Cheers