redhat linux gnome installation through text mode

[iamthestar]

while i was installing redhat linux i forgot to check the boxes for kde/gnome, now i have only text based linux on my pc, is there any way so that i can install gnome without uninstalling the current text based linux, please help me out.

[Stuart Browne]

Yes, you can independently install the individual RPM's in textmode to get the GUI working.

There is quite a list of packages however, and you'll spend a bit of time working out all the dependancy issues.

If you have the RH media still (I would hope you still do), then you can check out the 'base/comps.xml' for a rough idea of what packages the 'Gnome' package installs.

Start with 'gnome-desktop', and work out the dependency's from there.

[Gopi Sekar]

First install X11 related packages, once you install them then you can run 'X' to launch a basic X server (very basic without any window manager) and then from another console, run

export DISPLAY=":0.0"
xterm

it should launch xterm and you should be able to see the console on the basic X server which is launched earlier. from there run 'redhat-config-packages' which should launch GUI based redhat package manager from where you can add/remove packages and package groups.

Do let us know how it went

Hope this helps,
Gopi

[iamthestar]

Thanx to both of you, i will try that today, and let you know if it works.

[Ross Minkov]

Another way to approach this is install apt4rpm and then use apt-get install to install gnome. you can start with apt-get install gnome-desktop. apt will resolve any dependencies for you.

-Ross

[iamthestar]

closed