Installing X Server and GUI via Command Line on RedHat Enterprise Linux 5

[Asvin]

Hello! Friends I desperately need your help. Is there anyone who can help me out with the query I have asked in the title. There is nothing more to be done, I just wanted to know whether it is possible to install X server and GUI with the help of the Command Line on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5. If yes then “how” is the big question for me. I do not have strong ideas of doing it so therefore as according to my knowledge and intelligence I planned to do this thing with the help of the Windows Box for Web Hosting Server and hence I came up with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5. Played a while with my knowledge and information and somehow managed to get my CPanel and WHM working perfectly but failed to reach the main conclusion as I was in need of Remote Desktop kind of access. It’s not that I am a complete noob with regards to such work but the only thing is that there are certain things that are confusing and disallowing me to complete my work.

Anyways it would be much better if anyone helps me out with the installation process of X server with the help of the command line, not necessarily command line, KDE or GNOME is also fine. Once I am done with that it will be much easier for me to Remote Desktop kind of solution just for accessing purpose. Hoping the best from your side, let’s see how many of you all can let me know with a proper solution.

[BethanyI]

I do really appreciate your question my friend; since long time I haven’t been heard or read such queries on this forums. Although this question is quite simple as far as I am concerned but people fails to implement it on their system or computers. Anyways as you asked about the installation I must say that I am not sure with the command line but yeah, if you try to install GNOME and KDE with yum then I think almost all your issues that would come up with respect to the dependencies can surely go off. If asked me I would personally prefer XFCE and then probably I would go for GNOME, it maybe because I never went for KDE as one of my choice. Now for installing GNOME and KDE is actually not so complicated as you must be thinking. For the installation you need to just note down the following code. These codes are as follows:-

su -
yum groupinstall "GNOME Desktop Environment"
yum groupinstall "KDE Desktop Environment"

if in case you didn’t get a proper result then you can also try out the following code instead of trying out the above one, but remember that this one is only recommended if you failed to get a proper result with the above code, just follow this one: yum groupinstall "gnome". And regarding the Remote desktop you can simply go for searching on web, I am sure you might get certain related searches and end up getting software or utility so the same thing. Remember to check out for the Virtual network computing for the same.

[Ataa]

Hey I think that wouldn’t work at all. I am researching on this thing from past one month and till now haven’t found a proper result. I don’t think there are any such proper suggestions or solution left anywhere that I didn’t tried or came up with a proper solution. In fact you won’t believe I have also tried the one that has been suggested above. Those codes were one amongst those tricks that never came up with a proper result.

Actually the problem was that my personal server company has strictly stated that there are chances for it not being in repository and alongside it also said that the support would be voided if I ever try to use a third party. This is the only thing until now that I truly didn’t understand at all. Does it mean that the command line would function and work if it were in my repository? Please let me know what it could be. Does this repository really mean a lot, if yes then how, what could be the possible solution for this thing.

Other than this I also noticed that the comps.xml data that manages to pass on the groupinstall function of yum by simply holding the group data does not provides through the RHN satellite, as according to my notice the package data is completely being pulled out during this period of time. However I know that installing the packages is very much possible, as the yum tries to take out the required dependencies during the time of installing the application for the same application. Also with the help of this yum you can easily try to search for a gnome application by getting into the yum list option. GNOME applications like GDM can be easily searched and then installed. This application would help you to pull down the entire rest of the desktop. Other than this you will also have to go for in search for the bit until and unless you go for searching for the correct application.

[ZAHAR]

You can visit or have a look into the softlayer website for any kind of dedicated servers and web hosting purpose. Anyways coming back to your question and doubts first of all I would like to say that there is nothing wrong in what so ever you got the feedbacks after entering the codes or trying out the solution. This is the actual way it goes for which you need not have to worry. Actually what exactly you system is trying to convey you is that the file that lists each groups like GNOME is entirely unavailable. Other than the one that has been suggested to you, you can also go only for the parts that are essential to GNOME and then install those parts. However once these essential parts are installed you can easily manage to pull in required dependencies. Anyways it would be much better to go for the installation of GNOME session or else GNOME panel but make sure that you do the installation as root. Install either of them using the following code:

yum install gnome-session (or gnome-panel)

trust me this would surely work for you because it has been already tried by me successfully without facing any sort of trouble that would cause you later. The thing is that once if you install any of the existing file then its obvious that it might search for the dependencies and then install all the necessary things without any other requirement. You must know that after your successfully do this installation you are supposed to download the VNC application as already mentioned above by one of our friend. just after that you should be easily able to remote in with help of the GUI interface and so on.

[jaykant]

Yeah that’s a reliable solution; there are things that always don’t matter for certain things, so it becomes easier for us to discard the simpler things and concentrate on the necessary ones. Suppose if you do not find GNOME terminal to be working at all, then what you can do is install it later on as according to your convenience and concentrate on the required things. There are certain steps that I tried out for Red Hat 6.2 Enterprise 64Bit but don’t know for what reason unable to implement it. I am sure that the instructions are followed as accordingly. Might be this instruction would work for you. Follow the steps as mentioned without any sort of modification and do not try to add any extra additional information or command that would spoil everything.

1. First of all you need to first insert the DVD within your DVD drive; once inserted just type in the following command at the command line in order to mount the disc. The command is as follows: mkdir -p /mnt/cdrom && mount -t iso9660 -o ro /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom
2. Now after typing in the command you need to create a DVD repo file again using a command, this time the command is: "vi /etc/yum.repos.d/dvd.repo". Make sure to enter the command without the quotes.
3. Now make sure that your press or hit the key I for inserting purpose and also press ESC and then type :wq at the end but before escaping also follow the following options:
   
   • baseurl=file:///mnt/repo/Server
   • enabled=1
   • gpgcheck=1
   • gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-redhat-release
   
   
4. Anyways now you need to install X "yum groupinstall " X Windows System " Desktop or if you prefer KDE " yum groupinstall "X Windows System" KDE Desktop
5. Once you are done with these thing make sure that you follow up all the prompts as according to the instruction and then Run X11 “Startx”. Other than all these specifying the bas URL is very much necessary for being a Client and not for Server, but this is valid only if you are trying to install Linux client and not server. Also remember that if you face any problem with GroupInstall then you can sure use simply install for the same purpose.