install gui after the fact?

dsdonut · 03-26-2009, 02:14 PM

I have an RHEL 5 server that I use for testing and playing around with. Right now I don't have any GUI installed at all - no Gnome, no X or anything.

How can I install this after the fact? (without rebuilding the whole box). What packages need to be installed? I used yum to install gnome-desktop (I think that was the name of the package) but that didn't help at all. After trying to init 5, it hung - something about x spawning too quickly and being disabled for 5 minutes.

I'm sure there's a way to install this, I just don't know what all is needed.

acid_kewpie · 03-26-2009, 02:47 PM

you should be able to run

Code:

yum groupinstall "GNOME Desktop Environment"

and it'll install everything matching that tick box you unticked during the install.

dsdonut · 03-26-2009, 03:27 PM

Thanks for the reply.

I have another question (let me point out that I am definitely a Linux newbie). How do I get into the GNOME desktop? I was under the impression that run level 5 is the GUI with multiple users. If I do an init 5, nothing really happens. I get starting irqbalance, starting mesage bus, starting winbind, and starting HAL daemon - all say OK. Nothing happens after that. Stays in a command line interface.

John VV · 03-26-2009, 11:10 PM

unless you do a very small edit to a file ( /etc/inittab )
the very last line ( it should look something like this" x:3:respawn:/etc/X11/prefdm -nodaemon"
you need to change the 3 to a 5 then reboot
"x:5:respawn:/etc/X11/prefdm -nodaemon"

------- or ----------
from the text boot
after you login run this

Code:

startx

acid_kewpie · 03-27-2009, 04:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by John VV

unless you do a very small edit to a file ( /etc/inittab )
the very last line ( it should look something like this" x:3:respawn:/etc/X11/prefdm -nodaemon"
you need to change the 3 to a 5 then reboot
"x:5:respawn:/etc/X11/prefdm -nodaemon"
[/code]

no no no

that line defines what level 3 or 5 IS you do NOT want to touch that line. the line you're referring to would be "id:3:initdefault"

dsdonut · 03-27-2009, 09:05 AM

acid_kewpie - I tried editing that line and changed the 3 to a 5, but that didn't seem to do anything. After rebooting, it still went to a command line. It seems to think it's at run level 5 though. At the command line if I enter 'init 5' it doesn't do anything, but if I try 'init 3' it switches run level.

acid_kewpie · 03-27-2009, 09:14 AM

Ok, well what actually is the problem you have? can you manually get into X / Gnome now? from runelvel 3 you can just run "startx" and it should load... let's make sure X is actually working first of all.

dsdonut · 03-27-2009, 09:17 AM

that didn't work. It's apparently a video card issue - bad (or non-existent) driver. I'll see if I can get a driver from the hardware manufacturer. I believe they have a linux driver.

acid_kewpie · 03-27-2009, 09:20 AM

There should be no need, run system-config-display and see if it can give you a hand.

dsdonut · 03-27-2009, 09:24 AM

hmmmm, doesn't seem to be a linux video driver on the IBM website. Strange.

Months ago, I installed the gui (from the start) on this exact same hardware and it worked fine. There has to be some linux package missing. When I try 'startx' it says (among other things)

(EE) Failed to load module "radeon" (module does not exist, 0)
(EE) No drivers available

The video card is an ATI radeon. Since I know GNOME has worked on this hardware before, there must still be something that I'm missing. Could there be a driver package - either on the CD or available via yum?

dsdonut · 03-27-2009, 09:31 AM

THANKS!!

just running system-config-display seemed to do the trick. After that 'startx' got me to the desktop.

John VV · 03-27-2009, 12:58 PM

oops , my mistake
" x:5:respawn:/etc/X11/prefdm"
one to many beers .