Hey all,

So I've just installed Ubuntu Server onto my Servers at my job via the bootable Live CD ISO that I burned, but I am going to need a GUI, and I do not have an internet connection here. So, my plans are to burn Gnome Alternate CD ISO, and install it over Ubuntu Server, straight from CD ROM.

HOWEVER,

Won't I need to have an X-Window-System installed already for the GUi to come up after the alternate CD install is done? If so, does Ubuntu Server have X-Window-System installed already? Or will I have to get it?

If I have to get it, does anyone know a way in which I can burn an ISO image of X-Window-System and install it to my Ubuntu Server from the CD ROM as I would with the alternate Gnome CD?


Lastly, does anyone know if the Alternate CD formats of Gnome / KDE are "core?" Or am I going to get all the bells and whistles of a PC desktop? The reason I ask is because I don't want my Server performance crippled.

Thanks in Advance

You should be able to just add a cd or dvd to the apt repositories using apt-cdrom add. Then do sudo aptitude install xserver-xorg icewm. Replace icewm w/ whatever window manager you want. I used icewm as an example just because I don't know the exact package name of the gnome desktop package.

So your saying I can just download xorg-Icewm to my desktop, throw it on a CD-RW (non-ISO), put it into the CD ROM drive on my server, and then run the sudo commands?

No, what I am saying is that you can use an official CD and install using aptitude the packages you need from that CD by adding it to your repositories with the apt-cdrom command.

I don't know what packages are on a Ubuntu alternate CD. On Debian you can search and find out what CD contains what. But basically you need to install three packages:

1) xserver-xorg -- this is the main x-window system
2) xdm, gdm, or kdm -- this is only needed if you want a graphical login screen, gdm typically belongs to gnome, kdm to KDE, and xdm is sort of the lightweight alternative
3) gnome, kde, lxde, icewm, etc -- some sort of window manager