Hi,
I am new to this realm of Linux. I've installed RHEL5 server on my PC with a Graphical desktop. I don't know whether this GUI is based on X-Window or GNOME or KDE.

My 1st question is how can I probe what type of GUI I am using?

My 2nd question is how GNOME can be installed form RPM and what the sequence of installing those RPMs would be. I am neither a subscriber of RH Network nor willing to use update or yum command.


When I had tried to install gnome-applets the following message was displayed.
[root@unknown000cf16e754d ~]# rpm -ivh gnome-applets-2.16.0.1-19.el5.i386.rpm
warning: gnome-applets-2.16.0.1-19.el5.i386.rpm: Header V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID 37017186
Preparing... ########################################### [100%]
package gnome-applets-2.16.0.1-19.el5 is already installed

It shows similar type of warnings for gnome-desktop, gnome-desktop, gnome-audio also. I cannot understand the reason for this warning.


I also tried "rpm -qpR" command but couldn't understand some lines in COLOR="Magenta" of the output(I truncated the huge output). I need explanations for their purpose and how to install them.
[root@unknown000cf16e754d ~]# rpm -qpR gnome-applets-2.16.0.1-19.el5.i386.rpm
warning: gnome-applets-2.16.0.1-19.el5.i386.rpm: Header V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID 37017186
/bin/sh
/bin/sh
/bin/sh
/bin/sh
/usr/bin/env
GConf2 >= 2.14.0
GConf2 >= 2.14.0
GConf2 >= 2.14.0
gnome-netstatus >= 2.8.0-2
gnome-panel >= 2.13.4
gnome-python2-applet
gnome-python2-libegg
gstreamer-plugins-base >= 0.10
gstreamer-plugins-good >= 0.10
gtk2 >= 2.6.0
libICE.so.6
libORBit-2.so.0
libSM.so.6
libX11.so.6
libart_lgpl_2.so.2
libatk-1.0.so.0
libbonobo-2.so.0
libbonobo-activation.so.4
libbonoboui-2.so.0
libc.so.6
libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.0)
libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.1)
libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.1.3)
libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.2)
libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.3)
libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.3.4)
libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.4)


Answers of the aforementioned issues are highly appreciated.
Thanks.

1.
There should be and "about" item somewhere in the menu in your panel. That will tell you if you are running gnome or kde (default redhat runs gnome though).

2.
Don't download packages by hand. Use the "yum" command

Evo2.

• yum groupinstall "GNOME Desktop Environment"

.. is the command to get it all ..

X is not a desktop environment. It is the program that enables applications to create "windows" (which are represented as rectangular portions of the screen) and draw to them. Windows can can have child child windows within them, and they can have child windows, etc.

Anyway, GNOME and KDE are just sets of applications that use the X Window System, instead of being replacements for it. So whatever setup you are using, it still runs on top of X.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X_Window_System

1 members found this post helpful.

i'm not very familiar with RPM. used it before for some time. Here are some of my understandings, hope it helps.
if you already login inside a desktop, it should be very easy to find out by the logo each desktop environment use.
if you are still in the console (black screen), try to find some commands such as xdm, gdm, kdm (for display manger). in a default installation, gdm would mean you get a Gnome desktop (or Xfce maybe, but they are similar), kdm for KDE, only with xdm mean only get X (it's rare, though)



find the package you think the closest to the name of GNOME. install what it depends on (although it might be override with options in rpm command.) then finally itself. during the process, you might also encounter several levels of dependencies. it's not lovely job. better to use some high-level package tools like "yum". In Debian, it's possible to use installation CD as a repository for local installation. not sure about yum.

this means the package has already installed. if want to get rid of those warning, try with the option "-U"

and for the last command you issued with "R" options, i suppose they are detailed dependencies (command, libraries, etc.) of "gnome-applets"

rgds,
tim

1 members found this post helpful.

I went through this recently i.e manually trying to install X Windows on my machine. X Windows is required for GNOME/KDE/Xfce to work. I was trying to install this using the install CDs but went on a cycle of mounting & unmounting the CDs to find the required packages. Finally gave up and did this:

Connected the laptop to internet and ran the following command and the installation went thru like a blaze:

yum groupinstall "X Window System"

You need to have yum installed to run the above command. To know which package(s) to install to get yum running, use the following command:

rpm -q "yum"

Regarding the magenta marked items in the list:
/bin/sh - is a command shell
/usr/bin/env - command used to run commands in a different environment
libORBit-2.so.0 - a CORBA related library
libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.1) - Standard C library version 2.1

If you need to know details about a library of rpm, refer to the following URL: http://www.rpmfind.net/linux/RPM/

hope this helps...

cheers...

1 members found this post helpful.

Thanks for your clarification. The hyperlink that you gave was helpful too.

A good documentation of dependencies among RPMs.

http://docs.fedoraproject.org/drafts...html#id2952284