• Post Reply Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic
programming forums Java Mobile Certification Databases Caching Books Engineering Micro Controllers OS Languages Paradigms IDEs Build Tools Frameworks Application Servers Open Source This Site Careers Other Pie Elite all forums
this forum made possible by our volunteer staff, including ...
Marshals:
  • Campbell Ritchie
  • Ron McLeod
  • Tim Cooke
  • Paul Clapham
  • Liutauras Vilda
Sheriffs:
  • Junilu Lacar
  • Rob Spoor
  • Jeanne Boyarsky
Saloon Keepers:
  • Stephan van Hulst
  • Carey Brown
  • Tim Holloway
  • Piet Souris
Bartenders:

Newbee Question On Linux

 
Ranch Hand
Posts: 140
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Hello friends,

I am completely new to Linux/Unix world. I have got a server which has Fedora Core 5.0 on it. I want to know whether it comes with its own GUI or do we need to install a GUI on it?

If we need to install a new gui then which one is good and where can I get it.

Thanks alot.

Regards,

Vikas Aggarwal
 
Bartender
Posts: 9626
16
Mac OS X Linux Windows
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Probably the most disorienting thing to a *nix newbie is the fact that, unlike Windows, where the GUI is an integral part of the operating system, *nix GUIs are completely optional. It is common for *nix servers to not use GUIs in order to free up valuable resources for what really matters: serving users.
Another big difference between Windows and *nix is that you have a choice in windowing systems. You can choose between Xorg or XFree86 for the infrastructure and between any number of Windows Managers that actually control the appearence of the desktop (KDE and GNOME being the most popular for desktop computers).
Installing a windows manager is nontrivial. You should probably start with Installing Software with Yum.
 
Ranch Hand
Posts: 1923
Scala Postgres Database Linux
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
To test, whether a desktop and window-manager are already installed, you may call 'startx' from the commandline.
 
Ranch Hand
Posts: 362
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Change to the /etc directory

cd /etc

then do a list

ls

If you find an entry named X11 then surely you have a windowing system installed. As X11 is the directory holding the X configuration files.

Linux as other *nix have run levels. Somewhat like Windows safe mode and normal mode and command line only mode. There are 6 runlevels in Linux. If I recall well Fedora uses level 5 for GUI and all systems up. I think runlevel 3 all systems up, but no network. 6 is reboot 0 is shutdown 1 is safe mode single user and I don't recall if 2 and 4 are used. So another reason you might not be getting a graphic system is that you're on the wrong runlevel. Remember that as mentioned before a pure text based runlevel is perfectly fine in the Linux world. So you might have hit something in the setup that defaults you to a text only runlevel (say 3 in Fedora).

There is a file called inittab in the etc directory (/etc/inittab) that will tell you more about your runlevels and which is the default.

Example>


I my case a Kbuntu I run 2 as my default. If you find something other than 5 in your Fedora change it to five and reboot. See what happens.

As extra knowledge. Once you know you default runlevel look for directories in your /etc directory that look like rc0.d, rc1.d, rc2.d, etc (no pun intended). The number after the rc means the runlevel in which the the contents of such directory will be executed. For example if I enter runlevel 2 ( by os settings or typing telinit 2) all the scripts in the rc2.d directory will be run.

For example this is the content of my rc2.d directory:



Notice the S##Name files being links (if you don't know what a link is type "man ln" on your shell) to other files. It tells Linux to Start all those services by runing those scripts in START mode. If it had K##Name it would mean KILL that process. Just check out your rc6.d directory and count the Ks. Remember runlevel 6 is reboot!

In my case the rc2.d contains>


Which starts the graphic windowing system. As the following sniplet from the file shows "less /etc/init.d/kdm">



As a side note graphic windowing system isn't a redundant term. Just ask those who remember DOS text based windowing systems.

Anyway getting back on track. Not only does X have to be installed it needs to be configured to startup via a link in those rc#.d directories. You have to be in the runlevel that actually starts it! And of course you had to have installed a window manager (KDE, Gnome, etc). Or otherwise you'll only get the X window view which isn't a whole lot of fun.
 
Saloon Keeper
Posts: 26768
190
Android Eclipse IDE Tomcat Server Redhat Java Linux
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Fedora comes with the X Window system and at least 2 desktop manager systems (Gnome and KDE). Gnome is the default. Other desktop managers can be installed and activated as well.

For a server, however, I don't recommend a windowing system at all. It will suck up at least 60MB of RAM and 98% of the users - which is to say everyone who talks to the server except for sysadmins - won't see any benefit worth mentioning (it can be tapped if you're generating graphics on web pages, but even there a GUI isn't essential).

One of my servers is an old P200 with only 98MB of RAM on it. To run that using a Gnome desktop would probably make it catch fire and burn to the ground. So I don't run X on it.

Whether or not X and a desktop manager (and GUI apps) get installed depends on which options you picked when you configured the server. Linux is very flexible that way.
 
Tim Holloway
Saloon Keeper
Posts: 26768
190
Android Eclipse IDE Tomcat Server Redhat Java Linux
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
BTW, on fedora:

rpm -qa | grep xorg

Will show if you have X installed

rpm -q gnome-desktop

Will show if the gnome-desktop is installed.

This is assuming that the system was configured off-the-rack using the vendor-supplied binary packages. I do know people who prefer to build everything from source code.
 
it's a teeny, tiny, wafer thin ad:
The Low Tech Laboratory Movie Kickstarter is LIVE NOW!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/paulwheaton/low-tech
reply
    Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic