How to convert command mode to graphical mode in centos 6

    How to convert command mode to graphical mode in centos 6


CentOS 6

In this section, the GNOME desktop will be added to a new server running CentOS 6.2 (x86_64) after performing a "Minimal" install.

Install Desktop Packages

# yum -y groupinstall "Desktop" "Desktop Platform" "X Window System" "Fonts"
 
You can also install the following optional GUI packages.


# yum -y groupinstall "Graphical Administration Tools"

# yum -y groupinstall "Internet Browser"

# yum -y groupinstall "General Purpose Desktop"

# yum -y groupinstall "Office Suite and Productivity"

# yum -y groupinstall "Graphics Creation Tools"
 
Finally, if you wanted to add the K Desktop Environment (KDE).


# yum -y groupinstall kde-desktop
When using yum groupinstall, the groupinstall option only installs default and mandatory packages from the group. There are times when you also want to include optional packages within a group. I have not figured out (yet) how to control which package types to install (group package "policy") from the command-line using yum. The only method I know of to also include optional packages is to edit the /etc/yum.conf file and add the following to the [main] section:


group_package_types=default mandatory optional
The reason I mention this is because I wanted to install "Terminal emulator for the X Window System" (xterm) which is under the group "Legacy X Window System compatibility". xterm happens to be an optional package and did not get installed until I added group_package_types=default mandatory optional to /etc/yum.conf.


# yum -y groupinstall "Legacy X Window System compatibility"
I did find a plug-in for yum that allows users to specify which package types within a package group should be installed when using yum groupinstall.


Enable GNOME

Since the server was previously running on CLI mode, we need to change the initialization process for the machine to boot up in GUI mode.

Open /etc/inittab using a text editor and change following line:

id:3:initdefault:
to
id:5:initdefault:
After making the change, reboot the machine.


# init 6
Note that you can switch from GUI to CLI mode manually by using following method:

GUI to CLI: Ctrl + Alt + F6
CLI to GUI: Ctrl + Alt + F1
Installing Additional Applications

After logging in to the GNOME Desktop, you can now go to System > Administration > Add/Remove Software to manage application in CentOS.



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