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If you chose CentOS 8 / RHEL 8 to be installed as a minimal server at the time of installation, you would only get a command-line mode. To get a graphical mode, you would need to install GNOME desktop packages on CentOS 8 / Redhat Enterprise Linux 8.
READ: Step by Step Guide To Install CentOS 8 with Screenshots
READ: Step by Step Guide To Install RHEL 8 with Screenshots
This guide will help you to install GNOME GUI on RHEL 8 on the top of the minimal server installation.
I recommend you to configure a local YUM repository for faster installation.
READ: How To Configure the YUM repository using DVD on CentOS 8 / RHEL 8
First, list down the available package groups for CentOS 8 / RHEL 8.
yum group list
Output:
Available Environment Groups:
Server with GUI
Server
Workstation
Virtualization Host
Custom Operating System
Installed Environment Groups:
Minimal Install
Available Groups:
Container Management
.NET Core Development
RPM Development Tools
Smart Card Support
Development Tools
Graphical Administration Tools
Headless Management
Legacy UNIX Compatibility
Network Servers
Scientific Support
Security Tools
System Tools
Install Gnome GUI using the YUM command.
yum groupinstall "Server with GUI"
Output:
. . .
. . .
udisks2-iscsi x86_64 2.8.0-2.el8 LocalRepo_AppStream 45 k
udisks2-lvm2 x86_64 2.8.0-2.el8 LocalRepo_AppStream 68 k
webkit2gtk3-plugin-process-gtk2 x86_64 2.22.6-1.el8 LocalRepo_AppStream 11 M
adcli x86_64 0.8.2-2.el8 LocalRepo_BaseOS 102 k
p11-kit-server x86_64 0.23.14-4.el8 LocalRepo_BaseOS 237 k
sssd-proxy x86_64 2.0.0-43.el8 LocalRepo_BaseOS 122 k
Enabling module streams:
container-tools rhel8
llvm-toolset rhel8
perl-DBD-SQLite 1.58
perl-DBI 1.641
python36 3.6
virt rhel
Installing Environment Groups:
Server with GUI
Installing Groups:
Container Management
Core
Fonts
GNOME
Guest Desktop Agents
Hardware Monitoring Utilities
Hardware Support
Headless Management
Internet Browser
Multimedia
Common NetworkManager submodules
Printing Client
Server product core
Standard
Transaction Summary
=======================================================================================================
Install 916 Packages
Total size: 755 M
Installed size: 2.3 G
Is this ok [y/N]: y
Downloading Packages:
Running transaction check
Transaction check succeeded.
Running transaction test
Transaction test succeeded.
Running transaction
Running scriptlet: kmod-kvdo-6.2.0.293-50.el8.x86_64 1/1
Preparing : 1/1
Installing : gdk-pixbuf2-2.36.12-2.el8.x86_64 1/916
Running scriptlet: gdk-pixbuf2-2.36.12-2.el8.x86_64 1/916
Installing : atk-2.28.1-1.el8.x86_64 2/916
Installing : fontpackages-filesystem-1.44-22.el8.noarch 3/916
Installing : perl-Exporter-5.72-396.el8.noarch 4/916
Installing : perl-libs-4:5.26.3-416.el8.x86_64 [=================================== ] 5/916
. . .
. . .
tpm2-tools-3.1.1-4.el8.x86_64
tpm2-tss-2.0.0-4.el8.x86_64
usb_modeswitch-data-20170806-2.el8.noarch
userspace-rcu-0.10.1-2.el8.x86_64
wpa_supplicant-1:2.7-1.el8.x86_64
xml-common-0.6.3-50.el8.noarch
xmlrpc-c-1.51.0-5.el8.x86_64
xmlrpc-c-client-1.51.0-5.el8.x86_64
Complete!
Issue the following command to enable the GUI as default so that the system will boot into graphical mode.
systemctl set-default graphical
Output:
Removed /etc/systemd/system/default.target. Created symlink /etc/systemd/system/default.target → /usr/lib/systemd/system/graphical.target.
Reboot the system to boot into the graphical mode.
reboot
Post server reboot, login with your user account.
CentOS 8 login screen:
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RHEL 8 login screen:
CentOS 8 desktop will look like below:
RHEL 8 desktop will look like below:
CentOS 8 System Information:
RHEL 8 System Information:
That’s All. You have successfully installed GNOME GUI on CentOS 8 / RHEL 8.