RHEL 8 Minimum Install GNOME Desktop

Linux Desktops
1

Hey Everyone!

I’m setting up a new RHEL 8 machine with only the minimum core functionality. The only utilities I need are gedit and ssh but I also want it to boot into a graphical environment for easy use. I know when you first install RHEL 8 you can select the ‘Workstation with Desktop’ environment but I noticed that this configuration contains a bunch of JUNK packages I don’t want (i.e. google, adobe, yelp, poppler, mozilla etc.) My next thought was to just start with the Minimum Installation and then add GNOME/X Windows afterward, but when i do # yum groupinstall gnome-desktop it will still lump these unwanted packages in with the rest.

Here’s my question: Is GNOME desktop now dependent on all this mess in RHEL 8? How can I get a true minimum installation to boot into a graphical without all the bloat?

Thanks

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Hi Froggy,

Welcome to our forums.

To answer your question: no, Gnome desktop isn’t depend on all those packages. The package group is created in order to provide an environment for common use - an average user may need those stuff in every day usage. So the groupinstall command you mentioned will install all those stuff, but you are free to install only what you need. But in order to leave those additional packages out, you’ll have to install the GUI without the package group (or updates will reinstall everything).

To get a simple GUI that doesn’t eat as much resources as Gnome, check out our guide on vnc server for RHEL 8. You don’t need to use exactly that, but I guess you’ll get the idea.

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