CentOS: Enable CentOS GNOME Desktop

Mostly the CentOS servers that I am using is run on CLI (Command-Line Interface) mode. But in some cases, I need to have a desktop to install some applications with GUI (Grapich User Interface) mode. In this case, I will use GNOME, the most popular user-friendly desktop for any UNIX based system.

Variable that I used as below:

OS: CentOS 6.2 64bit
Desktop environment: GNOME

1. Using yum, we will need to install X Windows System  as the based for GUI and rich input device capability:

$ yum groupinstall -y 'X Window System'

2. Only then we can install GNOME desktop environment on top of it:

$ yum groupinstall -y 'Desktop'

3. Since previously the server is running on CLI mode, we need to change some value to tell CentOS to boot up in the GUI mode. Open /etc/inittab via text editor and change following line:

id:3:initdefault:

To:

id:5:initdefault:

4. Start the GUI:

$ init 5

Note: 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

If you want to start the desktop from CLI console (not SSH session), use following command:

$ startx

In some cases, when you login into the system via GUI, you will see some kind of weird boxes replacing the fonts. You can overcome this problem by installing fonts group via yum:

$ yum groupinstall -y fonts