Ubuntu 6.10 - How to Have a Minimal Graphical Desktop
The desktop installation of Ubuntu is touted as a complete Linux-based operating system, and includes many of the major applications. Indeed, Firefox, OpenOffice.org, Gaim, GIMP, and the Totem Movie Player are just some of the applications that come pre-installed if you used the desktop CD.
The downside of this is that if you have an older system with limited resources (memory, hard disk space, etc.), you may not want to have all of those applications pre-installed. One way around this is to manually un-install those applications that you do not want. However, that can be quite a pain if you intend to remove more than a few of them, and if you are really THAT low on hard disk space, you will not be able to get the desktop installation done in the first place.
The alternative is to start with a minimal graphical desktop and almost none of the applications installed. You then have the flexibility to add an application only as and when you need it. We will explore the two steps needed to achieve this.
1. Download the server install CD (instead of the desktop CD), and install from that.
One thing to note is that the server install CD functions differently from the desktop CD. The server install CD does not function as a live CD, so do not expect to boot to a graphical desktop to do the installation. The installation procedure is purely text-based, but otherwise, it is quite straightforward and should take a much shorter time than installing with the desktop CD (less packages to install).
2. Install the packages necessary for a graphical GNOME desktop.
When you boot into the system after you complete step one, all you will get is a text-based system. If you are used to the graphical desktop, this may be a little disconcerting, but do hang in there! The next step is to use apt-get to install the packages necessary for a graphical GNOME desktop.
The packages that you will need are:
The packages listed here are related to the X window system and the GNOME desktop environment, with the exception of nautilus, which is a graphical file manager, and synaptic, which is an application that makes it easier for you to install other applications and packages in future (sort of like a graphical front-end to apt-get).
In a nutshell, the two commands you will have to run from the command line (either as root, or using sudo) areapt-get update
andapt-get install gdm gnome-applets gnome-control-center gnome-icon-theme gnome-menus gnome-panel gnome-session gnome-terminal menu metacity nautilus synaptic x-window-system-core
Once that is done, reboot, and you should get a graphical log in prompt this time.
There you have it. A graphical desktop installation for Ubuntu without all the heavy applications.
Reference:
Ubuntu Web Forum: What Packages Needed for Basic Installation + GNOME
4 comments:
ok if you are going to have a minimal desktop why would you install gnome not fluxbox or xfce
isn't fluxbox technically a desk shell, like enlightenment?
I think the main difference is that the desktop functions like a folder, but there is probably more to it than that
you might also need to install bonobo:
apt-get install bonobo
I've read that it is good to get the generic kernel instead of the server one if you chose to add the desktop.
I did,
sudo apt-get install linux-headers-generi linux-restricted-modules-generic linux-headers-generic
That seems to have worked for me to get the new kernel. Then I proceded with these instructions.
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