Getting to the GUI

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1

I boot, login, and get a prompt. What’s the command to get to the GUI?

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2

What did you install and what do you get with systemctl get-default?

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3

Hi @davec51,

Probably you preformed a minimum install (by using the corresponding .iso image). The minimum install is just a basic running system (which doesn’t contain any GUI) and should be further adapted to your needs.

If you wish GUI, it’s very simple:
as root, run:

dnf grouplist

which lists the groups of packages, each one oriented towards a specific role.
You probably wish to install:

dnf group install "Server with GUI"

and also (if you feel more comfortable than dealing with the command prompt)

dnf group install "Graphical Administration Tools"

Reboot the machine after the installation process finished.

Regards,
Bogdan

Later edit: avoid at this moment to install “KDE (K Desktop Environment)” (from epel), because the packages are not yet rebuilt for Alma Linux 8.5; check this post

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Thanks for the fast response. I installed the minimal version; I’m now told it doesn’t have any GUI. I’ll try installing the full version (a ten gig iso – wow!) and see if that works.

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5

Thanks for your reply. I tried the commands you suggested, but I got the responses (here shortened) “couldn’t resolve hostname” and “failed to download metadata for repo baseos.” I’m going to try to install the full version and see what happens. A ten-gig iso is daunting, but I’ll try.

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6

@davec51 Do not download the big ISO yet!

If you did install minimal from local media, then network probably was not enabled by default.
What do you see with:

nmcli d s
nmcli c s

It is possible to enable networking and then install those additional packages. Smaller download than the whole ISO.

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7

That happens because you don’t have internet access on your freshly installed machine. We may have 2 scenarios here:

  1. network card not configured during install: see this video; at 1:15 please notice the network configuration; it’s important to switch on the network (the name of the network card -enp3s0- may differ in your case) for subsequently download and install the package groups
  2. isolated machine (no physical internet connection). Obviously, for this case you use the large install .iso and select the package groups during installation (steps 14 and 15 from this tutorial)

I hope you don’t use a mobile 3G/4G connection to download :slight_smile: You can download it relatively fast on a cable connection using a mirror server near you; select it from this list.

Otherwise, you see… “size doesn’t matter” :blush: ; use it just as any ordinary .iso file: prepare a usb stick (that should be large enough to accommodate it) and boot the install.

If you think you may encounter downloading errors (bytes corrupted) you have a tool to verify this (the SHA256 control sum of the .iso file you just downloaded): get the CHECKSUM file you find under the .iso images links; it’s a text file (you may wish to append a .txt suffix to its name if you download it in windows) and read the content. Check now the sha256sum of the .iso file you just downloaded as described here. Compare the last 4 digits of the sha256sum of your .iso file with what is mentioned in the CHECKSUM file above.

Good luck !

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Thanks again to those who jumped in to help. I have been a Linux user almost since its inception, but I’m no a hobbyist and I have never been comfortable with the command line.
I installed the full version of Alma Linux – I’m using it now – and it seems to be working well. I’m surprised at how few programs there are for so large an iso, and I’m disappointed that the installation didn’t find all my Linux versions for its bootloader. Other than that, I like what I see so far.

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