Install and change to other Desktops: Gnome, KDE, XFCE, LXDE, etc.

[kyrealtor]

I had set up a 512MB machine w/ Fedora 14 XFCE and added extra software (about 3-4 hours of downloads). Now I have upgraded RAM to 1GB, and I would prefer the Gnome desktop. Is it easier to:
1. Use a Fedora 14 Gnome install CD to do an upgrade?
2. Start over and reinstall Fedora 14 Gnome, and redownload extra software?
3. Install all of the Gnome software, and switch desktops (I will need instructions, please)?

BTW, I have done 6 or 7 Linux installs recently, and the best problem-free results were with Fedora Linux 14 32-bit Gnome and XFCE; hence no interest in other distributions or Fedora 15 (for now).
Thank you,
Richard

[jayd512]

Hi and Welcome!

You should be able to get it going by installing Gnome, and switching Desktops at the login screen.
Open a terminal, and execute (as root):

yum groupinstall "GNOME Desktop Environment"

log out, look for a "Session" button on your login screen. Select GNOME.

[kyrealtor]

In response to my Gnome Desktop question, jayd512 wrote:
Hi and Welcome!

You should be able to get it going by installing Gnome, and switching Desktops at the login screen.
Open a terminal, and execute (as root):

Code:
yum groupinstall "GNOME Desktop Environment"

log out, look for a "Session" button on your login screen. Select GNOME.
--------
Thanks Jay, as a new user to this forum but longtime user of other forums, I would welcome you or anyone to also post the code to install KDE, LXDE, XFCE so that our discussion will help others moderately new to Fedora Linux with installing the desktops.
Thanks again,
Richard

[oz]

anyone to also post the code to install KDE, LXDE, XFCE so that our discussion will help others moderately new to Fedora Linux with installing the desktops.

Hello and welcome!

The following should work for KDE:

yum groupinstall "KDE Desktop Environment"

...and for XFCE:

yum groupinstall XFCE

For LXDE, there's a wiki page that covers installation and a bit about configuring login managers:

Fedora - LXDE.org


Edit: if any of the above doesn't work, I believe you can still run yum grouplist to get a listing of groups that are available, but you might need to install yum-utils to make that work:

yum install yum-utils

[kyrealtor]

Jayd512 wrote:
...
log out, look for a "Session" button on your login screen. Select GNOME.
-----
The yum intalls for GNOME and KDE apparently went O.K., but I am not getting the "Session" button. Is there anything else we need to do to tweek the login screen?
BTW, something in the Fedora Add/Remove Software or the yum install resulted in me having a GNOME 2 desktop, but I have no idea how to switch to KDE, LXDE, or back to XCFE.

[MikeTbob]

Not to hijack your thread or anything but if you click the "reply with quote" button, it will copy and paste the quote for you.
Enjoy.

[jayd512]

The 'Session' button won't be visible until you select a user to login with.
For example, say you have 2 users. John and Dave.
When you boot up, your login screen has a box where you can click 'John' or 'Dave'.
Pick one, then look at the bottom of the screen. Do you see a 'Sessions' option?

[kyrealtor]

Yes, that worked. In fact, I had installed many of the other desktops from the Fedora Add/Remove Software Utility, and they are all selectable from the Session pull-down menu (which is in fact vistible only AFTER you select a screen name, but before actually logging in). Giving KDE a try now. It looks like Fedora Add/Remove Software, or the Ubuntu Software Center, should be able to load most of the desktops. The command lines in the previous replies should take care of Slackware and other programmer-oriented distributions. My questions are answered, but I will leave the thread open for now in case there are related Linux desktop questions.
Thanks for all replies,
Richard

[kyrealtor]

I'm not, sure why, but sometimes the above method does not work for KDE with Fedora 15, perhaps because the Yum grouplist has changed. Yum grouplist now gives:
KDE Software Compilation
KDE Software Development
Items with more than one word should be in quotes, such as:
yum groupinstall "KDE Software Compilation"
In many cases, using yum from the super-user command line is easier than the Fedora Packages List, and certainly faster than the Ubuntu Software Center.