Minimal packages to run GNOME

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The package list here, was tested on CENTOS 5.5 x86_64. There are two methods to do this.

  • YUM method, if you already have a working yum repository available.
  • RPM method, if you do not have a yum repository.

YUM method

You can use the "yum groupinstall" command to get it done, but it will install a lot of unnecessary RPMs. Better to install the following key packages. Their dependencies will automatically be pulled by yum.

There is already a yum repository configured in default system installation, which checks for media in any of the following: /media, /media/cdrom or /media/CentOS . Just mount your CentOS CD/DVD on /media/cdrom. 

# mkdir /media/cdrom
# mount /dev/cdrom /media/cdrom/


The following will give you a fully functional GNOME core desktop: 

# yum --disablerepo=\* --enablerepo=c5-media install \
  gnome-session system-config-display xorg-x11-xinit gdm \
  dbus-x11 gnome-applets

The following will add few basic GNOME utilities / tools: 

# yum --disablerepo=\* --enablerepo=c5-media install \
  gnome-terminal nautilus gedit firefox.x86_64

Note: Notice the use of a trailing ".x86_64" with firefox. On a 64 bit platform (OS), if you do not use this extension (architecture information) with firefox, yum will install the i386 version of firefox as well. This is not bad alone. The bad part is that the i386 version of firefox needs a lot of other i386 packages, which are in-fact not needed at all on a 64 bit system.

RPM method

Very painful! All packages need to be installed by hand.

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