How to Install Desktop Environments on CentOS 7

In this article, we look at installing different desktop environments on Centos 7 minimal installation. This is for the GUI  lovers who love exploring the look and feel of  GUI environments.

We have installed GNOME, KDE, Cinnamon, Mate and Xfce desktop environments.

Installing GNOME Desktop environment

GNOME is the most popular environment in the latest distributions of Linux. It's the default environment in CentOS 7 GUI, Fedora 21 and later and Ubuntu 17.10.

To install GNOME Desktop run the following commands.

# yum -y groups install "GNOME Desktop

After the installation run the command below to start the GNOME environment

startx

The GNOME environment will start thereafter. After a reboot, The GNOME setup will prompt you to set up the following parameters.

• System Language
• Keyboard type
• System Language
• Online Accounts
• System Language

Finally, click on Start using CentOs 7. The default GNOME Desktop is the GNOME Classic. If you prefer to use the GNOME shell, type the following command before the startx command.

echo "exec gnome-session" >> ~/.xinitrc

startx

Alternatively, after a reboot, you can select your preferred environment at the login screen.

Installing KDE Desktop environment

To install the KDE desktop environment, run the following commands.

# yum -y groups install "KDE Plasma Workspaces"

After the installation completes, run the commands below

# echo "exec startkde" >> ~/.xinitrc

startx

Installing Cinnamon Desktop environment

For installation of a Cinnamon environment, install EPEL repo

yum -y install epel-release

then type the following commands

# yum --enablerepo=epel -y install cinnamon*

When the installation concludes, type,

# echo "exec /usr/bin/cinnamon-session" >> ~/.xinitrc

# startx

Installing MATE Desktop environment

To install MATE, type the following

# yum --enablerepo=epel -y groups install "MATE Desktop"

Run the commands below after the installation finishes

# echo "exec /usr/bin/mate-session" >> ~/.xinitrc

startx

Installing Xfce Desktop environment

Install the xfce environment by running the command below

# yum --enablerepo=epel -y groups install "Xfce"

After installation, input the commands below

echo "exec /usr/bin/xfce4-session" >> ~/.xinitrc

startx

Installing i3 Windows manager environment

i3 is a tiling windows manager which is versatile and supports tiling, stacking and tabbing layouts. It's low on resource consumption, highly customizable and does not require high-end hardware. Let's see how to install i3 on centos 7

Installation

yum --enablerepo=extras install epel-release

Then run

yum install i3

Graphics setting up for Systemd

Systemd can be used to change run levels to achieve a graphical interface. To check the target you are in, run the command below.

systemctl get-default

Sample Output

multi-user.target

Changing to graphical

To change to a graphical output type the command below

systemctl set-default graphical.target

If constantly working in a minimal environment get's too boring, you can explore the wide variety of desktop environments that CentOS 7 has to offer. Feel free to share your experience with different environments,  and opinions with us.