Adding a graphical interface
Some users install Fedora Server Edition and then manually add a graphical user interface. Sometimes it is a matter of more convenient administration of a locally accessible server, sometimes it is a kind of off-label use, and desire for a server hardened runtime environment as a workstation with special requirements.
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Determine available graphical desktops
To get an overview of available graphical user interfaces, simply list all installation groups and search through them. Unfortunately, the current naming is not consistent enough to allow a simple filtering by term.
[…]# dnf group list
You will find
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KDE Plasma Workspaces
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Xfce Desktop (@xfce-desktop-environment)
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LXDE Desktop
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LXQt-Desktop
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Cinnamon Desktop
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MATE Desktop
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Sugar Desktop Environment
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Deepin Desktop
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i3 desktop
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Pantheon Desktop
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Installation of a graphical desktop
You may either use the groups pretty name as shown in the group listing or the canonical name. As an example, to install the Cinnamon desktop you can use either use
[…]# dnf groupinstall "Cinnamon Desktop"
or
[…]# dnf install @cinnamon-desktop-environment
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Adjustment of systemd to start in graphic mode
To boot into graphical mode by default, you have to adjust the default target.
[…]# systemctl set-default graphical.target
With some desktop you may also need:
[…]# systemctl enable gdm.service
Try it, but you may get a "Service not found" message with some desktops. No need to worry, the installed desktop will come up without that.
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Reboot your server
[…]# reboot
Your system will start with the selected graphical desktop.
Additional options
You may install multiple desktops. The utilities switchdesk
and switchdesk-gui
can be used to switch the desktop GUI.
[…]# dnf install switchdesk switchdesk-gui
In a terminal window, you can directly switch to another desktop:
[…]# switchdesk cinnamon
Without naming the new desktop, a window with the available options will be displayed.
The graphical Desktop Switcher
is included in the Systemadministration menu group. It always displayx a list of available desktops you can choose from.
You can switch back to booting to a text console:
[…]# systemctl set-default multi-user.target
[…]# reboot
After having switched back into text mode, you can switch to the selected desktop just for the current session using
[…]# startx
However, this does not work flawlessly for every available desktop.
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