How To Install Gnome on AlmaLinux 8

In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Gnome on AlmaLinux 8. For those of you who didn’t know, Most AlmaLinux servers are run on CLI (Command-Line Interface) mode. If you’ve chosen a minimal install but don’t want to be limited to just the command line, you can install the GNOME desktop environment in a few simple commands. In this case, we will use Gnome, the most popular user-friendly desktop for any UNIX-based system.

This article assumes you have at least basic knowledge of Linux, know how to use the shell, and most importantly, you host your site on your own VPS. The installation is quite simple and assumes you are running in the root account, if not you may need to add ‘sudo‘ to the commands to get root privileges. I will show you through the step-by-step installation of the Gnome GUI on an AlmaLinux 8.

Prerequisites

• A server running one of the following operating systems: AlmaLinux 8.
• It’s recommended that you use a fresh OS install to prevent any potential issues.
• A non-root sudo user or access to the root user. We recommend acting as a non-root sudo user, however, as you can harm your system if you’re not careful when acting as the root.

Install Gnome on AlmaLinux 8

Step 1. First, let’s start by ensuring your system is up-to-date.

sudo dnf update
sudo dnf install epel-release

Step 2. Installing Gnome on AlmaLinux 8.

Now we run the following command to install the Gnome GUI on your AlmaLinux system:

sudo dnf groupinstall "Server with GUI"

Once successfully installed, we can make GNOME start every time the system boots up by changing the default systemd target to use a graphical interface:

sudo systemctl set-default graphical

Output:

[root@idroot.us ~]# sudo systemctl set-default graphical
Removed /etc/systemd/system/default.target.
Created symlink /etc/systemd/system/default.target → /usr/lib/systemd/system/graphical.target.

Finally, reboot the system for all changes to take effect:

reboot

Congratulations! You have successfully installed Gnome. Thanks for using this tutorial for installing the Gnome GUI on your AlmaLinux 8 system. For additional help or useful information, we recommend you check the official Gnome website.