If you are using the command-line interface Rocky Linux 8 minimal or standard version, then here are the steps to install the Xfce4 desktop environment on it…
RockyLinux full DVD ISO comes with few Desktop environment options such as Gnome and KDE, however, if you are using minimal server ISO with CLI interface then you need to install one manually. Graphical desktop environments allow users to easily operate various things easily. But as we know Gnome and KDE are heavy on hardware resources as compared to XFCE one, thus here we let you know how to install Xfce on Rocky Linux to enjoy GUI without putting much strain on your computer or server resources.
Xfce Desktop Environment installation on Rocky Linux 8
As Rocky Linux is based on RHEL 8 just like CentOS thus, the command given here will work on them as well including AlmaLinux.
1. Run system update
To flush the system cache and rebuild it again, first run the system update command-
dnf update
2. Install Epel Repo
The packages to install Xfce are available in the “Extra for Enterprise Linux” thus enable it first using the below-given command-
dnf install epel-release
And enable EPEL group
dnf --enablerepo=epel group
3. Check Xfce package in Group
Let’s check whether the package to install the Xfce desktop environment is available in the group to install or not. Simply type
dnf group list
4. Command to install Xfce Desktop on Rock Linux
Finally, here is the command that will install Xfce and Xorg server on CLI running Rocky Linux to provide a graphical user interface.
dnf groupinstall "Xfce" "base-x"
5. Set Graphical system to start automatically
Finally, to start the Rocky Linux every time in GUI, we have set the default target system to graphical.
echo "exec /usr/bin/xfce4-session" >> ~/.xinitrc systemctl set-default graphical
6. Reboot and log in
Now, type reboot to restart the system-
reboot
Here is the login window…
