Topic: [ANNOUNCE] KDE or Gnome on SME 7.0rc2 HOWTO

[ldkeen]

This document describes the procedure to install and configure either KDE or Gnome GUI on SME Server 7.0rc2. **WARNING** Most people would highly advise against doing this, however we have a specific purpose for doing this and as such have documented the procedure for future reference. It is your responsibility to investigate fully the security implications involved in following this procedure. This has only been tested to boot stage - no other services have been tested as of the writing of this document. As usual all care taken but no responsibility accepted.

Step 1. Perform a clean install of SME Sever 7.0rc2

Note: Step 2 involves copying the first 2 discs of CentOS 4.3 distribution onto your hard drive and setting up a local yum repository. The total size of the install for KDE is approximately 170MB, if you have a generous ISP then you can bypass step 2 completely and install from the internet.

Step 2. Obtain CentOS 4.3 installation discs 1 & 2 and copy to your hard drive.

#mkdir -p /tmp/yum-local-repo/RPMS
#cd /tmp/yum-local-repo/RPMS
Insert CentOS 4.3 Disc 1
#mount /media/cdrecorder
#rpm -Uvh /media/cdrecorder/CentOS/RPMS/createrepo-0.4.3-1.noarch.rpm
#cp /media/cdrecorder/yumgroups.xml .
#cp /media/cdrecorder/CentOS/RPMS/* .
(Note the period or full-stop at the end of the line is important)
Repeat for the other 3 Cd's
Insert CentOS 4.3 Disc 2
#mount /media/cdrecorder
#cp /media/cdrecorder/CentOS/RPMS/* .

#mcedit /etc/yum.repos.d/local.repo
and add the following:

[local]
name=CentOS 4.3 CD-Rom Install
baseurl=file:///tmp/yum-local-repo/RPMS

Now lets setup the local repo
#createrepo -g yumgroups.xml /tmp/yum-local-repo/RPMS

With over 700 packages this may take some time, after completion make sure the yum groups is working OK.

#yum --disablerepo=* --enablerepo=local grouplist

Yum should display a list of available groups, if not go back and check all the settings. Now you should be able to install either KDE or GNOME - take your pick.

For KDE use the following:
#yum --disablerepo=* --enablerepo=local groupinstall "KDE (K Desktop Environment)"

If you prefer GNOME use this:
#yum --disablerepo=* --enablerepo=local groupinstall "GNOME Desktop Environment"

Step 3. Setup GUI to boot on start-up.

Prior to rebooting we need to setup a few things to make sure X boots up properly:

Start up the X Font Server
#/etc/rc.d/init.d/xfs start
Configure the mouse
#system-config-mouse
Now configure the display
#system-config-display (then follow the prompts and click OK to create the configuration file located in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.)

Make sure the X Font Server starts up in run level 7
#cp /etc/rc.d/rc5.d/S90xfs /etc/rc.d/rc7.d/

Install a display manager to handle logins
#mkdir -p /etc/e-smith/templates-custom/etc/inittab
#mcedit /etc/e-smith/templates-custom/etc/inittab/92dm
And add the following to this file:

#Install Display Manager
x:7:respawn:/usr/bin/kdm -nodaemon

Expand the template:
#/sbin/e-smith/expand-template /etc/inittab

Standard users logins are disabled in smeserver so we need to install a third party contrib to allow user shell access so that authorised users are able to login.
#rpm -Uvh http://mirror.contribs.org/smeserver/contribs/dungog/packages/smeserver/7.0/i386/RPMS.dungog/smeserver-remoteuseraccess-1.2-2.noarch.rpm

After installing this contrib you will need to login to the server-manager and modify the default shell for any users that will require login from /bin/rssh to /bin/bash.

You can now reboot the system and you should be presented with a kdm login screen.

Regards Lloyd

[MSmith]

This is fun and all but ... why would you want to do this?  Why wouldn't you just install CentOS?

[ldkeen]

MSmith,

why would you want to do this?

Well there are some people around, that, for varying reasons (financial, environmental etc) think it's crazy to have one computer setup as a workstation, then another one sitting next to it running as a server. Why not have the one box that does both. (Yes, it's true, there are even MORE people around that think this philosphy is doomed to failure.)
 

Why wouldn't you just install CentOS?

With all due respect, smeserver and CentOS are two completely different distributions that have a lot in common, however, CentOS lacks the advanced configuration tools that have been meticulously built into smeserver. It's a lot easier to put a desktop on smeserver than it is to configure CentOS to run like smeserver (which has already been done).
Regards Lloyd

[duncan]

This is fun and all but ... why would you want to do this?  Why wouldn't you just install CentOS?

Because he can.

I run one of my sme boxes with MythTV on it. Bulletproof.

[Franco]

Duncan,
Sorry for getting off-topic but private messages are not allowed here  
What board are you using for your MythTV?

[MSmith]

"Because he can" seems to be the most reasonable answer of all.  Or maybe I'm just too stupid to see how it profits anybody to go to such great lengths to put back something that was painstakingly removed for good reasons by the developers.  As for configuration goodies ... isn't Webmin fancy enough, on CentOS?  

As for MythTV, I have been running it with absolutely no troubles whatsoever (knock wood, rub lucky rabbit's foot, etc.) with Myth version 0.18.1 on top of Fedora Core 2 on a Shuttle SN41G2 for about a year and a half now (0.18.1 was a painless upgrade from the original 0.16).  MythTV absolutely rules and LIRC likes my $15 universal remote so there's a VERY high WAF ("Wife Acceptance Factor").  I use a (non-free) program called VideoReDo to pull the shows directly from the video store directory, edit to remove commercials and write an MPEG file to one of my Windows boxes, thence via NeroVision Express to DVD.

[duncan]

Duncan,
Sorry for getting off-topic but private messages are not allowed here  
What board are you using for your MythTV?

Its an MSI board with a nvidia chipset. Go with the nvidia stuff. The drivers work and the network adaptor is supported in the 2.6 kernel. AMD processor.

[kruhm]

"Because it was there" may be good enough for Mt Everest but when it comes to production systems it would be a good idea to put a little more thought into the direction the project needs to go.

"Why not have the one box that does both."
When they lose all their data because people were messing around with the system just "because it was there" they will certainly understand why.

Good production servers are designed without a GUI for very good reasons. I'm sure anyone who tries this for any extended period of time will soon find out why.

I like the creativity of the whole idea. If you are going to try this at home just to mess around with it as a hobby then OK. Production systems, no way.

[duncan]

Umm - These are our machines and we can do as we please with them. If you have a problem installing X on your machines - dont do it.

Every time a thread like this one comes up - we get the predictable "geez you shouldnt do that" responses.

Now most people are not interested in installing KDE on their server - but a few may be - and here is their howto.

[ldkeen]

isn't Webmin fancy enough, on CentOS?

NO. He wants to install smeserver - not CentOS or Mandriva or even WIN2Kserver. He has one computer and wants to run smeserver. The only other option as far as I can see is to install Ubuntu and run smeserver as a virtual machine, which we'll probably test over the next couple of weeks and determine which is the best option.

When they lose all their data because people were messing around with the system just "because it was there" they will certainly understand why.

FTR, root logins are disabled using the above procedure. You are only able to login as a standard user, so yes, the person that was able to follow this procedure **MIGHT** accidently delete their home directory but I'd rather have money on a windoze user deleting data on a network drive any day.

Good production servers are designed without a GUI

Not true. Both RHEL AS and ES servers run desktops. Have a read of this http://www.redhat.com/rhel/details/faq/#5 for more info on why Red Hat would do such a "stupid" thing. I'd be the last person to praise M$ but according to this article http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1930217,00.asp windows and UNIX held roughly the same market share and last time I looked, WIN2Kserver also has a pretty little GUI. What you probably meant to say was that most people don't use their production server as a workstation and I agree 100% with you there.
Like Duncan said  - if you dont want to do it - DONT. But don't be so one dimensional that you can't see a reason why someone else may want to do it.
Regards Lloyd

[kruhm]

Calm down. I'm not scolding or trying to start WWIII here. I'm just talking about sme -something I like to do. And I think you bring up a very good topic -GUI on a server.

You're right, they are your servers; do with them whatever you want to. Nobody said you couldn't.

Like I said, I like the creativity of the whole thing.

Some may like a little more security. They would hate to see the whole company shut down because of a coffee spill. Or see it shut down because of a corrupt file system that happened when the user decided to unplug and replug the server because they didn't know what else to do. Or when they unplugged the power cord reaching for something behind the box. Or when the cleaning crew slammed the vacuum into the box. etc. etc.

I suppose we agree to disagree on good production servers designed with/without a GUI (which I meant to say). Netware didn't do it. SME/Mitel didn't do it. AFAIK, RH never intended for it to be run that way-it just creeped in.  

MS did it (but I did qualify by saying "good production servers" didn't I?)However, it's interesting to note that in the newest versions of MS servers, they push REMOTE ADMIN via RDP and admin tool pack. They even put a link on the server config when you start the server for the first time.

GUI's aren't included because of:
-security.
-processing power. Why waste power on processing video, one of the most taskful processes a computer has. Save it for other processes.

The question is: What's best? You can do many things, especially today, but what's best to do? Market share has nothing to do with what's best to do.

On another note, can you put the HOWTO in the DOCUMENTATION and link it to the CONTRIBS section.

Keep us up-to-date on how it's working.

Thanks and best regards

[CharlieBrady]

Every time a thread like this one comes up - we get the predictable "geez you shouldnt do that" responses.

For good reason.

[Franco]

if you have a generous ISP then you can bypass step 2 completely and install from the internet.

I'm assuming via Yum, what repo should I enable for that?
I rather download the 170megs instead of the 2 CD's

[Edit]
I enabled base and addons and it has worked for me

Thanks,

[Franco]

Its an MSI board with a nvidia chipset. Go with the nvidia stuff. The drivers work and the network adaptor is supported in the 2.6 kernel. AMD processor.

Duncan,
Installing Myth on SME, how hard would it be?
Can you share some information?
I found your site with a how-to (incomplete but nice).

[Edit] Got it working!
Had to set the repositories to atrpms and dag, yum install mythtv-suite

Thanks,

[duncan]

[Edit] Got it working!
Had to set the repositories to atrpms and dag, yum install mythtv-suite

Thanks,

Good stuff. Just redoing mine here with a full Gnome install.

Personally I think SME makes a great distro for Mythtv. Apache and mysql working out of the box is one less thing to worry about and having samba helps as well.

If you are simply booting into mythtv - you can add this line to inittab

Code: [Select]

x:7:respawn:/sbin/mingetty --autologin=mythtv tty7

nano /home/e-smith/files/users/mythtv/.bash_profile and add

Code: [Select]

if [ -z "$DISPLAY" ] && [ $(tty) == /dev/tty7 ]; then
while [ 1 == 1 ]
     do
          startx
          sleep 10
     done
fi

to bypass GDM.