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Install Desktop over Ubuntu 16.04 server

Dear Experts.

I installed Ubuntu-server 16.04 64 bit inside of the VirtualBox.
I am adding "minimal" GUI over it. I need Gnome 2.
I did two experiments.

1. sudo apt-get install ubuntu-gnome-desktop
      This created apparently very slow VM. Perhaps due "bloated" GUI.
      This seems not acceptible.

2. sudo apt-get install gnome-session-flashback
      There were no errors, but graphical logon does not appear: only shell logon
      appears after the boot.
      What must I do to make X-window logon default at boot?
      Do I must install these too?:

            sudo apt-get install gnome-desktop-environment –no-install-recommends
            sudo apt-get install gnome-panel gnome-flashback gnome-session-flashback \ indicator-applet-appmenu
            dpkg-reconfigure gdm? ?

Details:
      130Gig Windows partition on SSHD.

      My laptop is
      Acer Aspire E 15 E5-575G-76YK
      Windows 10 Home 64-bit Edition
6th Generation Intel Core i7-6500U Processor (Up to 3.1GHz)
15.6-inch Full HD Display, NVIDIA GeForce 940MX with 2GB DDR5 VRAM
8GB DDR4 Memory, 256GB SSD; Memory Speed - 2133 MHz

The purpose is not the server productivity, but full combination of server and effective-for-development-work GUI.

Thank you.

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

Peter Hutchison

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Bitlab

ASKER

Thank you.

1.
After running
"sudo apt-get install ubuntu-gnome-desktop"
I don't have to run startx at all.
The graphical login screen appears itself.

Why do I have to run startx after making installation as
"sudo apt-get install gnome-session-flashback"
?
First, startx does not exist in the system, I need "apt install ... " it.
Second, startx does need ? some tune up.
It seems that these "obstacles" redundant when installing simple gnome shell: see the picture ...

2.
xinit gnome
fails with error like: cannot connect to X server
why gnome-session-flashbak does not take care about X server?

Thank you.
VirtualBox_gubu_15_11_2016_23_09_32.png

Peter Hutchison

1. Very good, that package must include the startX load routines for the desktop, so there is no need to manually run startx when you login. For production, you can install the desktop system but not necessarily need to load it up during general running, so a manual startx would be preferred to reduce memory usage.
2. Tuning startup can be done via various System Preferences, such as setting the desktop resolution, the use of virtual windows and other features. Also, having the correct graphics drivers helps. It depends on the distro and which desktop manager installed.
3. You only need to run xinit, if startx command does not work. Depends on the Linux distro.