Set up Gnome Desktop on Rocky Linux 9: Easy Setup Guide

In this guide, we intend to teach you how to Set up Gnome Desktop on Rocky Linux 9. Gnome is a popular, free, and open-source desktop environment that is used for most Linux distributions. The easiest way to install Gnome on Roxky Linux 9 is to use the “Server with GUI“ group. Follow the rest of the article on the Orcacore website to complete your Gnome setup on your server.

How To Set up Gnome Desktop on Rocky Linux 9?

To Set up Gnome Desktop on Rocky Linux 9, you must have access to your server as a non-root user with sudo privileges. To do this, you can visit this guide on Initial Server Setup with Rocky Linux 9.

Then, follow the steps below to Set up Gnome Desktop on Rocky Linux 9.

Step 1 – Available Environment Groups on Rocky Linux 9

First, you need to run the system update by using the following command:

sudo dnf update -y

By default, the packages you need to install the Gnome Desktop environment are available in the default Rocky Linux repository.

You can search what are the available groups with the following command:

sudo dnf group list

Output
Available Environment Groups:
   Server with GUI
   Server
   Workstation
   Custom Operating System
   Virtualization Host
...

From the output, you will see a list of a couple of groups to install on your Linux system. The “Server with GUI“ group will be used to install the stable version of Gnome on your server. 

Step 2 – Install Server With GUI Gnome on Rocky Linux 9

At this point, you can simply run the command below to Set up Gnome Desktop on Rocky Linux 9:

sudo dnf groupinstall "Server with GUI"

This will take some time to complete.

Step 3 – Set Graphical Interface on Rocky Linux 9

At this point, you need to use the following command to set the graphical interface instead of the command line interface. To do this, you can use the following command:

sudo systemctl set-default graphical.target

Output
Removed /etc/systemd/system/default.target.
Created symlink /etc/systemd/system/default.target → /usr/lib/systemd/system/graphical.target.

Finally, reboot your server and you will see the Gnome Graphical login instead of the command line:

reboot

That’s it, you are done. Once you log back you have your Gnome Desktop on Rocky Linux 9.

Conclusion

At this point, you have learned to Set up a Gnome desktop environment on Rocky Linux 9 by using the “Server with GUI“ group that has the latest stable Gnome. And set the graphical target instead of the command line.

By following a few simple steps to install the GNOME Desktop packages, configuring the graphical target, and enabling GNOME at startup, users can transform Rocky Linux 9 into a flexible and visually appealing workstation.

GNOME’s rich features and customization options make it an excellent choice for both productivity and general use. This setup provides Rocky Linux users with the familiar GNOME experience while benefiting from Rocky’s stability and enterprise-grade reliability.

Hope you enjoy it. You may be interested in these articles:

Quick Setup For Flatpak on AlmaLinux 9 and RHEL 9

Install and Use Monit on AlmaLinux 8

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