["Desktop environment"]

What is GNOME?

The [http://www.gnome.org GNOME Desktop] is an attractive and useful desktop environment. GNOME is both free and one of the most widely used desktop environments on the GNU/Linux operating system. Debian 4.0 Etch includes GNOME 2.14.3.

Installing GNOME

If you do not have ["X"] installed, you can get a bare minimum base install of X, using ["Aptitude"] or ["apt-get"]:

 # aptitude install x-window-system-core

The current ["metapackage"] for installing a good set of GNOME tools in [http://www.debian.org/releases/unstable sid], [http://www.debian.org/releases/testing etch] and [http://www.debian.org/releases/stable sarge] ["Debian"] is gnome.

Standard

So, from the ["command line"], run

 # aptitude install gnome

This will install additional software (gnome-office, evolution) that you may or may not want.

Custom

For a smaller set of ["app"]s, you can also do

 # aptitude install gnome-desktop-environment

For a bare minimum installation of GNOME, you can:

 # aptitude install gnome-core

A set of additional productivity applications can be installed with

 # aptitude install gnome-fifth-toe

Developers

If you need development packages, e.g. for compiling GNOME dependent packages from source, you should try

 # aptitude install gnome-core-devel

For a full set of developer tools

 # aptitude install gnome-devel

Tasksel

You can use ["tasksel"] to install GNOME or other DesktopEnvironment.

Configuration

Most configuration of the GNOME desktop is done via its various ["GUI"] utilities. The location of these varies depending on version, but common utilities include networking, themes, sounds and much more. It is also possible to configure (read/write) settings using the command line with ["gconftool"](["2"]).