Adding minimal X windows

[Matthew Saltzman]

On Mon, 2014-06-02 at 08:08 +0630, Sudhir Khanger wrote: 
> On Sunday, June 01, 2014 02:53:52 PM Matthew Saltzman wrote:
> > I built a Fedora 20 system as a server, without a desktop.  It turns
> > out, no X server is installed at all in that case.  I'd like to add a
> > minimal X server without adding a complete desktop environment, so I can
> > log in remotely and run system configuration tools.  The documentation
> > I've found suggests 
> > 
> >         yum groupinstall "Basic X Window System"
> > 
> > or
> > 
> >         yum groupinstall "X Window System"
> > 
> > but neither of those groups exist.  There is a Basic Desktop group, but
> > it installs a bunch of unnecessary desktop tools.
> > 
> > What's the best way to get just a basic X server in Fedora 20?
> > 
> > TIA.
> > -- 
> > Matthew Saltzman
> > Clemson University Math Sciences
> > mjs AT clemson DOT edu
> 
> Have you checked out group "Basic Desktop"? If I ever want to go minimal I 
> tend to go along with i3. You should try that.
> 
> [donnie at fedora ~]$ yum group info "Basic Desktop"
> Loaded plugins: changelog, fastestmirror, langpacks, local, refresh-
> packagekit, show-leaves
> Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
>  * fedora: mirror.cse.iitk.ac.in
>  * rpmfusion-free: mirror.cse.iitk.ac.in
>  * rpmfusion-free-updates: mirror.cse.iitk.ac.in
>  * rpmfusion-nonfree: mirror.cse.iitk.ac.in
>  * rpmfusion-nonfree-updates: mirror.cse.iitk.ac.in
>  * tlp: repo.warpnine.de
>  * tlp-updates: repo.warpnine.de
>  * updates: mirrors.ispros.com.bd
> 
> Environment Group: Basic Desktop
>  Environment-Id: basic-desktop-environment
>  Description: X Window System with a choice of window manager.
>  Mandatory Groups:
>     base-x
>    +basic-desktop
>     core
>     dial-up
>     fonts
>     guest-desktop-agents
>     hardware-support
>     multimedia
>     standard
>  Optional Groups:
>    +cinnamon-desktop
>    +firefox
>    +gnome-desktop
>    +input-methods
>     kde-desktop
>    +legacy-fonts
>     libreoffice
>    +lxde-desktop
>    +mate-desktop
>    +sugar-desktop
>    +xfce-desktop
>    +xmonad
>    +xmonad-mate
> 
> Group: Basic Desktop
>  Group-Id: basic-desktop
>  Description: Basic X Window System with a choice of window manager.
>  Mandatory Packages:
>     adwaita-cursor-theme
>     adwaita-gtk2-theme
>     adwaita-gtk3-theme
>    +awesome
>    +dwm
>    +fedora-icon-theme
>     gnome-icon-theme-symbolic
>     i3
>     initial-setup
>    +lightdm
>    +metacity
>    +openbox
>    +ratpoison
>    +xmonad-basic
> 

I did look at that and would prefer not to add most of the desktop
components it includes.  I did manage to get an X server going by
installing xorg-x11-xinit.  Might have to patch a few things up later,
but so far it's working well enough.

Thanks for the suggestion.

-- 
Matthew Saltzman
Clemson University Math Sciences
mjs AT clemson DOT edu