Chapter 2 Installing the GNOME 2.0 Desktop

This chapter describes how to install the GNOME 2.0 Desktop.

• Types of GNOME Desktop Installation With the Install Wizard

• Patch Considerations

• Approximate Installation Times

• Additional Packages

• Installing User Documentation

• Installing the GNOME Desktop With the Install Wizard

• Installing the GNOME Desktop With a Jumpstart Script

• Uninstalling the GNOME Desktop

• Solaris Upgrade Considerations

Users of the GNOME 2.0 Desktop can coexist with users of earlier versions of the GNOME Desktop on the same system, for example the GNOME 1.4 Desktop. You cannot install the GNOME 2.0 Desktop on the same system as an earlier revision of the GNOME 2.0 Desktop, for example the GNOME 2.0 Beta Desktop. You must remove earlier revisions of the GNOME 2.0 Desktop before you install the GNOME 2.0 Desktop. See Removing Beta Versions of the GNOME 2.0 Desktop for more information.

Types of GNOME Desktop Installation With the Install Wizard

The Install Wizard provides the following types of installation:

Patch Considerations

Perform the following actions relevant to patches before you install the GNOME 2.0 Desktop:

1. Review the patch lists

2. Read the README files in the patch directories

3. Install patches

Patch Locations

You can find patches for the GNOME 2.0 Desktop in the following locations:

If you have any concerns about installing patches, install the patches manually. Deselect the patches in the Install Wizard using the Custom installation method. If possible, perform patch installation in single user mode. If you cannot install in single user mode, then perform patch installation with the system in as quiet a state as possible. You can achieve a quiet state when no users are logged in and no user processes are running.

Patch Lists

You can find patch lists for the desktop environment at the following location: http://www.sun.com/gnome/support.html

Approximate Installation Times

Installation time is considerably longer when you need to install the full patch list. Guideline installation times are as follows:

Additional Packages

During the installation, the Install Wizard looks for the following packages:

If the Install Wizard finds these packages, then no action is taken. If the Install Wizard does not find these packages, then the packages are installed during the installation.

Installing User Documentation

User documentation is included in the tarball. When you unpack the tarball, the documentation files are also unpacked. However, the installation process does not install the documentation files on your system.

You might want to delete the tarball and the unpacked files after you have performed the installation. Therefore, if you want to save user documentation, then you must copy the files to your system, before you delete the directory with the unpacked files.

For information about the location of the user documentation, see Chapter 4, Information About Working With the GNOME Desktop.

Installing the GNOME Desktop With the Install Wizard

To install the desktop environment with the Install Wizard perform the following steps:

1. Log in as root, then open a terminal window.

2. Use the cd command to change to the gnome-install directory.

3. Run the following command to start the Install Wizard: ./install

4. Follow the Install Wizard through the installation decisions that you need to make.

5. Click on Accept when the Install Wizard displays the license agreement. If you do not click on Accept, you cannot continue with the installation.

6. Click on Install Now.

7. Exit the Install Wizard when the installation is complete.

8. Reboot your system if the Install Wizard notifies you to do so.

Installing the GNOME Desktop With a Jumpstart Script

You can use the following Jumpstart scripts to install a basic version of the GNOME 2.0 Desktop:

The contents of the basic version of the desktop environment that you install with the Jumpstart script are as follows:

None of the packages listed in Additional Packages are installed by the Jumpstart script. The SUNWxwsvr package is also not installed.

Uninstalling the GNOME Desktop

To uninstall the desktop environment perform the following steps:

1. Log in as root, then open a terminal window.

2. Run the following command: /usr/sbin/remove-gnome

Solaris Upgrade Considerations

You can install the GNOME 2.0 Desktop on the Solaris 8 operating environment, and subsequently upgrade your system to the Solaris 9 operating environment. However, for each Solaris operating environment, the GNOME 2.0 Desktop has specific patch and package dependencies.

If you upgrade from the Solaris 8 operating environment to the Solaris 9 operating environment, then you must do the following:

• Install the required Solaris patches using the Installation Wizard.

• Update manually a number of non-GNOME packages that are still present as Solaris 8 packages. You must remove these packages to ensure future Solaris 9 patching.

Solaris 9 Update 4 will contain an updated version of the GNOME Desktop. If you upgrade in future to Solaris 9 Update 4, then you will install a complete new version of the GNOME Desktop.