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I tried installing from a usb with a full image, but was having issues. So, I tried a minimal install and selected to include ubuntu desktop, but upon first boot it brought me to an extremely bare bones command line interface. This is a quote from the canonical minimal page at https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/MinimalCD:

"To install, boot your computer from the the mini iso and select "Install" at the prompt. You can then follow the instructions from the text-based installer. On the software selection screen, you can select from a number of collections of software such as different desktop environments (kde, xfce, etc), a multitude of different servers, multimedia creation tools, media center (mythbuntu), etc. You can also select "Manual package selection" which will take you to aptitude. You may also select nothing and just continue to finish the installation. If you selected nothing, upon reboot you will arrive at a cli prompt; from here you can fully customize your new system."

I'm going to go ahead and try re-installing it again, but does anybody know how I could install a desktop environment? Not just a desktop environment, but the current standard Ubuntu environment?

K7AAY
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Pfrex
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2 Answers2

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Here is how you install a desktop on a minimum install or headless server.

First, run the following commands to install tasksel:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install tasksel

Run the following command to install a desktop:

sudo tasksel

Then, you can select your desired desktop environment. Choosing the "Ubuntu desktop" will install Gnome Shell which is the standard Ubuntu desktop on 18.04+. Do not select any of the "live cd" options.

Use the space bar to select or deselect a desktop and then use the tab key to select "OK" and then press Enter to install.

You can always run the sudo tasksel command in the future if you want to install another desktop environment.

NOTE: because of a bug in tasksel, DO NOT use tasksel to uninstall packages. ONLY use tasksel to install.

mchid
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A couple of steps here:

  1. ensure you're using the right desktop environment:
ls /usr/bin/*session

this should list gnome-desktop or something like that.

  1. You should be able to run the desktop by this:
startx
  1. If that doesn't work restart the daemon like this:
sudo /etc/init.d/gdm restart

and then try step 2 again.

Penguino
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