Separating the graphical interface from the operating system gives users the power to choose the graphical environment they like best. Don't worry if you're not a GNOME fan because there are still many other desktops you can explore! This recipe shows you how to install another popular desktop environment, KDE Plasma Workspaces.
This recipe requires a CentOS system with a working network connection. Administrative privileges are also required by logging in with the root account.
Follow these steps to install the KDE Plasma Workspaces desktop environment:
Install the
KDE Plasma Workspacespackage group:yum groupinstall "KDE Plasma Workspaces"Manually start the desktop environment using
startkde. When you're done using KDE and log out of the desktop, you'll be returned to the console:startkdeTo configure the system to automatically start the graphical environment when it boots, use
systemctlto set the default start up target tographical.target:systemctl set-default graphical.target
This recipe installs the KDE Plasma Workspaces desktop environment via Yum's package groups. All of the necessary software components and dependencies to run KDE are installed by the KDE Plasma Workspaces package group:
yum groupinstall "KDE Plasma Workspaces"
The startkde script starts the X server and launches the KDE environment together. Unlike with GNOME, we're not invoking startx directly, so we don't need to provide additional paths when more than one environment is installed:
startkde
KDE Plasma Workspaces is a popular graphical desktop environment for Linux-based systems
The following resources will provide you with more information about installing and using KDE Plasma Workspaces:
How to install desktop environments on CentOS 7 (http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/181503/how-to-install-desktop-environments-on-centos-7/181504#181504)
KDE documentation (https://docs.kde.org)