Remove GUI

I searched the forums but didn’t find anything that helped answer my question. I am currently using openSUSE and SLES but was also experimenting with Ubuntu server. I can’t find myself switching to Ubuntu because, well Yast just rocks! SUSE is very easy to use and administer. I have been running Linux for about 2 years now, I should say running SUSE for about 2 years now. My question is how can I strip down my SUSE installation like Ubuntu has done with their server edition? Is it just a matter of removing Gnome and X from Yast? Is there a better way to run SUSE as a server without all the GUI stuff? In removing all the GUI stuff will Yast still work?

Thanks and keep up the great work!

I’m not sure about running as a server and no GUI. But of course you can login without a GUI. Just try it by booting to level 3. Login as user. At this point if you switch to su, you can run yast by typing: yast
And of course, zypper will work too.

What caf4926 said, just boot to init level 3. No GUI will be started. The GUI programs and libraries will still be on disk but won’t be in RAM. Disk space is cheap and not worth your time trying to recover. Also the X libraries might come in handy if you want to run some X program remotely, forwarded over ssh. If you badly want a stripped down install you can choose to install a CLI only openSUSE.

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Yes, if you have an existing system I’d just set the default runlevel to
‘3’ and be done with it. For a new system, remove the installation
options for X (which should remove Gnome/KDE as well if either are
checked) and then you will have a GUI-less install. All of my installs
start out this way so I have nice 500+ MB installs for new systems and
then build from there. You can also go a step further with the JeOS
installs that are REALLY stripped down, sometimes annoyingly so, but
that’s what you get with 100-ish MB installs. See download.novell.com for
details.

Good luck.

caf4926 wrote:
> I’m not sure about running as a server and no GUI. But of course you can
> login without a GUI. Just try it by booting to level 3. Login as user.
> At this point if you switch to su, you can run yast by typing: yast
> And of course, zypper will work too.
>
>
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D8TA adjusted his/her AFDB on Thursday 23 Jul 2009 17:26 to write:

>
> I searched the forums but didn’t find anything that helped answer my
> question. I am currently using openSUSE and SLES but was also
> experimenting with Ubuntu server. I can’t find myself switching to
> Ubuntu because, well Yast just rocks! SUSE is very easy to use and
> administer. I have been running Linux for about 2 years now, I should
> say running SUSE for about 2 years now. My question is how can I strip
> down my SUSE installation like Ubuntu has done with their server
> edition? Is it just a matter of removing Gnome and X from Yast? Is there
> a better way to run SUSE as a server without all the GUI stuff? In
> removing all the GUI stuff will Yast still work?

Yast will still work but from the commandline with the ncurses version (
default ) so no Xserver or GUI is needed to run it.

However you did not state which version of OpenSuSE?

If it is a 2 year old version then it will not be supported for updates
anymore and so if you remove all the X and GUI stuff and at a later date you
decide to put some of it back you might not be able to install updates from
a valid OpenSuSE server.

If it is a newer version then you should be able to just use YaST and
deselect all the unwanted “Patterns” in the patterns dialogue.

I have never done this but cannot see why this will not work, you may have
to spend a bit of time working out all the deps but it should be doable
YMMV.

Or if you have the install media (DVD/CD or network ) it might just be
easier to install a fresh one just formatting the / partition and keeping
your home partition just selecting the server/base install and console stuff
and maybe the enhanced and anything else you need.

HTH


Mark
Caveat emptor
Nullus in verba
Nil illegitimi carborundum

I think what you love about YaST will be lost if you switch
to the console version…but I could be wrong. No fear though,
my understanding is there is a web-based version of YaST coming…oh joy,
but I bet it will fill your need for a no GUI server and still allow
the beauty of YaST’s features.

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Using the ncurses version of Yast exclusively I use it as a preference in
almost every case. As long as you use the Alt-Letter shortcuts instead of
trying to [Tab] around all of the pages it’s nice and quick (and the same
Alt+Letter shortcuts work in the GUI version too). I’ve only found (so
far) one place where I simply couldn’t do what I needed in the ncurses
version of Yast, and I only needed to do it because of a bug in another
product that forced a dumb 32-bit/64-bit weird issue. In that case I had
to either use the GUI to install the 32-bit library (where a 64-bit
library already existed) or I had to install via RPM directly… RPM won.

Good luck.

GofBorg wrote:
> I think what you love about YaST will be lost if you switch
> to the console version…but I could be wrong. No fear though,
> my understanding is there is a web-based version of YaST coming…oh joy,
> but I bet it will fill your need for a no GUI server and still allow
> the beauty of YaST’s features.
>
>
>
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Thanks everyone for the replies. Another reason why I like SUSE so much is due to the forum support.

Where can I select the CLI only for openSUSE? I never remembering seeing that as an option in openSUSE 11.1. I know it is not there in SLES 10sp2 or SLES 11.

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It’s similar to SLE… just go to advanced-ish package selection and
uncheck the X and Gnome patterns.

Good luck.

D8TA wrote:
> ken_yap;2016483 Wrote:
>> What caf4926 said, just boot to init level 3. No GUI will be started.
>> The GUI programs and libraries will still be on disk but won’t be in
>> RAM. Disk space is cheap and not worth your time trying to recover. Also
>> the X libraries might come in handy if you want to run some X program
>> remotely, forwarded over ssh. If you badly want a stripped down install
>> you can choose to install a CLI only openSUSE.
>
> Thanks everyone for the replies. Another reason why I like SUSE so much
> is due to the forum support.
>
> Where can I select the CLI only for openSUSE? I never remembering
> seeing that as an option in openSUSE 11.1. I know it is not there in
> SLES 10sp2 or SLES 11.
>
>
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You can put the number : 3
in the boot arguments of /boot/grub/menu.lst
Actually you could remove odd bits too.

by selecting "Minimal Server Selection (Text Mode) which is last
“Other” on the list at the bottom of this install screen:

http://en.opensuse.org/INSTALL_Local#Step_5:_Desktop_selection

yes, i know it would have been better for you if it had been at the
top and labeled something like: “Like Ubuntu Server (no GUI)” and been
in bold, red 18 point font…and blinking…

just kidding!! really…i know a guy who looked and looked and LOOKED
and never found it…


brassy

When it asks you what desktop environment you want, choose Other and then No DE, or something like that.