Can someone tell me the difference between a Desktop Install, a Basic Server install, and a Minimal Install? During installation, it doesn’t give a description and I can’t find documentation on it either.
This is for a CentOS 6 installation.
Answers:
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Method 1
As you’ve already noticed, Red Hat’s description is vague about what each suite actually includes. Below is a list of the package groups the each suite will install.
You can get more information about what package group by running yum groupinfo foo-bar. The names listed below differ from what yum grouplist will list but the groupinfo cobase, console-internet, core, debugging, directory-client, hardware-monitoring, java-platform, large-systems, network-file-system-client, performance, perl-runtime, server-platformmmand still works on them.
I got this by mounting http://mirror.centos.org/centos-6/6/os/x86_64/images/install.img and looking at /usr/lib/anaconda/installclasses/rhel.py inside the image.
Desktop: base, basic-desktop, core, debugging, desktop-debugging, desktop-platform, directory-client, fonts, general-desktop, graphical-admin-tools, input-methods, internet-applications, internet-browser, java-platform, legacy-x, network-file-system-client, office-suite, print-client, remote-desktop-clients, server-platform, x11
Minimal Desktop: base, basic-desktop, core, debugging, desktop-debugging, desktop-platform, directory-client, fonts, input-methods, internet-browser, java-platform, legacy-x, network-file-system-client, print-client, remote-desktop-clients, server-platform, x11
Minimal: core
Basic Server: base, console-internet, core, debugging, directory-client, hardware-monitoring, java-platform, large-systems, network-file-system-client, performance, perl-runtime, server-platform
Database Server: base, console-internet, core, debugging, directory-client, hardware-monitoring, java-platform, large-systems, network-file-system-client, performance, perl-runtime, server-platform, mysql-client, mysql, postgresql-client, postgresql, system-admin-tools
Web Server: base, console-internet, core, debugging, directory-client, java-platform, mysql-client, network-file-system-client, performance, perl-runtime, php, postgresql-client, server-platform, turbogears, web-server, web-servlet
Virtual Host: base, console-internet, core, debugging, directory-client, hardware-monitoring, java-platform, large-systems, network-file-system-client, performance, perl-runtime, server-platform, virtualization, virtualization-client, virtualization-platform
Software Development Workstation: additional-devel, base, basic-desktop, core, debugging, desktop-debugging, desktop-platform, desktop-platform-devel, development, directory-client, eclipse, emacs, fonts, general-desktop, graphical-admin-tools, graphics, input-methods, internet-browser, java-platform, legacy-x, network-file-system-client, performance, perl-runtime, print-client, remote-desktop-clients, server-platform, server-platform-devel, technical-writing, tex, virtualization, virtualization-client, virtualization-platform, x11
Method 2
The Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Installation Guide section 9.17. Package Group Selection provides some information, but it’s not much:
By default, the Red Hat Enterprise Linux installation process loads a
selection of software that is suitable for a system deployed as a
basic server. Note that this installation does not include a graphical
environment. To include a selection of software suitable for other
roles, click the radio button that corresponds to one of the following
options:Basic Server
This option provides a basic installation of Red
Hat Enterprise Linux for use on a server.Desktop
This option provides the OpenOffice.org productivity suite, graphical tools such as > the GIMP, and multimedia applications.
Minimal
This option provides only the packages essential to run
Red Hat Enterprise Linux. A minimal installation provides the basis
for a single-purpose server or desktop appliance and maximizes
performance and security on such an installation.
All methods was sourced from stackoverflow.com or stackexchange.com, is licensed under cc by-sa 2.5, cc by-sa 3.0 and cc by-sa 4.0