Standardize a Gnome desktop on RHEL6 Server
Was wondering is there a way to standardize a Gnome desktop for all users who sign into RHEL 6 server when it boots into runlevel5?
That way its consistent for users and easy for me to walk them thru where things are when troubleshooting.
Responses
Guru
6435 points
Might be of more help to people looking to furnish answers if you were to describe which, specific things you're trying to limit - which changes have burned you from the standpoint of walking users through things.
There's still enough things in Gnome that are non-casual changes that most users are either not going to undertake them or will mean the user's clued enough that you don't have to try to send screencaps of your desktop to try to show them where things ought to be on theirs.
Guru
10133 points
Hi Chris, this is R. Hinton (account change)
I'm curious, for these RHEL 6 servers (you mentioned run-level 5), are these servers performing server roles or are they just RHEL servers that are under someone's desk being used as a workstation? I don't mean to be master of the obvious, but generally workstations have graphical environments, and it's usually a best practice to run rhel servers fulfilling a server role without gnome/kde/etc graphical environments.
For workstations, a graphical interface is certainly expected.
You probably already know that STIG directives (medium CCI-000366 and low CCI-000366)., the STIG CCI directives in this link mention not using graphical environments unless approved/documented, and I'm not familiar with your RHEL instantiation at your locale.
Some people do use RHEL Server instead of workstation on occasion - and you might have some compelling need to so have gnome/kde/etc graphical environment on a RHEL server, but I just thought I'd mention this.
Now back to your question, I imagine you are using RHEL 6 since you mention the use of Run-Level 5. If so, the [info at this link while written for another version of Linux may be useful in your pursuit but will require edits to work with RHEL 6 (again, I imagine you're using RHEL 6 here).
There might be some other methods to add an icon launcher via a script that executes for those systems that require a graphical environment. I was hoping to have some time to dig for such a bit, but perhaps I can find that another time.
R. Hinton
Guru
10133 points
Hi Chris,
We have numerous RHEL 6 Oracle servers. We never install a graphical environment. We do set the display back and the graphical display that the Oracle installer uses will send the graphical display back to the workstation you are connecting from (use "xhost nameoforacleserver" to allow whatever oracle server to send the display back and use "ssh -X nameoforacleserver" and test with "xeyes" or "xclock" initially which also does not require installing gnome/kde/xwindows/etc. We never install gnome/kde/xwindows etc on any of our Oracle servers because it is not needed.
Our Oracle engineer simply sets the display back from the oracle server to the Linux workstation he connected from and does the installation that way (successfully with all of our Oracle servers in our history).
Check out that link I mentioned, as one possibility. The icon bit goes down the path of various forms of GNOME or kde.
Good luck
Guru
10133 points
ah, you are using putty...
Do you have a RHEL workstation or a RHEL laptop you could use during the installation? I'm sure you could install a graphical environment on the server, however, that's much more to perform STIG actions against. Do you have another system you could load with RHEL workstation you could use even temporarily? Personally, I'd exhaust all opportunities to avert loading a graphical environment on an Oracle server.
According to this Oracle article (that may or may not apply), https://docs.oracle.com/cd/B28359_01/install.111/b32068/inst_task.htm#BABBBHJH there is apparently a method to install Oracle without a gui.
3 Installing Oracle Database
The Oracle Database software is available on installation media or you can download it from the Oracle Technology Network Web site. In most cases, you use the graphical user interface (GUI) provided by Oracle Universal Installer to install the software. However, you can also use Oracle Universal Installer to complete silent-mode installations, without using the GUI.
Also, this link may help http://pingtool.org/oracle-11-install-without-x/ .
I took a couple of stabs at the above as to what form of Oracle you're using. If those links prove non-helpful, please reply in this thread you started with the version of Oracle you're installing and I'll go and speak with my Oracle team to see what suggestions I can get from them, or dig further.
Guru
10133 points
Chris,
I'll talk with my folks, however, in the interim, I found this at oracle docs https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E11882_01/install.112/e24322/app_nonint.htm#LACLI1354 denoting a silent install with no display with an answer file.
[Quoted from that link above]
A.1.1 Reasons for Using Silent Mode or Response File Mode
The following table describes several reasons why you might want to run Oracle Universal Installer in silent mode or response file mode.
Install the software on a system that does not have X Window System software installed on it.
As I read into the docs for an Oracle 12c install, it seems to really want a gui. That being said, perhaps try the install from the actual server with a monitor/keyboard/mouse and see if the gui comes up (I've seen gui's come up for installs without gnome/kde/etc).
Another possibility is this https://community.oracle.com/thread/3907004: [quoted from the thread above]
To run the installer without installing a GUI on your server, you can use VNC or ssh with X11 forwarding. What will be best for your situation depends on your know-how and client platform. If your client is a PC, I suggest to use a free version of MobaXterm, which includes all you need in a single application and you can simply use "ssh -X oracle@remote_server_ip" to run remote X apps on your local desktop.
[end of quote]
Are there any other Linux systems you have that are running X or workstations? You could run a query to see what, if any systems are at init 5 with 'who -r' or 'runlevel' command. I'd recommend being creative to rule out any means to not install gnome/kde/etc - even loading a temporary system or perhaps find Linux system that already is running at run level 5 that you can set the display back.
I'm sending a message to the folks on my Oracle team to see what they can recommend too.
R. Hinton
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