Ubuntu Gnome

[Mario Vukelic]

On Tue, 2007-09-11 at 17:35 +0700, Gunawan wrote:
> Hi all,
> I believe that ubuntu using gnome.

By default, yes

> 1. I think gnome binary/program save on /usr/bin folder, is that correct?

Gnome packages save their files in many places (as is customary in
Unix-like systems), but the binaries are generally placed in /usr/bin,
yes.

> 2. Can I make ubuntu boot to textmode or command line rather than to 
> graphical user interface?

Yes. Anthony has already explained how in the other reply. I would
recommend that you leave the default runlevel 2 alone, so that you
always have one that works, and just edit runlevel three. Then you can
make grub boot into 2 or 3, and even change it later while the system is
already running.

You can also run Gnome, and switch to different text consoles with Alt
+Ctrl+F1, Alt+Ctrl+F2, ... Alt+Ctrl+F6. Alt+Ctrl+F7 brings you back to
Gnome.

> 3. Can I call gnome from the command line where I think gnome is just a 
> program, desktop environment program?

Not gnome alone, since gnome needs the X Window System to run. But you
can use the command startx, which will read the settings it needs
from /home/<user>/.xsession
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Startx

You can also start the graphical login screen, gdm, as Anthony
explained , and log in from there.


> 4. In windows, Windows 3.x family we can call windows by issue C:\>win, Can 
> I make ubuntu like this?

See 3

>     go to desktop environment in need?

The easiest way to do this is just start gdm. There, click the "Options"
menu and choose the desktop environmen ("session") you need (as long as
it was installed with Ubuntu packages)

> 5. I would like to try install xfce on my ubuntu just for study, can I do 
> that?

Sure, just install xubuntu-desktop from the Synaptic package manager.
You can also follow Anthony's advice for just running xfce4, without
additional stuff

> 6. If I extract xfce tar ball on /tmp folder, can I delete them after 
> instalation?

Note that /tmp in Ubuntu is not a real on-disk filesystem and will be
deleted when you reboot.

It sounds like you want to compile xfce yourself. You can do that of
course, but
      * If you just want to try xfce, just install it from Ubuntu
      * If you really want to compile yourself, just download the Ubuntu
        source packages and compile them using apt-source. This way you
        save yourself a lot of work, and the software will be perfectly
        integrated in Ubuntu afterwards
      * It doesn't really matter where you perform your compiles as long
        as you remember to stay away from system directories. Remember
        that compiling does not need root privileges. Just the last
        step, installing, does. And remember that /tmp gets deleted

> 7. What is XServer and what XServer do?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X_window_system