Choosing the Interface

The installation procedure for most Linux distributions provides the opportunity for you to select the software you want to install. In general, there's a default set of applications, or perhaps different sets of applications, that you can choose from. In addition, you probably have the opportunity to include or remove any applications from the set being installed.

During Fedora installation, for example, a screen is displayed that lists the default set of packages, including GNOME, to be installed. The screen gives you the choice to install the default set or to customize the software packages to be installed. If you select customize, a screen allows you to check and uncheck software packages. GNOME is checked by default. You can check KDE in addition to GNOME or instead of GNOME. You can even uncheck both.

If you installed GNOME or KDE, your system boots to the installed desktop. If you installed both, most distributions provide the opportunity to select which desktop you want when you log in. If neither desktop was installed, your computer will enter the command-line environment when you log in.

If your computer boots into a GUI and you want to boot into the CLI, or vice versa, you can change the default boot interface by editing a file called inittab. Linux reads this file for instructions when it starts up. You need to locate this file, probably in /etc. Chapter 9 tells you how to find files. To change your interface, you need to edit the following line in inittab (Chapter 18 discusses editing text files):

 id:n:initdefault: 

n is a number that causes Linux to boot in to the GUI or the CLI; 5 signals the GUI and 3 signals the CLI. Change n to the number for your preferred default interface.