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CentOS 8 Perfect Desktop Setup

Date: 12.11.2020 Author: tOP tIER cODER Category: Linux

This article showing how to turn the default CentOS 8 operating system into a perfect desktop, including:

• Additional repositories - EPEL, RPMFusion,
• Additional software:
• Graphics - GIMP,
• Office - LibreOffice (Write, Calc, Impress, Math, Draw), Adobe Reader,
• Browsers - Google Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Vivaldi,
• Internet - FileZilla, Skype, Thunderbird,
• Multimedia - VLC,
• CD/DVD/BluRay burning program - Brasero, K3B,
• Remote Desktop Connection - Remmina, LiteManager, AnyDesk, VNC,
• Virtualization - VirtualBox, VMWare,
• Programming - Visual Studio, Java, Eclipse, Bluefish,
• Utilities for NTFS and xFAT drives,
• Archive - 7zip,
• Fonts - Microsoft True Type Fonts,
• YouTube Downloader,
• Windows Emulator - Wine,
• Conneting to a VPN, Connecting to Samba Networks, and more...

Download CentOS 8, make a bootable DVD or USB, install as Workstation on your computer:

Download:

https://www.centos.org/download/

I assumed you installed Centos 8 as Workstation, Now we need to install the following softwares in CentOS to make it suitable for using it in official works as a Desktop Computing.

Open Terminal, copy next command to Login as ROOT:

su

Enter your ROOT password,

First of All we need Update your CentOS 8:

dnf -y update

EPEL Repository

We will add EPEL-8 to install the packages, midnight commander and wget:

dnf -y install wget mc acpid lynx epel-release

after that reboot your computer to start up with new kernel version, with command:

reboot

After restart, Open terminal again, Login as ROOT and insert following commands:

dnf -y groupinstall 'Development Tools'

GIMP:

dnf -y install gimp

LibreOffice:

Open next link in your browser:

https://libreoffice.org/download/download/

and download latest version for Linux (64-bit) (rpm)

extract tar.gz archive with right click -> Extract Here

open RPMS folder in your Terminal with:

cd RPMS

then install with:

dnf -y localinstall *.rpm

ADOBE READER:

install in Terminal with cmd:

rpm -ivh AdbeRdr9.5.5-1_i486linux_enu.rpm

BROWSERS:

CentOS 8 comes with Firefox by default,

Google Chrome:

Need to be downloaded from original website:

https://www.google.com/chrome/index.html

In Terminal go to Download folder, then copy cmd:

dnf -y install google-chrome-stable_current_x86_64.rpm

Opera browser:

Run cmd:

dnf -y install opera-stable_72.0.3815.207_amd64.rpm

Vivaldi browser:

Run cmd:

dnf -y install vivaldi-stable-3.4.2066.94-1.x86_64.rpm

Internet:

FileZilla - multithreaded FTP client:

dnf -y install filezilla

SKYPE:

curl -SLo skypeforlinux-64.rpm https://go.skype.com/skypeforlinux-64.rpm

dnf -y install skypeforlinux-64.rpm

ThunderBird

soon

VLC:

dnf -y install https://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/el/rpmfusion-free-release-8.noarch.rpm

dnf -y install https://download1.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/el/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-8.noarch.rpm

dnf repolist

dnf install vlc.x86_64 -y

CD/DVD/BLU-Ray WRITER:

dnf -y install brasero k3b

Remote Desktop Connection:

REMMINA

dnf copr enable castor/remmina

dnf -y install 'remmina*'

LiteManager

Extract and run

AnyDesk

dnf -y install anydesk-6.0.1-1.el8.x86_64.rpm

VNC

Open Software Installer, type VNC and install remote desktop viewer.

Virtualization

VirtualBox

dnf -y install binutils kernel-devel kernel-headers libgomp make patch gcc make perl glibc-headers glibc-devel dkms elfutils-libelf-devel

then type next cmd to install:

dnf -y install VirtualBox-6.1-6.1.16_140961_el8-1.x86_64.rpm

VMware:

dnf install ncurses-compat-libs pcsc-lite-libs

then install your bundle file from official vmware website in Terminal with:

./VMware-Workstation-Full-15.0.3-12422535.x86_64.bundle

Programming

Visual Studio

dnf -y install code-1.51.0-1604600907.el7.x86_64.rpm

JAVA

Installing OpenJDK 8

dnf -y install java-1.8.0-openjdk-devel

Installing OpenJDK 11

dnf -y install java-11-openjdk-devel

To check what Java version is set as the default one, type:

java -version

If you want to change the default version, use the alternatives command:

alternatives --config java

ECLIPSE

soon

BLUEFISH

soon

NTFS support:

dnf -y install ntfs-3g ntfsprogs ntfs-3g-system-compression

Ntfs-3g provides also other very useful utilities to perform specific operations on a ntfs filesystem. Among the others: ntfsundelete which is used to recover files removed from a ntfs filesystem, ntfsresize which let us resize a ntfs filesystem without data loss, and ntfsclone which is used to clone, image and restore a ntfs filesystem.

ExFAT:

dnf -y install fuse-exfat exfat-utils

7ZIP

dnf -y install p7zip

Microsoft True Type Fonts

dnf -y install cabextract-1.9.1-1.i386.rpm

dnf -y install curl xorg-x11-font-utils fontconfig

rpm -i https://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/mscorefonts2/rpms/msttcore-fonts-installer-2.6-1.noarch.rpm

YOUTUBE Downloader

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/video-downloadhelper/

tar xf net.downloadhelper.coapp-1.5.0-1_amd64.tar.gz -C /usr/local

/usr/local/net.downloadhelper.coapp-1.5.0/bin/net.downloadhelper.coapp-linux-64 install --system

WINE - Windows Emulator:

dnf config-manager --set-enabled PowerTools

dnf update

dnf -y install wine

VPN Client on CentOS 8

dnf -y install xl2tpd ppp NetworkManager-l2tp NetworkManager-l2tp-gnome

And now you can add VPN

SAMBA Client

dnf -y install samba samba-common samba-client

firewall-cmd --add-service=samba --zone=public --permanent

firewall-cmd --reload

systemctl start smb

systemctl enable smb

Open Nautilus or Files and type address (I assumed the folder address is 192.168.1.255/my_folder):

smb://192.168.1.255/my_folder

Replace the address with yours

Nautilus settings:

Open Nautilus (Files) got to preference (up left corner-right click-> preference->Views) and check Sort folders before files. At list columns check only Type.

Disable SeLinux

vim /etc/selinux/config

and change the line from:

SELINUX=enforcing

to

SELINUX=disabled

Gnome Tweak & Customization

dnf -y install gnome-tweaks

dconf-Editor

dnf -y install dconf-editor

Open dconf Editor -> org -> gnome -> desktop -> interface -> turn on clock-show-weekday

VNC Server:

firewall-cmd --add-service=vnc-server --permanent

firewall-cmd --reload

Go to settings -> Sharing -> Screen Sharing -> turn on, check Allow connections to control the screen,

Now, start Dconf Editor from the Application Menu of CentOS 8.
Click on I’ll be careful.
Click on org.
Click on gnome.
Click on desktop.
Click on remote-desktop.
Click on vnc.
Click on encryption.
Now, toggle OFF Use default value
Now, click on the dropdown menu of Custom value. Now, check none and tls-anon checkboxes. Then, click on the tick icon as marked in the screenshot below. The Current value should be [‘none’,’tls-anon’] as shown in the screenshot below. Now, close Dconf editor.
You may face some problems once you’re connected. Such as, you may see a black screen.
It’s easy to fix. To fix this problem, go to the Settings(in vnc viewer)
Click on Picture quality dropdown menu.
Now, set it to either High, Medium or Low. Then, click on OK.
It should be fixed.

.Done