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I installed Cinnamon on CentOS 7, but it fails to show, because the cog button that lets me choose the desktop environment on the CentOS login screen does not appear.

Details:

I just got a new computer on which I installed CentOS 7 (and wiped the original Windows OS).

CentOS 7 came with a command line interface, so I tried to install GNOME desktop first, following this guide. And I got a GUI that looks likes the picture below.

I followed the instructions to install Cinnamon here like I've done many times before but this time, Cinnamon doesn't show up anywhere, there is no cog icon on the login screen to choose Cinnamon, I ran the command systemctl set-default graphical.target but nothing happened. So I also tried following this guide.

Here are all the commands I typed:

sudo yum update sudo yum -y groups install "GNOME Desktop" echo "exec gnome-session" >> -/.xinitrc systemctl set-default graphical.target sudo systemctl set-default graphical.target poweroff yum install epel-release -y sudo yum install epel-release -y sudo yum groupinstall "Server with GUI" -y yum install cinnamon -y sudo yum install cinnamon -y systemctl get-default systemctl isolate graphical.target systemctl get-default sudo systemctl isolate graphical.target sudo yum -y install epel-release sudo yum -y groupinstall "X Window system" sudo yum -y install lightdm sudo yum -y install cinnamon sudo systemctl isolate graphical.target systemctl set-default graphical.target

Here is what my desktop looks like ever since I installed GUI on CentOS and I still see it right now.
CentOS 7 Desktop that I don't want

Here is what I have for yum:

$ yum group list Loaded plugins: fastestmirror, langpacks Determining fastest mirrors * base: ftpmirror.your.org * epel: mirror.team-cymru.com * extras: ewr.edge.kernel.org * updates: ftpmirror.your.org Installed Environment Groups: Server with GUI GNOME Desktop Available Environment Groups: Minimal Install Compute Node Infrastructure Server File and Print Server Cinnamon Desktop MATE Desktop Basic Web Server Virtualization Host KDE Plasma Workspaces Development and Creative Workstation Available Groups: Cinnamon Compatibility Libraries Console Internet Tools Development Tools Educational Software Electronic Lab Fedora Packager General Purpose Desktop Graphical Administration Tools Haskell LXQt Desktop Legacy UNIX Compatibility MATE Milkymist Scientific Support Security Tools Smart Card Support System Administration Tools System Management TurboGears application framework Xfce Done

I feel like the problem is showing the cog icon to choose the desktop environments on the login page. Currently I don't have that icon.

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2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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First install Cinnamon group:

$ sudo yum -y groupinstall "Cinnamon"

Then it appears in gdm list - last line - xfce in my case:

CentOS 8 with Xfce

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  • Yeah I figured out the root of the program was not having this cog icon appear on my log in screen. I knew I needed to have this icon to choose the environment. So it turned out I had to set an account password to have this cog icon appear. So strange! Commented Jul 3, 2020 at 20:15
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So the solution turned out to be the strangest thing ever. All I need to do to make the desktop environment cog icon appear on the login screen is to set a password for my username!

I had this problem because I chose to skip sitting a password for my username when installing Centos 7. I did set a root password, but not an account password.

I can't believe having a password or not would change the UI! Perhaps a bug in the Centos login screen.

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