This chapter attempts to install a complete Gnome2 desktop environment and a limited Gnome 1.4 library environment that is sufficient to run Gnome 1.4 applications included in this book. The order of the pages are meant to follow the build order defined by the Gnome2 development team as published in the release notes. If a package is in the release notes build list, but not in this chapter, it has been installed elsewhere in the book. The installation of Gnome2 is a large undertaking and one we would very much like to see you complete with the least amount of stress. One of our first goals in this installation is to protect your previously installed software. For absolute protection, we would construct a chroot jail for the installation, but since Gnome2 packages utilize the --prefix= option for configure, we will use that to fulfill our goal. There are two locations usable for our purposes, /usr/local and /opt/package. Since /usr/local is not utilized any where in the BLFS book, installation there would closely parallel a Gnome2 installation using --prefix=/usr. However, it is not entirely safe for us to assume that your installation does not have any files in /usr/local. Therefore we are going to install with --prefix=/opt/gnome2. This will require additional edits which are covered on the pre-installation page. Removal of Gnome2 for any reason is as easy as removing the edits from the pre-installation page and issue the following commands: rm /opt/gnome2 -r && rm /etc/gnome -r If your system was completely built per LFS 4.0 and BLFS instructions, you have a very good chance of using Gnome2 after your first install. If you are a typical LFS user, you have made modifications to the instructions along the way knowing that you have to take those modifications into account on future installations. You should have no problems integrating Gnome2 into your unique setup, but you will have 28 to 33 packages installed before you can run Gnome through any testing (assuming your window manager is preinstalled and tested). We would anticipate that you will be rebuilding gnome at least once to make adjustments for your setup. If this is the only chapter you are utilizing from the BLFS book, we think you should be successful by following these instructions, but you may find problems along the way that we may or may not be able to help you though on the blfs-support mailing list. If you don't need the Gnome 1.4 library environment, you may skip pages that are headed (Gnome 1.4). If you are building a Gnome 1.4 desktop environment, you would install those labeled pages and any dependancies listed on those pages whether labeled or not. Gnome packages without pages are simply installed with: ./configure --prefix=/opt/gnome && make && make install These instructions are simplistic to facilitate removal of Gnome 1.4 from BLFS systems when it is no longer necessary. These instructions may be refined later to comply with BLFS standards for file locations, specifically /opt/gnome/etc to /etc and /opt/gnome/var to /var. You should consider using the Gnome 1.4 hint located at if you have no interest in Gnome2. At this time, we feel that Gnome2 should be left in /opt/gnome2, but you can easily adjust the --prefix= option to your chosen destination. This can be done from the start or after a trial install.