GNOME on Raspberry pi OS

 So this will be my guide to install GNOME on raspberry pi OS 

#Step:1

Install Raspberry  Pi OS lite

• Install Raspberry Pi OS lite (64bit) Using Raspberry pi Imager on to your boot drive (SD card or nvme ssd), I recommend filling in the customization settings. This will allow you to pre-configure settings like the hostname, enable SSH, set up username and password and configure wifi details
• make sure that SSH is enabled
  
  
  
  
  

#Step:2

BOOT

• Install your SD card or nvme ssd to the pi 5 and connect the power supply to boot into Raspberry pi OS lite

#Step:3

Use SSH

• Since it is the lite version of pi OS it does not have a GUI or a desktop environment to make things easier we'll be using SSH to run commands and  install GNOME to pi OS lite
• if a monitor or other display source is connected then the IP address will be displayed there otherwise use software like Angry IP scanner or other IP scanner software to obtain the IP address of the pi
• if you are using windows then you'll be needing an SSH client like putty to use SSH
• On linux you don't need a separate SSH client just open terminal and enter ssh <username>@<RaspberryPi_IP_Address>

                                                     example : ssh hal@192.168.1.44

• Enter your user password and you are in
• For more details check out Raspberry pi Documentation 

#Step:4

Installing GNOME 

copy and paste the given commands to your terminal

• Ensure your system is up to date and clean up unnecessary files

sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade -y && sudo apt autoremove -y && sudo reboot

• after the pi reboots copy and past the following commands
• copy and paste the entire code at once 

sudo apt install -y \
  gnome-core \
  yaru-theme-{gnome-shell,gtk,icon,sound,unity} \
  fonts-ubuntu fonts-ubuntu-{title,console} \
  rpi-chromium-mods chromium-l10n \
  celluloid rhythmbox \
  gstreamer1.0-plugins-{base,good,bad,ugly} gstreamer1.0-{libav,tools,alsa,pulseaudio,x} \
  libreoffice-{writer,calc,impress,gtk3,gnome,style-colibre} \
  gnome-text-editor simple-scan hplip \
  network-manager-openvpn-gnome \
  gnome-tweaks gnome-calendar \
  plymouth plymouth-themes \
  dbus-x11 && sudo plymouth-set-default-theme bgrt -R && \
  sudo cp /boot/firmware/cmdline.txt /boot/firmware/cmdline.txt.backup && sudo cp /usr/share/applications/chromium.desktop /usr/share/applications/chromium.desktop.desktop && \
  sudo sed -i '/^Exec=.*chromium/ s/%U//' /usr/share/applications/chromium.desktop && \
  sudo sed -i 's/^StartupNotify=true/StartupNotify=false/' /usr/share/applications/chromium.desktop && \
  sudo sed -i '1 s/^/splash quiet plymouth.ignore-serial-consoles /' /boot/firmware/cmdline.txt && \ 
  sudo apt remove -y firefox-esr totem mpv htop && \ 
  sudo sed -i '/^logo=/ s/^/#/' /etc/gdm3/greeter.dconf-defaults && \ 
  sudo systemctl set-default graphical.target 

[Encountering the gdm.service is not active, cannot reload during installation is expected and does not affect the process.]

#Step:5

Final Cleanup

Perform a final cleanup to remove unnecessary packages and reboot to apply all changes, ensuring a clean start with the new settings.

sudo apt autoremove -y && sudo reboot
Well GNOME should be successfully installed by now but you can configure the GNOME install further using the 
GNOME Shell Integration  

theBOX Software side

which os should be theBOX running?

well since the brains of the system is raspberry pi5 the obvious choice would be Raspberry pi OS or Raspbian as it was called but theBOX uses a touch screen for all its navigation and Raspberry pi os was built up from the ground to be navigated with a keyboard and mouse which theBOX lacked while not docked (yep am planning to build a dock for it as well)

The issue with raspberry pi os (Raspbian)

• Raspberry pi os uses PIXEL desktop environment by default which is light weight but no suitable for touch navigation 

So I set out to find the best operating system to run on theBOX

Raspberry pi has great software support for example for choice of operating system by default you can run Ubuntu, Kali, Parrot ,Alpin linux , Arch linux and many more without tinkering too much

Attempt:1 Kali Linux

My first thought was to just go with Kali since its the go to operating system for everyone who is interested in hacking or pen testing

after Installing Kali on the pi 5 I was met with the first roadblock  

the kali install was not displaying an display out the touch display 2

since the touch display drivers are baked into the pi os i was not able to get it to give me display out to the touch display 2

Attempt:2 Ubuntu

Since kali was a no go i installed ubuntu the sd card and booted into it unlike most OS installed through the Raspberry pi Imager Ubuntu cannot be preconfigured so we have to boot the sd card and install the OS manually like a normal install 

Ubuntu uses Gnome as its desktop environment which had great touch compatibility compared all the operating system excluding something like android which was build up to be a touch based OS

problems with Ubuntu on theBOX

• Raspberry pi touch display 2's native orientation is portrait which mean for the os install it booted into portrait and the scaling was all over the place 
• Ubuntu doesn't allow to switch on the accessibility menu in the live environment which means we cannot use the one screen keyboard for the initial install 
• after installing Ubuntu with a keyboard and mouse and switching  the orientation to landscape the touch experience on Ubuntu was great 
• after rebooting ubuntu stop detecting the touch inputs outside from the login screen (probably a driver issue) 
• these issues persisted even after installing ubuntu multiple times

Attempt:3 Parrot OS

Just like kali linux, Parrot os is also popular amoung hackers and pen testers and Parrot Os does offer a version of Parrot os for raspberry pi which can be downloaded from the Parrot os Website

Didn't face any hickups during the flashing/installation of Parrot Os to the SD card using rpi-imager 

problems with Parrot os

• Well Parrot os required password to login and it was on the shell (no GUI) which means again required a keyboard to navigate which theBOX did not have 

Attempt:4 Fedora

well tried both KDE and GNOME of fedora but again the same issue as Ubuntu after rebooting

Attempt:5 Android

Finally ended up trying to install Android on the pi 5 , i ended up going with KonstaKANG's Build of Android 14,15 of lineage OS ended up running into the same issue as the other os , No Display out  to the touch display 2 but everything seems to be working fine when a monitor is connected to through HDMI 

Conclusion

Also tried Arch Linux , Manjaro and Fyde OS but the results were similar non them was compatible with the touch display 2

Well due to not having any drivers for the touch display 2 i ended up decided to use raspberry pi os but with some modifications ofcourse 

first of all we'll have to change the desktop environment to gnome since it had the best touch navigation from mostly everything we tested