Install GUI on Debian 12 using CLI

Method 1: Using tasksel (Recommended for Beginners)

tasksel provides an easy way to install a full desktop environment with all the recommended software and a display manager (login screen).  Update your package list.

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

If sudo is not installed, switch to the root user with su – and run the update commands. Install tasksel (if not already installed).

sudo apt install tasksel

Launch tasksel interactively.

sudo tasksel

A menu will appear. Use the arrow keys to navigate and the spacebar to select your desired desktop environment (e.g., gnome-desktop, xfce-desktop, kde-desktop). The default for Debian 12 is GNOME. Install the selected environment.

Method 2: Using apt for a Specific Desktop Environment

If you prefer to install a specific, potentially more minimal, environment, you can use apt directly. For GNOME (the default Debian desktop):

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
sudo apt install task-gnome-desktop
sudo systemctl set-default graphical.target
sudo reboot

This command installs the full GNOME desktop experience. To install a minimal GNOME, you could use gnome-core instead of task-gnome-desktop, but this requires additional manual configuration. For XFCE (a lightweight option):

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
sudo apt install task-xfce-desktop

# During installation, you may be prompted to choose a display manager (e.g., lightdm or gdm3). LightDM is a lightweight and good option.

sudo reboot

Post-Installation (if not GUI doesn’t loaded by default)

After the system reboots, it should start in graphical mode automatically. If it boots back to the command line, you can enable the graphical target manually:

sudo systemctl set-default graphical.target
sudo reboot