if you want to install the gnome environment you could try 
yum groupinstall basic-desktop

jon

On Thu, 2011-08-18 at 10:18 -0500, James E. Davies wrote:
> I just installed SL6.1 "Basic Server" - figured I'd yum install the other stuff I wanted later.  I typically connect via ssh to this box, I do not want or need a desktop / window manager but I would like to ssh -X and be able to run programs that generate X output.  So I installed the X server (xorg-x11-server-Xorg.x86_64 and dependencies) - but it looks like I need to start the X server somehow OR install something else OR both.
> 
> Please can someone tell me what I need to do next?  It would be nice to have the X server start on boot.
> 
> Many thanks,
> 
> Jim.
> 
> P.S.  When I did my previous SL install, I included the X server at install-time, and everything worked fine - i.e. not a X client-side issue.