{"id":1921,"date":"2021-04-15T14:52:19","date_gmt":"2021-04-15T14:52:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dft.wiki\/?p=1921"},"modified":"2026-06-08T22:55:24","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T02:55:24","slug":"installing-a-gui-on-ubuntu-server-20-04","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dft.wiki\/?p=1921","title":{"rendered":"Installing a GUI on Ubuntu Server"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Installing a <strong>Graphical User Interface<\/strong> (GUI) on a Linux Server instance creates a desktop environment on a cloud server.<\/p>\n<p>Read <strong>Deploying Windows on Linode<\/strong> [<a href=\"https:\/\/dft.wiki\/?p=1726\">Link<\/a>] if you need a Windows desktop instead.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>INSTALLING GUI<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Install the desktop environment:<\/p>\n<pre>sudo apt install tasksel<\/pre>\n<p>Choose a GUI:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>ubuntu-desktop-minimal (<strong>GNOME &#8211; Recommended<\/strong>)<\/li>\n<li>ubuntu-desktop (<strong>GNOME &#8211; Default<\/strong>)<\/li>\n<li>kubuntu-desktop (<strong>KDE<\/strong>)<\/li>\n<li>lubuntu-desktop (<strong>LXQt<\/strong>)<\/li>\n<li>ubuntu-mate-desktop (<strong>MATE<\/strong>)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<pre>tasksel --list-tasks\r\nsudo tasksel install ubuntu-desktop-minimal\r\nsudo systemctl set-default graphical.target\r\nsudo reboot<\/pre>\n<p>If you chose GNOME, it is recommended to disable animations to improve performance:<\/p>\n<pre>gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface enable-animations false\r\ngsettings set org.gnome.shell.extensions.dash-to-dock animate-show-apps false\r\nsudo reboot<\/pre>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>VNC REMOTE DESKTOP<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>For <strong>GNOME<\/strong>, issue the following commands:<\/p>\n<pre>sudo apt install tigervnc-standalone-server -y\r\nsu - user\r\nvncpasswd\r\nvncserver -localhost no\r\nvncserver -list\r\nvncserver -kill :1<\/pre>\n<p>For a lighter alternative, use <strong>XFCE4<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<pre>sudo apt update\r\nsudo apt install xfce4 xfce4-goodies tightvncserver\r\nvncserver\r\nvncserver -kill :1\r\necho \"startxfce4\" &gt;&gt; ~\/.vnc\/xstartup\r\nvncserver<\/pre>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>CONFIGURING AUTO LOGON<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Edit <strong>\/etc\/gdm3\/custom.conf<\/strong> and update the following:<\/p>\n<pre>AutomaticLoginEnable = true\r\nAutomaticLogin = localUserName<\/pre>\n<p>Note: Auto logon does not work for <strong>domain users<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Installing a Graphical User Interface (GUI) on a Linux Server instance creates a desktop environment [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-linux","category-raspberry-pi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dft.wiki\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dft.wiki\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dft.wiki\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dft.wiki\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dft.wiki\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1921"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/dft.wiki\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1921\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5740,"href":"https:\/\/dft.wiki\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1921\/revisions\/5740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dft.wiki\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dft.wiki\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dft.wiki\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}