{"id":1921,"date":"2021-04-15T14:52:19","date_gmt":"2021-04-15T14:52:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dft.wiki\/?p=1921"},"modified":"2026-04-21T13:34:24","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T17:34:24","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 is a method to create a desktop environment on a cloud server.<\/p>\n<p>Read the post <strong>Deploying\u00a0Windows 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 desktop environment :<\/p>\n<pre class=\" prettyprinted\"><span class=\"pln\">sudo apt install tasksel<\/span><\/pre>\n<p>Choose the GUI:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>ubuntu-desktop-minimal (<strong>GNOME \u2013 Recommended<\/strong>)<\/li>\n<li>ubuntu-desktop (<strong>GNOME \u2013 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 class=\" prettyprinted\"><span class=\"pln\">tasksel <\/span><span class=\"pun\">--<\/span><span class=\"pln\">list<\/span><span class=\"pun\">-<\/span><span class=\"pln\">tasks\r\nsudo tasksel install ubuntu<\/span><span class=\"pun\">-<\/span><span class=\"pln\">desktop<\/span><span class=\"pun\">-<\/span><span class=\"pln\">minimal\r\nsudo systemctl <span class=\"kwd\">set<\/span><span class=\"pun\">-<\/span><span class=\"kwd\">default<\/span> graphical<span class=\"pun\">.<\/span>target\r\nsudo reboot<\/span><\/pre>\n<p>It is recommended to disable the animations to speed up Gnome if this is your choice.<\/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>VNC REMOTE DESKTOP<\/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>\u00a0\/etc\/gdm3\/custom.conf<\/strong>\u00a0and change accordingly:<\/p>\n<pre class=\" prettyprinted\"><span class=\"typ\">AutomaticLoginEnable<\/span> <span class=\"pun\">=<\/span> <strong><span class=\"kwd\">true<\/span><\/strong>\r\n<span class=\"typ\">AutomaticLogin<\/span> <span class=\"pun\">=<\/span> <strong><span class=\"pln\">localUserName<\/span><\/strong><\/pre>\n<p>For\u00a0<strong>domain users<\/strong>, it does not work!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Installing a Graphical User Interface (GUI) on a Linux Server instance is a method to [&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":11,"href":"https:\/\/dft.wiki\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1921\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5486,"href":"https:\/\/dft.wiki\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1921\/revisions\/5486"}],"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}]}}