Create Desktop Environment in Suse Linux on AWS

Having a Desktop environment on a Cloud Instance is helpful in many ways. You can troubleshoot application connectivity, take proper HAR files and so on. Even having a desktop is cool!

Here is how you can install GNOME on any SUSE Linux instances in any Cloud Environments. Remember, once you install GNOME (or KDE or any desktop environment as a matter of fact), you need to use VNC to connect to it.

The same steps can be used on any Cloud environments like Oracle Cloud (OCI), AWS, Azure, GCP and so on.

 

Requirements:

- SSH client that allows X11 forwarding

- TightVNC Server and Client

* Here are the steps I took to install GNOME desktop:

1. ssh into the instance with root username

2. type 'yast2' to get into YaST2 Control Center

3. Select "Software" on the left side bar, select "Online Update" on the right side bar, and then hint Enter key. This step is to update the repository of the system

4. Select "Software" on the left side bar, select "software Management" on the right side bar, and then hint Enter key.

5. In the "Search Phrase" textbox in the Filter Search session, type "gnome", and then hint Enter key

6. Install everything that listed on the right side bar, if the error page about "Package Dependencies"pops up, select the first option under "possible solutions", and then click "OK -- Try Again"

7. Select "Accept" on the bottom right of the page, hint Enter key. It will install all the packages you selected.

8. After installing the packages, click "F9" key twice to exit out YaST2 Control Center

Here are the steps to install and configure VNCServer:

1. Open TCP port 5901 in the security group that the instance belongs.

2. In the instance, type "zypper install vnc"

3. After installing VNCServer, type "vncpasswd" to set the access password

4. type "vncserver :1" to start a vnc session

5. sudo vim /root/.vnc/xstartup

6. comment out the "twm &" by typing # in front of the phrase, and then add "/usr/bin/gnome &" to the next line

7. save and exit out the xstartup file

8. type "vncserver -kill :1"

9. type "vncserver :1" to start a new session to load the modified xstartup file

10. In your local host, download and install tightvnc: http://www.tightvnc.com/download.php

11. Open "TightVNC Viewer"

12. For the Remote Host, type your DNS for the instance, and then add "::5901" at the end of the line

13. Click "Connect"

14. Type your password you set by vncpasswd

15. Now you can access to your instance via VNC connection

 

Hope this helps.