Amazon EC2 Linux servers do not come with GUI, all the operations have to be done using ssh client like putty. So if you wish to have a GUI for your Amazon Linux instances, you can achieve it pretty easily. Once you installed the GUI essentials on your server, you can access it via windows, remote desktop client. If you are using Linux, then you can use the VNC viewer as a remote desktop client. In order to have a GUI, a lightweight LXDE desktop has to be installed on your server.
LXDE
- Specially designed for cloud-based servers.
- Lightweight GUI for Linux
- Better interface
- Multi-language support
- Supports standard keyboard shortcuts
- Fast performance
Prerequisites
- A running Ubuntu ec2 instance.
- Security group inbound traffic configured for ssh and RDP access (22 and 3389)
Note: This setup is tested on Ubuntu 18.x server
Getting Started
Step 1: Connect to the server using ssh client putty. How To Connect Ubuntu Server Using Putty
Step 2: Make sure that RDP port is enabled on the Ubuntu instance in which you are going to install lxde. Update the server and install lxde using the following commands.
sudo apt-get update -y
sudo apt-get install lxde -yStep 3: Install xrdp to establish a remote desktop connection since you can’t have a GUI using putty. Use the following command to install xrdp
sudo apt-get install xrdp -y
Step 4: Set a password for the default user “ubuntu”, as remote desktop connection requires username and password.
sudo passwd ubuntuNote: You can set up your own user and password for remote desktop
Step 5: Start the windows remote desktop client and enter the public DNS or the public IP of your server instance and hit connect.
Step 6: Enter the username and password of the server instance that we created in step 5 and hit ok. Make sure RDP 3389 is enabled in your security group.
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Bingo!! you can start using your Ubuntu server with GUI via the remote desktop connection.
23 comments
in aws, dont forget to open the right port. i has no idea which, so i opened all the traffic ^ ^
It is mentioned in the pre-requisites 🙂
Getting this on ubuntu 16.04
[email protected]:~# start lxdm
start: Unable to connect to Upstart: Failed to connect to socket /com/ubuntu/upstart: Connection refused
uname -a
Linux ip-10-30-32-116 4.4.0-1013-aws #22-Ubuntu SMP Fri Mar 31 15:41:31 UTC 2017 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
just a quick note your docs work on version 14 of ubuntu just not 16
Does not work for Ubuntu 16.04.
Gives the following error while doing sudo start lxdm:
“start: Unable to connect to Upstart: Failed to connect to socket /com/ubuntu/upstart: Connection refused”
Bro just ignore the message and forward to further request.
It will surely work, personally tried by me.
Gets the same error but i ignored.
For Ubuntu 16.04 you have to use for Step 3
sudo systemctl stop lightdm
sudo systemctl disable lightdm
sudo systemctl start lxd
sudo systemctl enable lxd
Thanks!
This article was written in 2017… should have used a post-16.04 Ubuntu especially since the Ubuntu AMI is 16.04.
For step 4, I had to do:
sudo systemctl start xrdp
sudo systemctl enable xrdp
And for step 5, I had to create a new user because “ubuntu” cannot have a password if you set up the instance with a private key.
WORKS LIKE A CHAMP!
THANK YOU…!
Fantastic, looking for such solution for a long time
Firstly thank’s Tabsun for your Solution..
But Further….
Get’s the Grey Screen and RDP Terminates. Does anyone face this issue…??
I’m getting the Grey screen and RDP termination as well.
hello!
I’m facing the same problem.. Get a grey screen with two cross markers and the session brings me out of the remote desktop connection.
Any solution for this?
Hi Good Post,
Please help copy paste from my windows machine to ubuntu server.
Follow this article https://comtechies.com/copy-files-between-windows-and-linux.html
Cool.. struggled with step 3. Thanks Tabsun.
Yeah right, just ignore the error.. it works fine with 16.04
Brilliant, worked 1st time with the latest Ubuntu on AWS, Ubuntu Server 20.04 LTS
Many thanks.
THanks, working good. But if you also explain , these plugins that we installed are actually for what?
Its almost 2021 and even with COVID plaguing the world and me still hating all things Linux, this worked like a champ with no errors and no deviations from the instruction bing, bam, boom…
Does this work if you install Gnome or any other GUI?