In some scenarios, you might want to have a GUI on your GPU accelrated accelerated instance. VNC is typically the way to go, when you want a remote desktop connection to a Linux-based computer. Actullay getting a GPU accelrated VNC session is not very straightforward, but if you follow these instructions carefully; it can be done 
The following steps are tested on Ubuntu Server 2022.04
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This steps in this guide should also work for VMs without a GPU. Just skip the nvidia-xconfig steps. |
Configure the server
Install a basic GUI, a VNC server and some necessary utilities
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$ sudo$ sudo apt install gnome-sessionxfce4 x11vnc xinit |
Disable gdm3 and set Set default target
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$ sudo systemctl disable gdm3.service $ sudo systemctl set-default multi-user.target |
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Configure x11vnc to autostart with the gnome-sessionxfce4
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$ mkdir -p ~/.config/autostart
$ cat << EOF > ~/.config/autostart/x11vnc.desktop
[Desktop Entry]
Name=X11VNC Server
Comment=Share this desktop by VNC
Exec=x11vnc -localhost -forever -shared -ncache
Icon=computer
Terminal=false
Type=Application
StartupNotify=false
Categories=Network;RemoteAccess;
Keywords=VNC;Server;Screencast
EOF |
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Tell getty to autologin the ubuntu-user
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$ sudo mkdir /etc/systemd/system/getty@tty1.service.d/ $ sudo cat << EOF >| sudo tee /etc/systemd/system/getty@tty1.service.d/override.conf [Service] ExecStart= ExecStart=-/sbin/agetty --autologin ubuntu --noclear %I $TERM EOF $ sudo systemctl enable getty@tty1.service |
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$ sudo nvidia-xconfig --query-gpu-info # Take note of the value of "PCI BusID" $ sudo nvidia-xconfig --busid="<busid from before>" --useallow-display-device=none # This will generate a xorg.conf that almost works. In order to _actually_ make it work, open /etc/X11/xorg.conf in your favourite editor and do the following: - Remove the entire Section "Monitor" block - In the Section "Screen" block remove the following: Option "UseDisplayDevice" "none" Monitor "Monitor0" SubSection "Display" Depth 24 EndSubSection - In the Section "Screen" block, add: Option "AllowEmptyInitialConfiguration" "True"empty-initial-configuration |
Ensure that the X server starts on boot, and only when doing an interactive logon
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$ cat << EOF >> ~/.bashrc if [ -z "\${DISPLAY}" ] && [[ "\${XDG_VTNR}" -eq 1 ]]; then exec startx fi EOF |
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Congratulations. You are now done, and you should do a reboot.
Connect to the VNC server
When the steps above are completed, you are reday to connect. The configured VNC server is only listening to localhost. So, to be able to connect you need to setup a SSH tunnel on your client. This should work in Linux, MacOS and in PowerShell on windows:
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