installing a GUI on an AWS EC2 headless server

[WIP]

I was able set up a remote Ubuntu server with a GUI that I can successfully access from my MacBook. It runs slow, maybe partly because the connection is going thru a SSH tunnel... i.e. YouTube via Firefox was not too useful. The whole process isn't so unique--there are a few tutorials online--it just involved a lot of reading, and trial & error. I'll continuously update this post as I copy my notes into here. In the meantime, here's a screen grab of the remote server's 1152x720 window running inside my local laptop's 1280x800 display:

Woot!

My first priority was to get a computer inexpensively* running as a headless server. That means a visit to Amazon Web Services to start a Spot Request for an EC2 micro instance. Assuming other like-minded cheapskates don't drive up bidding prices, I could probably run this virtual machine non-stop for about $2-$6 USD/month. How's that for low-budget!

As long as I've been tinkering on AWS (back when instance management was only via command-line, ugh), I've always wanted to have an option to run a GUI on those things. <shrug> No major reason (and actually I'd rather just get stuff done on my Mac). I guess I'm intrigued by the challenge of trying to see what the tiny VMs can actually run.

So my next priority was to get a display server going on the remote computer...not easy to tweak when it's a few thousand miles away in an Amazon data center. In this situation, I've always wondered about the right type of x-server to set up. (yeah I'm staying with X, because I'm too conservative to jump into alternatives like Wayland, et al. that I know even less about) I wanted to install without pulling in too much x-org dependency-crud that wouldn't be relevant for truly headless boxes on EC2 instances. Eventually I decided on Xpra because it automatically pulled in "xvfb" (X Virtual Frame Buffer) for me, and included an approprate "xorg.conf" to use. From there I verified that Xpra actually worked with their default NX-based option. Next I'll try VNC via SSH. Then, I want to be able to access the box via TeamViewer--they have a nifty little iOS app that really works! Of course I admit that the latter access method would only be for I'm-a-clever-show-off demos. No way am I gonna be chicken-peckin' on a little screen for any serious admin!

details

pre-requisites / assumptions

AWS account!

ec2 instance usage, command-line or AWS Management Console

ssh & key-pair usage, SSH or Putty

hardware & OS

remote server infrastructure: Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) on Amazon Web Services (AWS)

remote server hardware: t1.micro (Variable ECUs, 1 vCPUs, 0.613 GiB memory, EBS only)

AMI ID: ami-84562dec (snap-95cc671f); Ubuntu Server 14.04 LTS (PV), SSD Volume Type

Kernel ID: aki-880531cd

remote server OS: Ubuntu Server 14.04.1 LTS (Trusty Tahr)

local computer hardware: MacBook3,1 with Intel Core 2 Duo (2 GHz) and 6 GB ram

local computer OS: Mac OS X 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard)

important remote software

tmux

Xpra

(xvfb is auto-installed)

Xephyr

jwm

important local software

Xpra (for Apple Mac OS X, 10.5 onwards)

raw notes [format/organize]

[aptitude install]

wmcalclock (standalone install, to test how the x-server displays a clock)

xvt (standalone install, to test how the x-server displays a terminal)

firefox

Xpra ("install Debian repositories by following the repository installation instructions for 'winswitch'")

[manual add into repository]

[except installing "winswitch"]

xvfb

xserver-xephyr

jwm

menu

x11-apps

xpra start --exit-with-children :28 --start-child="Xephyr :67 -ac -screen 1152x720 -terminate"

DISPLAY=:67 jwm &

[xpra attach :28] on local MacBook

"ENTER" key on server is mapped to "fn-RETURN" on my local MacBook keyboard

[NOTES]

*Until I get the next paying SysAdmin job, I might as well be frugal as I maintain skillz.