How to Install a GUI on Fedora

The Fedora options in your Hostwinds VPS(s) don't come with any graphical user interface by default. There are many options for the look-and-feel of a GUI in Linux, but for lightweight (low resource usage) window management, this guide will use Xfce. These instructions have been tested with Fedora 29 in Hostwinds VPSes.

Installing a GUI on Fedora

The following commands are to be run as root on your VPS (via SSH or GetVNC)

It is recommended to run a yum upgrade before proceeding to make sure you have the latest version of all packages.

yum upgrade

Install Xfce and its dependencies:

yum groupinstall "Xfce Desktop"

Edit ~/.xinitrc to end with 'exec startxfce4.'

echo "exec startxfce4" >> ~/.xinitrc

You can now set up the remote access method of your choice or use Actions -> Get VNC from Cloud Control, login, and run 'startx.'