Can We Install a GUI in Amazon Linux 2023?
Amazon Linux 2023 is a super-optimized version of Linux AMI provided by AWS. It is the successor to AWS and provides better performance and security.
At the time of writing this post, this is the latest Amazon Linux by AWS and recommended by default.
But what if you need desktop/GUI support on your Amazon Linux 2023 EC2 instance? Can we install a graphical user interface or desktop client like mate-desktop on Amazon Linux 2023 EC2 instance?
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How did we use to Install GUI Before AL2023 came into picture?
In the predecessor of Amazon Linux 2023, Amazon Linux 2 we can install mate-desktop in our instance to enable and setup GUI access for our instance.
Installation of mate-desktop is available via amazon-linux-extras repository.
You can use a command like-
sudo amazon-linux-extras install mate-desktop1.x -y
Can We Install a GUI in Amazon Linux 2023?
The short and sweet answer is No. Amazon Linux 2023 doesn’t make packages like mate-desktop available as yet.
And as you know, you can’t install anything from amazon-linux-extras on Amazon Linux 2023. So the previous option is also not for you.
Moreover, AWS in it’s documentation says-
Amazon Linux 2023 is cloud-centered and optimized for Amazon EC2 usage and currently does not include a graphical or desktop environment. To provide feedback on GitHub, see https://github.com/ .
So it means, it doesn’t include any GUI and doesn’t provide a package either so that you can install it over.
There is a feature request raised on GitHub for this https://github.com/amazonlinux/amazon-linux-2023/issues/47 that you can keep an eye on.
Let’s keep our fingers crossed and hope this feature request gets closed soon. And we get to install GUI on our Amazon Linux 2023 EC2 Instance.
Conclusion
In the article Can We Install a GUI in Amazon Linux 2023 we discussed that at the moment AL2023 doesn’t make GUI options like MATE or GNOME available for us.
However, a feature request is already raised for this and let’s hope we get this soon.
Are you looking for GUI options like MATE or GNOME on Amazon Linux 2023 or AL2023? What’s your take on this? DO let us know in the comment box.
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