Prerequisites Step 1: Install the GNOME desktop environment Step 2: Start the desktop Step 3: Clean up resources Related topics

Tutorial: Install the GNOME desktop environment

The GNOME desktop environment is an optional graphical user interface for Amazon Linux 2027 (AL2027). The Desktop package group installs GNOME along with its supporting components.

In this tutorial, you install the GNOME desktop environment on your AL2027 instance so you can use a graphical interface instead of the command line. This is useful for workloads such as data visualization, computer-aided design (CAD), or scientific applications.

This tutorial takes approximately 15–20 minutes to complete.

Note

Completing this tutorial requires a running Amazon EC2 instance, which might result in charges to your Amazon account for the instance, Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS) storage, and associated resources. For pricing details, see Amazon EC2 pricing. To avoid ongoing charges, stop or terminate the instance when you are finished.

Topics

Prerequisites
Step 1: Install the GNOME desktop environment
Step 2: Start the desktop
Step 3: Clean up resources
Related topics

Prerequisites

Before you install the desktop environment, make sure your instance meets the following requirements.

Memory (RAM)

The GNOME desktop environment requires at least 2 GB of memory to start, and 4 GB or more is recommended for comfortable interactive use. Choose an instance type with sufficient memory, such as t3.medium (4 GB) or larger. Smaller types like t3.nano, t3.micro, and t3.small do not have enough memory for a responsive desktop.

Base system

This tutorial assumes that you have already launched an instance running a current release of AL2027 and that the system is up to date. For more information, see the AL2027 on Amazon EC2 and Updating AL2027 pages. Update your packages before installing the desktop so that dependencies resolve against the latest versions:


sudo dnf update -y

Step 1: Install the GNOME desktop environment

Install the GNOME desktop environment and related packages.
```
sudo dnf groupinstall "Desktop" -y
```
You can confirm what the group contains at any time with:
```
dnf group info "Desktop"
```
(Optional) Verify that the group is installed.
```
dnf group list --installed
```

Note

To access the graphical desktop environment, you need to install and configure additional software such as Amazon DCV or VNC. These tools allow you to connect to and interact with the graphical user interface over the network.

Step 2: Start the desktop

The Desktop group installs the GDM display manager but does not start it automatically. Enable and start it so the graphical login is available now and on every boot:


sudo systemctl enable --now gdm

To make the system boot into the graphical interface by default:


sudo systemctl set-default graphical.target

You can verify the service and default target with:


systemctl is-active gdm
systemctl get-default

Step 3: Clean up resources

To avoid ongoing charges, clean up the resources you created for this tutorial when you are finished with them.

If you no longer need the instance, stop or terminate it. Stopping the instance ends compute charges but retains the Amazon EBS volume; terminating it removes the instance and its associated resources. For more information, see the AL2027 on Amazon EC2 page.
If you want to keep the instance but no longer need the graphical desktop, stop the graphical login and prevent it from starting on boot.
```
sudo systemctl disable --now gdm
```
Restore the default boot target to the multiuser (non-graphical) target.
```
sudo systemctl set-default multi-user.target
```
(Optional) Uninstall the desktop packages.
```
sudo dnf groupremove "Desktop" -y
```