How to uninstall Ubuntu server edition and install ubuntu desktop edition

Question

Hi,

I have a virtual machine running Ubuntu 18.04 server edition. I would like to change it to Ubuntu desktop edition as I wanted a GUI. What do I do? Also, I would like to do this on a Ubuntu 20.04 VM as well.

Thanks in advance

Answer 1

Good day @amay428 @amay428

How to uninstall Ubuntu server edition and install ubuntu desktop edition

There is no such separate operating system "Ubuntu desktop edition". There are versions which come with desktop app already installed as part of the main installation and there are versions which are more clean. Linux is not designed like windows. You have a core and on top of that core you can install what ever you want. The template which you choose simply does not include a desktop app probably, so In order to have desktop GUI you simply need to install a desktop application (no need to uninstall anything).

There are tens of different Linux desktop environments which you can choose from. Some looks and feel more like windows operating system and some less.

For production machine, you must have more knowledge on this topic and you should select the environments which fits your need. The differences can be huge. For example some environments come will home users application including games while others point to be used on servers. In this case (production) I highly recommend to search google for: Linux desktop environments

For example, here are some of the common environments: Gnome, Xfce, KDE (there are multiple versions), LXDE, Cinnamon, MATE,
Enlightenment, Equinox, Lumina, Budgie, and many many more. This post present 20 and provide basic information on these (simply the first result I got from Google).

For beginners and for first glance you can follow an old post I wrote on the steps to install Desktop environment named "xubuntu-desktop" + prepare the machine for remote desktop and install all related to SQL Server:

https://ariely.info/Blog/SQLServeronLinux/tabid/182/language/he-IL/Default.aspx

Note that this is very very old post which I wrote for myself to follow during a lecture. As you can see it is not under my blog, since it was not meant to be a post but steps for myself

The command to install XFCE desktop app is: sudo apt-get install xubuntu-desktop

The command to install KDE desktop app is: sudo apt-get install kubuntu-desktop

Also, I would like to do this on a Ubuntu 20.04 VM as well.

There is no different. All you need is to confirm that specific desktop app you choose supports the Linux version you use. The above should probably works well, but you should always read the full information of the all the applications which you use and make sure that they play nice together, and any case anything you do is on your own responsibility and better to do with expert :-)

For development and learning scenario the above should fit

Answer 2

Hi

I had tried installing unity. It installed and I restarted my VM. Still, no luck. In the boot diagnostics, I saw a screenshot of the GUI but I didn't get it in puTTY.

Regards

Answer 3

Hi,

I restarted my VM.

I think that you have some confusion regarding Linux and you treat it as it was windows. Linux as I mentioned above is based on "layers" and there is no reason to restart the OS just because you install something. It was completely unnecessary.

In the boot diagnostics, I saw a screenshot of the GUI

Using Azure Linux if there is no desktop then you should see bellow

If you see the desktop GUI instead of the above then you probably installed the desktop app well.

I saw a screenshot of the GUI but I didn't get it in puTTY

How do you want to see GUI in a shell command tool?!? This make no sense! puTTY is a command shell and not a GUI interface. Can you see the desktop of your local machine using PowerShell for example?!?

If you succed to connect using puTTY (which must work since you say that you installed the desktop app), then you are ready and you machine is working well.

In order to see desktop you need to connect with GUI Interface, and for this you need more steps.

You need to install application which serve you a remote GUI connection, like for example you can install xrdp and use windows remote desktop to connect the machine.

All you need is to follow the steps in my site, until the point where you connect the Linux from windows where it says: "Connect with Windows Remote Desktop"

Note! this is not related to the Azure and anything you do after you created the Virtual Machine is pure using Linux.