I think what you are seeking is how to utilize X as it was originally written.... A lost art my friend.

For those unaware, X does not work like Windows systems. Any X based application issues commands as a X client, that is sent to a X server. When you are on your local machine, these machines are the same, and the protocol is hidden my going across localhost. On Windows based machines, program write by callings APIs in the OS that ALWAYS write to the local machine. The result is, that Linux does not require video on the local box, just the X client. You can, unlike a Windows box, have your programs write directly to your remote connection! If your X client is connected to your X server over say SSH, via port 6000 (fisrt screen, 6001 for second monitor, etc), your Linux desktop can display on your local X server (for Windows desktop use MobaXterm), while running at AWS.

See https://comtechies.com/how-to-set-up-gui-on-amazon-ec2-ubuntu-server.html for a how to.

Enjoy

Kevin Fries

On Nov 23, 2017 1:33 AM, "trent shipley" <trent.shipley@gmail.com> wrote:

I have a pre-built EC2 AMI with RStudio I use to study R. I can use it from my Mac or Windows machine. It is nice.

I want an EC2 Ubuntu 16.04 AMI to use as an affordable cloud based Linux machine to play with toys, like teaching myself Haskell. Take lappy for coffee, get internet on the phone. Do Haskell exercises. Go home. Continue exercises on desktop. (I can run Linux virtual guests on both the Mac and Windows machine.)

Unfortunately, it looks like using the image is a sysadmin challenge, not least because if you want a GUI, you have to get it working on your own. I'm way down the sysadmin learning curve, compounded by the fact that I usually don't enjoy system administration chores.

Has anyone got some useful thoughts?

Trent

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