Developer Workstations with Proxmox VE and X11

Introduction

Proxmox VE is primarily used as virtualization platform with NO additional software installed. In some case it makes sense to have a full desktop running on Proxmox VE, for example for developers using Proxmox VE as their primary workstation/desktop.

Installing additional packages could lead to a hardly upgradeable system and is not supported from the Proxmox support team and therefore only for expert use.

Install a standard Proxmox VE system

Just install the standard Proxmox VE, following this guide: Installation

Install X-windows

Adapt your sources.list

To have access to VNC console you need Java JRE and a browser plugin

If you want to use the non free sun-java, you have to adapt your sources.list to include 'non-free' repository. The repositories where programs are searched are listed in text file: /etc/apt/sources.list

deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian lenny main non-free

# PVE packages provided by proxmox.com
deb http://download.proxmox.com/debian lenny pve

# security updates
deb http://security.debian.org/ lenny/updates main

If you want to use OpenJDK, normal sources.list are enough.

In both cases, update your repository and system by running:

# aptitude update
# aptitude upgrade

To install sun's java do:

# aptitude install sun-java6-jre sun-java6-plugin

If you want Free OpenJDK do instead:

# aptitude install openjdk-6-jre icedtea6-plugin

Install your favorite desktop

I choose lxde desktop as this a lightweight desktop environment. If you prefer another one, just replace lxde with xfce4,gnome, icewm, kde, ...

# aptitude install lxde iceweasel

Start X-windows

Log as normal user (is not a good idea work as 'root', so you can create one with # adduser newusername) and just enter:

$ startx