Simple Ubuntu Desktop with Vagrant

I wanted to spin up a Linux development environment to hack on some code that needed epoll. I could have run everything in a Docker container, but I kinda wanted to be in that environment for total hackage.

I thought maybe I’d just do it in a Virtualbox instance. Then I didn’t want to install Ubuntu or anything. Then I realized that Vagrant is supposed to solve this problem. Installed Vagrant and used Ubuntu Trusty – https://app.vagrantup.com/ubuntu

$ brew cask install vagrant
$ vagrant init ubuntu/trusty64
$ vagrant up

Then I realized I wanted a minimal desktop.

So googling.

Yep, XFCE FTW. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/18878117/using-vagrant-to-run-virtual-machines-with-desktop-environment

Then install chrome. It’s easiest to SSH into the instance and past this stuff in through the native shell.

$ wget -q -O – https://dl-ssl.google.com/linux/linux_signing_key.pub | sudo apt-key add –
$ echo ‘deb [arch=amd64] http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable main’ | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-chrome.list
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install google-chrome-stable

 

In Virtualbox

$ startxfce4&