Beginner question: possible to run xterm (without installing XQuartz)?

[emendelson]

Am I right to think that it's impossible to run xterm under lima? I haven't tried installing XQuartz, but am ready to do so if it's needed for xterm).

I'm able to install xterm but when I try to run it, I get:

xterm: Xt error: Can't open display: 
xterm: DISPLAY is not set

I haven't found any working solutions, but maybe I'm looking in the wrong place.

[afbjorklund]

You can configure some kind of graphical output for the VM, start an Xorg server and then even connect to it with a container.

Here is how it was done with Docker and VirtualBox, for instance: boot2docker/boot2docker#1289 (for docker-machine)

To start the display, there is a matching entry in the yaml:

video:
  # QEMU display, e.g., "none", "cocoa", "sdl", "gtk".
  # As of QEMU v6.2, enabling this is known to have negative impact
  # on performance on macOS hosts: https://gitlab.com/qemu-project/qemu/-/issues/334
  # 🟢 Builtin default: "none"
  display: null

We should prepare an "xterm" (or xeyes) example for lima.

[afbjorklund]

When starting up in CLI mode, the qemu display should look something like:

After adding "x11-apps" (and dependencies, for instance xorg and openbox)

I added a local user called "lima" with a password, so I could log in and startx.

That also means I have to run containerd-rootless-setuptool.sh install again.

---

This was just an example, normally you would configure openbox-session:

Using Openbox without a desktop environment (The lightweight approach)

More information about running GUI applications inside Linux containers:

https://github.com/mviereck/x11docker

[afbjorklund]

It would probably be a lot more straightforward, to use limactl show-ssh and Xquartz.

Still requires some setup like X11Forwarding and such, so probably requires documentation.

ssh:
  # Forward X11 into the instance
  # 🟢 Builtin default: false
  forwardX11: null
  # Trust forwarded X11 clients
  # 🟢 Builtin default: false
  forwardX11Trusted: null

EDIT: Added a feature request to the backlog, to provide more docs for running GUI apps:

• Add documentation on how to run graphical applications #989

[afbjorklund]

There is also a backlog item about adding Wayland support:

• lima+wayland #2

[emendelson]

Thank you for these. My goal is set up a system for myself (and provide instructions for others) for running WordPerfect for Unix (character-mode version) in xterm, making it possible to use the graphic equation editor, etc. The WordPerfect for Unix project is here:

https://github.com/taviso/wpunix

And I want to provide instructions at my WordPerfect site, http://wpdos.org

This project works well in lima, running in the macOS terminal, but it would be good to make it easy to setup with a graphic terminal. If it's possible to provide an example for running xterm, I'll be grateful. I'm not clear on exactly what steps to take right now. Thank you again for looking into this!

[afbjorklund]

This can probably run in a regular terminal window even with the ssh connection, but anyway....

From the original limactl start, or afterwards using limactl edit, you need to enable the display.

Choosing "default" instead of "none", should do it: (you can also select a specific backend, like "cocoa")

video:
  display: "default"

---

Then after the machine has been started, you login with the default shell and install the packages.

anders@lima-default:/home/anders$ sudo apt install xterm xorg openbox fbpanel
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
The following additional packages will be installed:
  ...
Suggested packages:
  ...
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  ...
0 upgraded, 179 newly installed, 0 to remove and 78 not upgraded.
Need to get 86.6 MB of archives.
After this operation, 324 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] 

It is possible to slim the install down (or make it bigger). After that I also added a second local user:

anders@lima-default:/home/anders$ sudo adduser lima
Adding user `lima' ...
Adding new group `lima' (1001) ...
Adding new user `lima' (1001) with group `lima' ...
Creating home directory `/home/lima' ...
Copying files from `/etc/skel' ...
New password: 
Retype new password: 
passwd: password updated successfully
Changing the user information for lima
Enter the new value, or press ENTER for the default
	Full Name []: 
	Room Number []: 
	Work Phone []: 
	Home Phone []: 
	Other []: 
Is the information correct? [Y/n] 

After that you should be able to login as "lima", and run startx to start X11 (xterm on right click menu).

[afbjorklund]

There were some links above, how to configure the minimal window manager (requires some setup).

I had to enable a software cursor (in xorg.conf) and added some startup programs (like e.g. fbpanel).

You can also set the screen size using xrandr -s 1024x768, and hsetroot to set the background.

See http://openbox.org/wiki/Help:Autostart, there is lots of information available on how to set up X11...

[emendelson]

Making progress, but baffled by some things still.

Before adding "default" to the displays line, I logged in with my own name and did:

sudo apt install xterm xorg openbox fbpanel

and also

sudo adduser lima (as described above).

I then added "default" to the displays line in lima.yaml, and started the default system.

QEMU started up, and I was able to log in as lima but not as my own user name, which was rejected. Is there any way I can log in with my own username?

Also, I tried starting xterm, but that gives me this error:

xterm: Xt error: can't open display:
xterm: DISPLAY is not set

So I have two questions:

1. How can I log in to the QEMU interface with my own username?
2. How can I start xterm in the QEMU interface?
3. And I realize that this all may be pointless, since I can't seem to get access to host file system from the QEMU system, and that makes the word-processor basically useless.

[afbjorklund]

You can log in with your own user, by setting a password (using passwd) for it. By default, it only has ssh keys (no password).

You need to start the X server, before you can start any X clients such as xterm. This is normally done using startx command.

With the spartan install above, it will just show a black window (until configured) - but it does have a context menu (right-click).

You should be able to access the file mounts as usual, by default lima will mount your home directory (R/O) and /tmp/lima (R/W)

# 🟢 Builtin default: null (Mount nothing)
# 🔵 This file: Mount the home as read-only, /tmp/lima as writable
mounts:
- location: "~"
  # Configure the mountPoint inside the guest.
  # 🟢 Builtin default: value of location
  mountPoint: null
  # CAUTION: `writable` SHOULD be false for the home directory.
  # Setting `writable` to true is possible, but untested and dangerous.
  # 🟢 Builtin default: false
  writable: null
- location: "/tmp/lima"
  # 🟢 Builtin default: false
  # 🔵 This file: true (only for "/tmp/lima")
  writable: true

[afbjorklund]

If you do use the default user instead of adding another one, then the files should be in the home directory.

There are also desktop environments that are easier to use, but then you might just want to use e.g. UTM ?

[jandubois]

Choosing "default" instead of "none", should do it: (you can also select a specific backend, like "cocoa")

video:
  display: "default"

I know some operations (like pulling images from a registry) get painfully slow when the display is set to anything other than none, and that issue has still not been fixed in qemu: https://gitlab.com/qemu-project/qemu/-/issues/334

[afbjorklund]

Potentially one could offer VNC as a workaround, if all GUI displays are broken due to this "App Nap" issue ?

Then again that also requires installing more software (VNC), so perhaps might as well go with XQuartz then.

EDIT: Hmm, maybe not. Seems like Apple's "Remote Desktop" application has support for VNC servers ?

https://support.apple.com/guide/remote-desktop/set-up-a-computer-running-vnc-software-apdbed09830/mac

[afbjorklund]

• Add support for VNC, in addition to the current QEMU displays #1003