Prerequisites for Linux Amazon DCV servers
Amazon DCV enables clients to access a remote graphical X session on a Linux server. This provides access to the corresponding Linux desktop. Amazon DCV supports two types of Linux desktop streaming: console sessions and virtual sessions. For more information about console and virtual sessions, see Managing Amazon DCV sessions.
This topic describes how to install the prerequisites required to use Amazon DCV on a Linux server.
Contents
Install a desktop environment and desktop manager
Install a desktop environment and desktop manager to improve your experience with Amazon DCV on a Linux server.
A desktop environment is a graphical user interface (GUI) that helps you to interact with the Linux operating system. There are several desktop environments, and Amazon DCV works with many of them. A desktop manager is a program that manages the user login screen, and starts and stops the desktop environment sessions and the X server.
The following tabbed content shows the steps for installing the default desktop environment and desktop manager on the supported operating systems and also shows how to configure and start the X server on the supported operating systems.
Disable the Wayland protocol (GDM3 only)
Amazon DCV doesn't support the Wayland protocol. If you're using the GDM3 desktop manager, you must disable the Wayland protocol. If you aren't using GDM3, skip this step.
To disable the Wayland protocol
-
Open the following file using your preferred text editor.
-
RHEL, CentOS, and SUSE Linux Enterprise 15.x
/etc/gdm/custom.conf
-
Ubuntu 18.x/20.x/22.x
/etc/gdm3/custom.conf
-
-
In the
[daemon]
section, setWaylandEnable
tofalse
.[daemon] WaylandEnable=false
-
Restart the GDM service.
-
RHEL and CentOS
$
sudo systemctl restart gdm -
Ubuntu 18.x/20.x/22.x
$
sudo systemctl restart gdm3 -
SUSE Linux Enterprise 15.x
$
sudo systemctl restart xdm
-
Configure the X Server
If you intend to use a console session or GPU sharing, you must ensure that your Linux server has a properly configured and running X server.
Note
If you intend to use virtual sessions without GPU sharing, you don't need an X server.
The X server packages are typically installed as dependencies of the desktop environment and the desktop manager. We recommend that you configure the X server to start automatically when your Linux server boots.
To configure and start the X server on RHEL, CentOS, Rocky Linux, Amazon Linux 2, Ubuntu 18.x, 20.x, 22.x, and SUSE Linux Enterprise 12.x, 15.x:
Configure the X server to start automatically when the Linux server boots.
$ sudo systemctl get-default
If the command returns
graphical.target
, the X server is already configured to start automatically. Continue to the next step.If the command returns
multi-user.target
, the X server isn't configured to start automatically. Execute the following command:$ sudo systemctl set-default graphical.target
Start the X server.
$ sudo systemctl isolate graphical.target
Verify that the X server is running.
$ ps aux | grep X | grep -v grep
The following shows example output if the X server is running.
root 1891 0.0 0.7 277528 30448 tty7 Ssl+ 10:59 0:00 /usr/bin/Xorg :0 -background none -verbose -auth /run/gdm/auth-for-gdm-wltseN/database -seat seat0 vt7
Install the glxinfo utility
The glxinfo utility provides information about your Linux server's OpenGL configuration. The utility can be used to determine whether your Linux server is configured to support OpenGL hardware or software rendering. It provides information about the drivers and supported extensions.
The glxinfo utility is installed as a package dependency of DCV GL. Therefore, if you installed DCV GL, the glxinfo utility is already installed on your Linux server.
Verify OpenGL software rendering
On non-GPU Linux servers, OpenGL is only supported in software rendering mode using the Mesa drivers. If you're using a non-GPU Linux server and intend to use OpenGL, ensure that the Mesa drivers are installed and properly configured on your Linux server.
Note
This applies to non-GPU Linux servers only.
To verify that OpenGL software rendering is available
Make sure that the X server is running, and use the following command:
$
sudo DISPLAY=:0 XAUTHORITY=$(ps aux | grep "X.*\-auth" | grep -v grep | sed -n 's/.*-auth \([^ ]\+\).*/\1/p') glxinfo | grep -i "opengl.*version"
The following shows example output if OpenGL software rendering is available:
OpenGL core profile version string: 3.3 (Core Profile) Mesa 17.0.5 OpenGL core profile shading language version string: 3.30 OpenGL version string: 3.0 Mesa 17.0.5 OpenGL shading language version string: 1.30 OpenGL ES profile version string: OpenGL ES 3.0 Mesa 17.0.5 OpenGL ES profile shading language version string: OpenGL ES GLSL ES 3.00
Install GPU drivers for graphics instances
Install and configure NVIDIA drivers
With Linux servers that have a dedicated NVIDIA GPU, ensure that the appropriate NVIDIA drivers are installed and properly configured. For instructions on how to install the NVIDIA drivers on an Amazon EC2 Linux instance, see Installing the NVIDIA Driver on Linux Servers in the Amazon EC2 User Guide.
Note
-
This applies to Linux servers with NVIDIA GPUs only.
-
The GRID drivers support up to four 4K displays for each GPU installed. The gaming drivers support only one 4K display for each GPU installed.
After you installed the NVIDIA drivers on your Linux server, update the
xorg.conf
.
To generate an updated xorg.conf
-
Run the following command.
$
sudo nvidia-xconfig --preserve-busid --enable-all-gpusIf you're using a G3, G4 or G5 Amazon EC2 instance and you want to use a multi-monitor console session, include the
--connected-monitor=DFP-0,DFP-1,DFP-2,DFP-3
parameter. This is as follows.$
sudo nvidia-xconfig --preserve-busid --enable-all-gpus --connected-monitor=DFP-0,DFP-1,DFP-2,DFP-3Note
Make sure that your server doesn't have the legacy
/etc/X11/XF86Config
file. If it does,nvidia-xconfig
updates that configuration file instead of generating the required/etc/X11/xorg.conf
file. Run the following command to remove the legacyXF86Config
file:sudo rm -rf /etc/X11/XF86Config*
-
Restart the X server for the changes to take effect.
-
$
sudo systemctl isolate multi-user.target$
sudo systemctl isolate graphical.target
-
To verify that your NVIDIA GPU supports hardware-based video encoding
Make sure that it supports NVENC encoding and that it has compute capabilities greater than or equal to 3.0, or greater than or equal to 3.5 for Ubuntu 20.
To verify NVENC support, see the NVIDIA Video Encode and Decode GPU Support Matrix
If your NVIDIA GPU doesn't support NVENC encoding or if it doesn't have the required compute capabilities, software-based video encoding is used.
To verify that OpenGL hardware rendering is available
Use the following command to ensure that the X server is running.
$
sudo DISPLAY=:0 XAUTHORITY=$(ps aux | grep "X.*\-auth" | grep -v grep | sed -n 's/.*-auth \([^ ]\+\).*/\1/p') glxinfo | grep -i "opengl.*version"
The following shows example output if OpenGL hardware rendering is available.
OpenGL core profile version string: 4.4.0 NVIDIA 390.75 OpenGL core profile shading language version string: 4.40 NVIDIA via Cg compiler OpenGL version string: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 390.75 OpenGL shading language version string: 4.60 NVIDIA OpenGL ES profile version string: OpenGL ES 3.2 NVIDIA 390.75 OpenGL ES profile shading language version string: OpenGL ES GLSL ES 3.20
Install and Configure AMD Drivers
An instance with an attached AMD GPU, such as a G4ad instance, must have the appropriate AMD driver installed. For instructions on how to install the AMD GPU drivers on a compatible Amazon EC2 instance, see Install AMD drivers on Linux instances.
For more information about Amazon EC2 G4ad instances, see the Deep dive on the
new Amazon EC2 G4ad instances
Install XDummy driver for non-GPU instances
Install and configure the XDummy driver
To use console sessions on Linux servers that do not have a dedicated GPU, ensure that the Xdummy driver is installed and properly configured. The XDummy driver allows the X server to run with a virtual framebuffer when no real GPU is present.
Note
-
This is not required if you intend to use virtual sessions.
-
The XDummy driver is able to support only resolutions defined in its configuration.
After you installed the XDummy drivers on your Linux server, update the
xorg.conf
.
To configure XDummy in xorg.conf
-
Open the
/etc/X11/xorg.conf
file with your preferred text editor. -
Add the following sections to the configuration.
Section "Device" Identifier "DummyDevice" Driver "dummy" Option "UseEDID" "false" VideoRam 512000 EndSection Section "Monitor" Identifier "DummyMonitor" HorizSync 5.0 - 1000.0 VertRefresh 5.0 - 200.0 Option "ReducedBlanking" EndSection Section "Screen" Identifier "DummyScreen" Device "DummyDevice" Monitor "DummyMonitor" DefaultDepth 24 SubSection "Display" Viewport 0 0 Depth 24 Virtual 4096 2160 EndSubSection EndSection
Note
The configuration provided is an example. You can add more modes, and set a different
virtual
resolution. You can also configure more than one dummy monitor. -
Restart the X server for the changes to take effect.
$
sudo systemctl isolate multi-user.target$
sudo systemctl isolate graphical.target