Centos GUI Setup Issues

Question

Hi forum,  
  
I'm having issues connecting to new Centos7 images generated with the 1.5.0 AMI.  
  
Is anyone else still experiencing issues even after using the updated scripts and commands described here: https://forums.aws.amazon.com/ann.jspa?annID=6352  
  
My steps are as follows:  
1. start instance  
2. add RDP rules  
3. sudo yum install -y xrdp --enablerepo=cr  
4. /home/centos/src/scripts/setup_gui.sh  
5. edit /etc/xrdp.ini and change security_layer to rdp from negotiate  
6. attempt login using RDP client with correct .pem, username, and password generated by script  
  
I'm using Remmina via Ubuntu desktop and Microsoft RD via Mac and I get the same error. A window pops up that says:

```
sesman connect ok
sending login info to session manager, please wait...
login successful for display 10
VNC started connecting
VNC connecting to 127.0.0.1 5910
VNC error - problem connecting
some problem
```

Any tips? Has anyone else figured out a methodology to get VNC working over RDP?  
  
Thanks!  
  
-Jack

Answer

Hi xor,  
  
We've been able to get around this issue and have updated the GUI setup script on the S3 bucket. If you run the following script on a new instance, it should setup a desktop for you correctly without needing to upgrade to Centos 7.6.

```
source <(curl -s https://s3.amazonaws.com/aws-fpga-developer-ami/1.5.0/Scripts/setup_gui.sh)
```

That should let you work with the available XRT as well.  
  
Please let us know if you have any trouble with the Desktop setup and of course with anything else in our flow. We appreciate your feedback and are working towards giving you a better experience thanks to feedback like this.  
  
Thanks,  
  
Deep

Answer

Doing this update definitely breaks SDAccel drivers on AMI 1.5.0. One unfortunate workaround would be one AMI for development and another for programming the FPGA.

Answer

Worked!  
  
Thanks for the quick reply Deep!

Answer

Hey xor,  
Can you please let us know the error you see ?  
Can you send us the list of steps to recreate it ?  
  
-Thanks

Answer

Hi Jack,  
  
It seems like the
 ` sudo yum groupinstall -y "Server with GUI" `
 step might be failing in the original script as one of the packages it installs fails a dependency check. Essentially the GUI Desktop session does not start at all due to this which is why VNC has a problem connecting.  
  
If you run:

```
sudo yum update
source <(curl -s https://s3.amazonaws.com/aws-fpga-developer-ami/1.5.0/Scripts/setup_gui.sh)
```

Things should start working after that to start your GUI Desktop.  
  
**NOTE**: A big caveat to running the above steps is that a yum update could update the kernel/other packages that your runtime application/drivers might have dependencies on.   
  
Hope this helps!   
  
Deep

Centos GUI Setup Issues

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