Running Linux GUI apps from a remote machine

This is an optional activity. The guide is deliberately minimal. These are the commands I use on a Windows laptop to connect to virtual instance on GCP and display GUI apps.

Assumes VcXsrv, Google Cloud SDK are installed on Windows; and X11 packages are installed on GCP (sudo apt update && sudo apt install xauth x11-apps).

Windows

  1. Start XLaunch.
  2. Choose Multiple windows.
  3. Set display number to 0.
  4. Choose Start no client.
  5. Check Disable access control.
  6. Finish.

PowerShell

Connect to the GCP VM (use your own instance name and zone):

gcloud compute ssh instance-20260819-180758 --zone us-east1-c --ssh-flag="-X"

Debian

Verify X11 forwarding:

echo $DISPLAY

Expected output:

localhost:10.0

Launch an X application:

xclock

The clock window should appear on the Windows desktop.

Acknowledgement: Demo mostly constructed by ChatGPT.