Linux desktop

The Linux desktop gives you a graphical environment on the cluster, right inside your web browser.

It is useful for running software that needs a screen, such as plotting tools, genome browsers, or graphical editors. You do not need to install anything on your own computer — a web browser and your Anunna account are all you need.

The desktop is based on Xfce, a lightweight and user-friendly desktop environment.

 ⚠️ Warning: Start only one desktop session at a time. Running two sessions simultaneously causes conflicts and neither will work properly. If your desktop seems stuck, check My Interactive Sessions (see Reconnecting) to make sure you do not have a duplicate running.

Getting started

Launching a desktop

1. Go to http://apps.anunna.wur.nl/.
2. Click the XFCE desktop tile:

   

3. A launch form appears:

   

4. Enter how long you need the desktop (in hours). The desktop will shut down automatically when the time runs out.
5. Click Launch.

After a short wait the desktop session will start. Continue to Connecting to your desktop below.

Connecting to your desktop

Once the session is running you will see an information tile:

Click Launch Desktop (XFCE) to open the desktop in your browser.

Using the desktop

The desktop looks like this:

Along the bottom you will find six shortcut icons:

• Show Desktop — minimise all windows
• Terminal — open a command-line terminal
• File Browser — browse your files
• Web Browser — open a web browser inside the desktop
• Application Search — search for installed applications
• Home Folder — open your home directory

The Applications menu in the top-left corner gives access to the same applications, plus Settings for desktop preferences.

Using pre-installed software (modules)

Software that is available on Anunna via the module load command works inside the desktop as well. Open a terminal and use modules exactly as you would on the command line. See the Modules page for more information.

Reconnecting to a running desktop

If you close your browser or shut down your computer, the desktop keeps running in the background. To reconnect:

1. Go to http://apps.anunna.wur.nl/.
2. Click My Interactive Sessions in the menu bar.
3. Find your running session and click Launch Desktop (XFCE).

Stopping the desktop

There are two ways to stop a desktop session:

From inside the desktop

Open the Applications menu (top left) and click Log Out at the bottom. Alternatively, click your name in the top-right corner and choose Log Out. You will see a "Connection lost" message — this is normal and simply means the session has ended.

From the session tile

Go to My Interactive Sessions and click Cancel on the session tile.

After stopping, the tile changes to:

From here you can:

• Click the pencil icon to change settings before starting a new session.
• Click the recycle icon to start a new session with the same settings.
• Click Delete to remove the session log files.

Advanced usage

Customising your session

The default launch form keeps things simple. If you need more control, tick Show advanced job options on the launch form to reveal additional settings:

Here you can change:

• The number of CPU cores and amount of memory.
• The maximum duration of the session.
• Whether to enable admin rights (see Installing your own software below).

Adjust the settings to match your needs, then click Launch.

Installing your own software

If you need software that is not already available through modules, you can install it yourself. To do so, you need administrator privileges inside the desktop.

Enabling admin rights

1. On the launch form, tick Show advanced job options.
2. Enable the admin rights option.
3. Click Launch.

When admin rights are enabled, you have full administrator (root) access inside the desktop. You can verify this by opening a terminal: the prompt will show root instead of your username.

How changes are saved

When you use admin rights, any software you install or files you change inside the system directories are saved automatically. The next time you start a desktop session with admin rights, your changes will still be there. This means you only need to install software once.

 ℹ️ Note: Changes are stored in a personal disk image on the lustre filesystem. If you run into disk-space issues or want a clean start, contact the HPC helpdesk.

Troubleshooting

Problem	What to do
Desktop does not start or stays Queued for a long time	The cluster may be busy. Try requesting fewer resources (cores, memory) or a shorter duration. Also check that you do not already have a session running under My Interactive Sessions.
Screen is black or unresponsive after connecting	Try reloading the browser tab. If the problem persists, stop the session and start a new one.
"Connection lost" message appeared unexpectedly	Your session may have reached its time limit. Start a new session with a longer duration. If it happens immediately, check My Interactive Sessions for error information.
I accidentally started two desktops	Go to My Interactive Sessions, cancel both sessions, and start a single new one.
I installed software but it is gone after restarting	Make sure you launched the session with admin rights enabled. Without admin rights, system-level changes are not preserved.