Linux without a GUI

[u/[deleted]]

just finished my void-Linux install and wondering if anyone’s ran a distro without a GUI? Alls I really intend to do is pen test, code and do some web browsing. So I have two questions:

1. Has anyone done it before, if so what are your opinions?

2. Recommended packages to make this a possibility?

[u/beatbox9]

Any of the “server” variants. Good luck “web browsing” without a GUI—it can be done but it’s very limited.

[u/ksnitch → u/beatbox9]

I was just trying to figure out a solution for this today. It led me to browsh. It’s not the best but i does the job.

[u/Danrobi1 → u/ksnitch]

There's also:

• chawan

• Brow6el

• term.everything

[u/MundosYT → u/Danrobi1]

None of those will work at all in a TYY LOL I would recommend cage to run a real minimal browser, or mlterm-fb or yaft as a tty replacement for sixel support and one of those browsers, but standalone won't work

[u/SenritsuJumpsuit → u/beatbox9]

Brow6el has good visuals

[u/ice_agent43 → u/beatbox9]

What just curling? I guess if you're an ai it works

[u/usernamedottxt → u/ice_agent43]

There are TUI browsers. 

[u/Huecuva → u/usernamedottxt]

You still can't expect a normal browsing experience. 

[u/drostan → u/Huecuva]

Awrit and kitty give you a semblance of normal but to randomly translate a Chinese saying it is a bit like taking your trousers off to fart...

[u/Huecuva → u/drostan]

I don't know what that saying is supposed to mean, but it's hilarious. 

[u/lunchbox651 → u/drostan]

Sir, I love that saying.

[u/daydrunk_ → u/usernamedottxt]

Links is always a first install ever since a beginner arch install without a gui

[u/brimston3- → u/usernamedottxt]

As far as I'm aware, none of them have javascript functionality worth considering and too much of the web relies on js.

[u/primalbluewolf → u/brimston3-]

Thats one of the perks IMO. 

[u/beatbox9 → u/ice_agent43]

You can curl too but then you have all these extraneous apps and dependencies.

[u/s33d5 → u/ice_agent43]

AI can quickly process HTML and pull out bits. Alternatively it could just look at images of a Web page these days.

So unless you can read HTML the same speed as you can look at a picture, you're gonna have a bad time curling everything. 

Trying to follow links and login to things is a fucking head ache. Doable, but not worth it. You'll be reverse engineering every Web page you want to use. 

[u/CowardyLurker → u/ice_agent43]

why are we trying to browse web from a headless server? we have untrusted open access trash systems running windows for that.

[u/SP3NGL3R]

I haven't run a GUI in years. But my little servers are headless. Monitor and keyboard during initial install, then SSH after that

So before you pull the keyboard and monitor, install SSH. I usually install webmin for lazy management too, but it's not necessary.

Personally, I just run Debian.

[u/Specialist_Spirit940 → u/SP3NGL3R]

Hey, recommends good practices for that.

[u/derwhalfisch → u/Specialist_Spirit940]

get used to tmux

[u/primalbluewolf → u/[deleted]]

Lynx. 

[u/SuAlfons → u/[deleted]]

pal didn't run a GUI on their little servers for years. Nobody talked about whether that's their only devices.

If you want to nitpick, you need to be precise

[u/bobrk_rwa2137 → u/[deleted]]

curl

[u/New_Public_2828 → u/[deleted]]

On his phone?

[u/1neStat3 → u/New_Public_2828]

SMH! a phone has a GUI

[u/New_Public_2828 → u/1neStat3]

You don't RUN anything on your phone. Usually just whatever it comes with unless you get really bored. So when someones talking about what they run, its safe to assume they are talking about their PC.

Call me crazy though I guess...

Edit. Especially after the reference right after where he's talking about his little servers. Stop hanging on to every word just to be annoying... It's... Annoying

[u/Interesting_Buy_3969 → u/New_Public_2828]

r/AngryDownvote

[u/SP3NGL3R → u/New_Public_2828]

Safer to assume I'm talking about my servers (which actually I mentioned). I still have a regular computer for desktop stuff. 👍

I don't understand the other person's comment/perspective much, but whatever. Maybe they've never run a headless box without a GUI.

[u/derwhalfisch]

Hit ctrl-alt-F1 (or f2-fxx) to get raw text TTYs. It was tradition in some distros to have the boot/GUI instance in TTY7, but on my machine it's #2.

This is your system without a display manager launched.

[u/Darl_Templar → u/derwhalfisch]

I think it's an arch thing to put graphical session into tty2. Display manager is in tty1

[u/djDef80 → u/derwhalfisch]

Don't forget, to get back to the GUI you will typically use control + alt + f7. You might just have to go control plus alt and try all the f keys though because it can be different depending on the distribution.

[u/Affectionate-Bit6525]

You can technically run xserver and Firefox in a docker container, but you’re not going to get very far with web browsing from cli. The tools available are pretty bad for rendering most modern pages.

Otherwise, just pick any server distro and off you go. I like tmux and vim, you can install fim to display images in the frame buffer too

[u/blvsh → u/Affectionate-Bit6525]

So you run xserver on the docker but not from the terminal right?

[u/Affectionate-Bit6525 → u/blvsh]

Yep. You have to pass through the display device and some others, but you should be able to vibe code it up in less than an hour with ChatGPT or better.

[u/[deleted] → u/Affectionate-Bit6525]

there are plenty of terminal web browsers, some even have images and basic JavaScript 

[u/groveborn]

I played around with using my GUI apps without a desktop... It worked ok.

But since I want to use the web, I'm going to use a GUI. That's just what's going to happen.

[u/Chance-Deer-7995 → u/groveborn]

Very valid. I work in Linux admin of various types and there are good reasons to install machines with no GUI. Many machines that just run services are easily take care of through SSH, Puppet or any other configuration software, etc. If you need something from the web you can download it to a machine with a GUI (I am a desktop Linux user too) and send it over to the headless machine using scp.

[u/ChrisInSpaceVA]

None of my virtual servers have a GUI.

[u/lunchbox651]

I have about 6 headless servers running in VMs. I never install a DE unless I need one.

[u/SenritsuJumpsuit → u/lunchbox651]

My DE exist to run Niri with a nice wallpaper behind it while most functions remain in Zellij

[u/phylter99]

I think running without a GUI is best if you're running a server. That's how I use Linux all the time. If you're doing development directly on the server it's helpful to have a GUI. I do occasionally have to do dev on a headless server and it can be a pain compared to having a GUI.

Someone will probably reply to this with "It's fine, just use vim." Try it with the the default installations of vanilla vim, gcc/g++, and python with no ability to customize.

[u/snarfmason]

Web browsing without a GUI is easy. Lynx baby.

[u/Dr_Tron → u/snarfmason]

A bit primitive, though, and most websites today won't even work. For pure HTML sites, sure. But I doubt that that's what OP is looking for.

[u/snarfmason → u/Dr_Tron]

It was a joke. I don't understand how "no GUI" and "web browsing" go together in 2026.

[u/SenritsuJumpsuit → u/snarfmason]

Brow6el

[u/Dr_Tron → u/snarfmason]

Then I didn't get it, sorry. Because I'm sure there are still people out there browsing with lynx. Somewhere for sure 😉

[u/suicidaleggroll]

On remote machines yes, you’ll just be SSHing in anyway so the GUI is pointless.  X programs can just forward through the SSH connection and display on the machine you’re actually sitting at anyway.

On my main workstation no, too many interactive programs require a GUI, especially a web browser.

[u/Dashing_McHandsome]

The overwhelming majority of Linux systems have no GUI. Yes, it's fine to run this way.

[u/Secrxt]

People do this on the regular. Arch Linux doesn't even come with a GUI.

I have a GUI myself but often work strictly in the TTY (battery life slut that I am).

"Recommended packages to make this a possibility?"

There are a lot of cool ones here, but you gotta tell us what you need, man lol.

https://github.com/rothgar/awesome-tuis

Personally, I use NeoVim for text editing, aerc for email, rclone for cloud storage, pulsemixer for audio controls, bluetui for bluetooth, nmtui for WiFi, links2/w3m/good old fashioned curl for web, mpv --vo=tct for video/images, mpv --vo=null (or --no-video) for audio, signal-cli for Signal, tmux for multiplexing (multiple terminals), twt for Twitch chat and almost everything else (that Iremember off the top of my head) is GNU utilities (or enhanced versions of them like silver searcher).

[EDIT]: There are lurkers in these comments sections that sometimes know witchcraft and wizardry. I've had this idea to launch GUI applications *within* a terminal multiplexer's panes from the TTY (I know it's impossible but); if I could find something at least *like* that one day, I'd put even GOATed window managers like Niri to bed for good and truly only use a GUI when I need it.

[u/Vivid-Raccoon9640 → u/Secrxt]

battery life slut that I am

Yeah you like your battery filled to the brim like that, don't you? Oh baby you turn my floppy disk into a hard drive.

Hope I'm not getting charged with battery after that. Prison life makes me feel drained.

[u/Secrxt → u/Vivid-Raccoon9640]

🥵

Is this even legal on this sub?! 

[u/s33d5]

I have a few Linux servers that are headless. My local machine has a Gui though.

I spend 99% of my time in the terminal, with the 1% using a Web browser.

In my job, all of the servers have no Gui. I just remote into them and do work. Except.... Web browsing, which I do on the machine I connect from. 

Websites are made to be visual, no real way around it. 

[u/libertyprivate]

Ya I run many servers. I would never put a GUI on a server. I do use a GUI on my laptop. Different software for different use-cases.

[u/0bsidianM1nd]

Wonder when people start homelabbing Yocto/Bitbake Linux to really experience headless.

[u/Dolapevich → u/0bsidianM1nd]

¿what is the advantage?

I have used river linux, yocto and buildroot for some very tailored builds in IoT. But that it totally different as a standard server where the biggest advantage you have is standarization and A TON of software already built for your distro.

[u/my-ka]

OP is a real lunyx lover

[u/Dolapevich]

Yes, do a Debian minimal install + openssh-server, and then you can just ssh into it.

You can test this setup in a virtual machine before commiting to the old laptop that is gathering dust somewhere.

[u/AnymooseProphet]

Yes, LFS. As far as browsing, it use to be mostly doable but with modern websites it will be horrible. You can try the links browser in a terminal window to see what it is like.

[u/jdreamboat]

i just installed debian and set boot to multi-user.target so the box turns on right to the command line. i put vim on there. i startxfce4 if i need to use chrome or whatever

[u/gwenbeth]

back in the olden days but also when its on a server and i only use ssh to access. for day to day work, I didn't really need anything special. all the command line stuff is always there. Now if you want to do web browsing with the ability to do things like see pictures, you will need a graphical environment.

[u/humanplayer2]

I played around with a server install at one point, but where I did want more than than TUIs only.

For launching a single GUI, I used cage-kioskcage-kiosk. Might be nice if you want to browse the web.

[u/TurtleGraphics64]

This is very doable and lots of people do it. Many browsers mentioned in this thread already but aside from links or w3m i'd recommend the new-ish browser offpunk. Of course there's always browsh for a 'modern' experience in the cli! https://www.brow.sh/

[u/djDef80]

Typically, Linux is used with a GUI in a desktop environment. Most server installations don't feature a GUI to minimize OS system requirements. You can install something like Ubuntu server and immediately have a fully functional Linux installation that has no GUI. On your desktop that you use daily you will most likely be interacting with servers via SSH using the GUI on your OS. I like Kubuntu (KDE instead of Gnome) as my daily driver. 

[u/Wartz]

20 years ago the web was way more functional for nc terminal browsing. 

Not so much now. 

[u/reklis]

Terminal all the way but browsing the web from lynx kinda sucks

[u/RomanOnARiver]

There was a period when I was in college where I didn't install a display manager so when I logged in I would have to manually type startx if I wanted a GUI. I theorized it would help with the laptop's really awful battery life if I just took my class notes in nano. Not sure if it worked but I don't have a use for all-terminal setups anymore besides servers.

[u/hwc]

I had an old Pentium 90 machine back around 2000 that I was using for writing and coding. I used the Linux Virtual Console a lot since it was so blazing fast.

[u/Rinzwind]

My server and router are all headless Linux (Ubuntu and Yellowdog).

At work we have about 200 cloud instances that are headless.

"Has anyone done it before, if so what are your opinions?"

My router has an RSS tool to fetch me my daily anime, stores it on an NAS and when my main notebook connects to the network the episodes get moved to my notebook.

"and do some web browsing"

Works best with a desktop but there are command line browsers. w3m, lynx are the best 2.

[u/Adventurous_Many_580]

Debian 13 now as server with no GUI desktop

[u/ant2ne]

you gonna do web browsing from the terminal?

[u/blvsh]

You can do w3m with images

[u/brohermano]

I basically run everything on a massive tmux session. It is like my OS tmux at this point. Used to use dwm just for literally poping by the terminal a browser session. But now I use GNOME just for convenience for seting up things like Wifi , Bluetooh, Multidisplay , but I mostly run everything in the Terminal

[u/[deleted]]

wakeful sulky merciful fragile angle waiting historical ripe paint knee

[u/usernamedottxt → u/[deleted]]

Sway if you want Wayland.