How to use Vagrant for CentOS with GUI - qt

Question

I am trying to up a Vagrant machine with CentOS version with GUI. Here is my vagrant file:
Vagrant.configure(2) do |config|
config.vm.box = "puppetlabs/centos-7.0-64-nocm"
config.vm.provider :virtualbox do |vb|
vb.name = "DSW-Run-7"
end
config.vm.network "private_network", ip: "192.168.33.13"
config.vm.synced_folder ".", "/home/vagrant/CartoDSW"
config.vm.provider "virtualbox" do |vb|
# Display the VirtualBox GUI when booting the machine
vb.gui = true
vb.memory = "2048"
end
config.vm.provision "shell", inline: <<-SHELL
sudo yum -y install epel-release
sudo yum -y install qt5-qtbase
sudo yum -y install qt5-qtbase-devel
sudo yum -y install jbigkit.x86_64
sudo yum -y install gcc-c++
sudo yum -y install git
sudo yum groupinstall basic-desktop desktop-platform x11 fonts
SHELL
end
After this I did vagrant up and the GUI is up. I tried to login with Vagrant, but Vagrant says 'invalid login':
Centos Linux 7 (core)
kernel 3.10.0-123.e17.x86_64
localhost login:vagrant
password:password
Login incorrect
After vagrant up I did vagrant ssh and used commands such as startx, but still not able to launch the GUI.
Please suggest how I can install CentOS with GUI, as I need to work with QT to debug my code.

Answer 1

To solve this for Centos/7 I installed and launched the GNOME from Vagrant file with the following shell commands:
config.vm.provision "shell", inline: <<-SHELL
sudo yum -y groupinstall "GNOME Desktop"
sudo systemctl set-default graphical.target
sudo systemctl start graphical.target
SHELL

Answer 2

For CentOS 6, I have a repo got it work here: https://github.com/hsiaoyi0504/vagrant_centos_6_gui.
In short, use following codes to install and set up:
config.vm.provision "shell", inline: <<-SHELL
# install GUI desktop
sudo yum update
sudo yum groupinstall -y "X Window System" "Desktop"
sudo yum install -y gnome-core xfce4 xorg-x11-fonts
sudo echo "id:5:initdefault:" > /etc/inittab
# fix fonts problem in terminal
# https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/fonts-screwed-up-in-centos-6-terminal.2186468/
sudo yum -y install terminus-fonts terminus-fonts-console
reboot # reboot to load GUI
SHELL

Answer 3

Put the following into your Vagrantfile, to reset passwords. Works on Centos 6x images I typically use
config.vm.provision :shell, :inline => "echo \"vagrant\"|passwd --stdin vagrant"
config.vm.provision :shell, :inline => "echo \"vagrant\"|passwd --stdin root"
For example:
https://github.com/lastnitescurry/documentum71/blob/master/Vagrantfile
Figured it out from:
https://github.com/puphpet/packer-templates/blob/master/centos-6-x86_64/http/ks.cfg

Answer 4

There are 2 potential solutions:
first : using a GUI and boot the GUI directly
second : using x11 forwarding
First Option : Boot in GUI mode
vagrant user has no password in most cases (unless you specified otherwise and build a new box) as it connects with ssh key.
If you want to connect via GUI, you'll need to give the user a new password.
run vagrant ssh to connect into the VM
run sudo passwd to enter a new password for your user
From there you will be able to login via GUI and then make sure you have X environment to start working on, you can install
sudo yum install 'xorg*'
sudo yum install xterm
or to install a Gnome environment
yum -y groups install "GNOME Desktop"
Make sure to set your Vagrantfile with
config.vm.provider "virtualbox" do |vb|
vb.gui = true
end
and your GUI will boot when you run vagrant up
The Alternative, your second option : use X11 forwarding
From what you try to achieve, there might be a better way (but I am not familiar enough with QT to really judge). Vagrant has an option to forward X11.
config.ssh.forward_x11 - If true, X11 forwarding over SSH
connections is enabled. Defaults to false.
You will need a X11 client on your host (If you run on mac you can download and use XQuartz it does the job pretty well, if you're running on another system, check for an equivalent)
So when you have your X11 client installed on your host and turn on config.ssh.forward_x11 you can run directly X-command and they will be forwarded on your host so
sudo yum install xterm
xterm &
and the xterm window will appear on your host machine.
Note: you may need to install xauth on the VM, using e.g. sudo apt-get install xauth (Debian/Ubuntu/...) or yum install xorg-x11-xauth (CentOS, Fedora, ...).