Upgrade Server 18.04 to desktop as minimal installation

Question

How can I install Ubuntu Desktop 18.04 from a Server 18.04 image without any of the extra software installed (minimal installation)?

Possible duplicate of How do you run Ubuntu Server with a GUI?. Especially this answer, matches what you're looking for. — Eskander Bejaoui, May 16 '18 at 10:36

score 3 · Answer 1 · edited Jan 04 '20 at 14:05

I suggest that you start from an old style server iso file (with the Debian installer), that you find at

cdimages.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/releases/bionic/release/

Install a minimal system (without any extry program package).
Boot into the minimal system and install Ubuntu desktop
```
sudo apt update
sudo apt full-upgrade

sudo apt install ubuntu-desktop
```
After rebooting you should have Ubuntu. I don't know what you mean by a minimal installation, and I don't know why you want to start from Ubuntu Server.

You can install a simple window manager instead of the Ubuntu desktop to get a very light graphical system, that you can start with startx,
```
sudo apt install fluxbox xinit xterm
```
or you try with
```
sudo apt install --no-install-recommends ubuntu-desktop
```
which might produce what you want.

You get other light-weight desktop environments via

sudo apt install lubuntu-core

sudo apt install xubuntu-core

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 02 '19 at 02:51

From the log when installing Ubuntu 18.04 minimal installation, it seems that in minimal installation, packages are removed. You can install ubuntu-desktop and then remove the packages.

As mentioned in the ubiquity source code, the list of packages to be removed is available in the iso image as /cdrom/casper/filesystem.manifest-minimal-remove.

As of Ubuntu 18.04.3 the content is:

thunderbird
transmission-gtk
gnome-todo
baobab
rhythmbox
cheese
vino
shotwell
totem
usb-creator-gtk
deja-dup
gnome-calendar
remmina
simple-scan
thunderbird-gnome-support
aisleriot
gnome-mahjongg
gnome-mines
gnome-sudoku
branding-ubuntu
libreoffice-style-breeze
libreoffice-gnome
libreoffice-writer
libreoffice-calc
libreoffice-impress
libreoffice-math
libreoffice-ogltrans
libreoffice-pdfimport
example-content
ubuntu-web-launchers
libreoffice-l10n-en-gb
libreoffice-l10n-es
libreoffice-l10n-zh-cn
libreoffice-l10n-zh-tw
libreoffice-l10n-pt
libreoffice-l10n-pt-br
libreoffice-l10n-de
libreoffice-l10n-fr
libreoffice-l10n-it
libreoffice-l10n-ru
libreoffice-l10n-en-za
libreoffice-help-en-gb
libreoffice-help-es
libreoffice-help-zh-cn
libreoffice-help-zh-tw
libreoffice-help-pt
libreoffice-help-pt-br
libreoffice-help-de
libreoffice-help-fr
libreoffice-help-it
libreoffice-help-ru
libreoffice-help-en-us
thunderbird-locale-en
thunderbird-locale-en-gb
thunderbird-locale-en-us
thunderbird-locale-es
thunderbird-locale-es-ar
thunderbird-locale-es-es
thunderbird-locale-zh-cn
thunderbird-locale-zh-hans
thunderbird-locale-zh-hant
thunderbird-locale-zh-tw
thunderbird-locale-pt
thunderbird-locale-pt-br
thunderbird-locale-pt-pt
thunderbird-locale-de
thunderbird-locale-fr
thunderbird-locale-it
thunderbird-locale-ru
gir1.2-rb-3.0
gir1.2-totem-1.0
gir1.2-totemplparser-1.0
guile-2.0-libs
libabw-0.1-1
libavahi-ui-gtk3-0
libdmapsharing-3.0-2
libexttextcat-2.0-0
libexttextcat-data
libfreehand-0.1-1
libgnome-games-support-1-3
libgnome-games-support-common
libgom-1.0-0
libgrilo-0.3-0
liblangtag-common
liblangtag1
libmessaging-menu0
libmhash2
libminiupnpc10
libmwaw-0.3-3
libmythes-1.2-0
libnatpmp1
libneon27-gnutls
liborcus-0.13-0
libpagemaker-0.0-0
librdf0
libreoffice-avmedia-backend-gstreamer
libreoffice-base-core
libreoffice-common
libreoffice-core
libreoffice-draw
libreoffice-gtk3
libreoffice-style-elementary
libreoffice-style-galaxy
libreoffice-style-tango
libraptor2-0
librasqal3
librevenge-0.0-0
librhythmbox-core10
libtotem0
libvisio-0.1-1
libwpd-0.10-10
libwpg-0.3-3
libwps-0.4-4
libyajl2
python3-uno
rhythmbox-data
rhythmbox-plugin-alternative-toolbar
rhythmbox-plugins
remmina-common
remmina-plugin-rdp
remmina-plugin-secret
remmina-plugin-vnc
duplicity
seahorse-daemon
shotwell-common
totem-common
totem-plugins
transmission-common
cheese-common
gnome-todo-common
libgnome-todo
gnome-video-effects
libcheese-gtk25
libcheese8
uno-libs3
ure
zeitgeist-core
hunspell-de-at-frami
hunspell-de-ch-frami
hunspell-de-de-frami
hunspell-en-au
hunspell-en-ca
hunspell-en-gb
hunspell-en-za
hunspell-es
hunspell-fr
hunspell-fr-classical
hunspell-it
hunspell-pt-br
hunspell-pt-pt
hunspell-ru
hyphen-de
hyphen-en-ca
hyphen-en-gb
hyphen-en-us
hyphen-fr
hyphen-hr
hyphen-it
hyphen-pl
hyphen-pt-br
hyphen-pt-pt
hyphen-ru
mythes-de
mythes-de-ch
mythes-en-au
mythes-en-us
mythes-fr
mythes-it
mythes-pt-pt
mythes-ru

Upgrade Server 18.04 to desktop as minimal installation

2 Answers2