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Is it possible to open a GUI application in a single fullscreen window from the terminal without all the other aspects of a desktop environment?

For example, Firefox.

Julius Hamilton
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2 Answers2

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Yes.

You haven't provided any details of your GUI application; and importantly I think what stacks it uses.

Is it motif? simple xorg?, using GTK2/3? Qt5? etc as most applications require specific stacks that need to run - but if it's a simple X11 GUI app that doesn't use stacks I believe it's a yes. However very few GUI apps remain today that don't use GUI libraries/toolkits.

I've opened GUI apps on unix/sun-OS boxes where the size was defined in the command that opened the window, and full-screen was possible, however they weren't modern apps & didn't use modern toolkits. Many of those programs also ran in Debian & Ubuntu GNU/Linux the same way, but it's been decade+ since I've wanted to run them as they're outdated (with many no longer available, as they were re-written/replaced and it's simpler being able to use a WM than controlling everything from command line).

You however gave no specifics; but it is possible for some applications (just not worth it in my experience; we no longer run machines with that limited resources).

guiverc
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  • Thanks. It's just meant to be a complement to doing a kind of minimalist computing set-up using mainly the console but falling back on a GUI application when necessary, for example a web browser. It would be nice to just open Firefox for example without seeing the desktop image, desktop menu bars and so on - just a pure window for the browser, and nothing else. – Julius Hamilton Aug 07 '21 at 23:51
  • In that case I'd use a WM only (not DE) and the issue doesn't exist. firefox is a modern program that requires toolkits/libraries to exist, and expects/needs either a DE or WM running I believe. Your original question (which is what I answered) was a GUI program & I was thinking of xterm & like simpler Xorg applications; I've never tried firefox started from terminal except with WM or DE already running; and I don't see a point running with at least a WM. If you need a terminal browser; they exist (eg. w3m, lynx etc.) – guiverc Aug 08 '21 at 00:03
  • FYI: I don't have the time to test firefox for you on a system without desktop or window-manager installed... On the resource limited boxes I still use (eg. 1GB RAM) I don't use desktop, but am using a WM which easily allows firefox without desktop being run (but as you'll see from https://packages.ubuntu.com/hirsute/firefox components of desktop environments will be started when run) – guiverc Aug 08 '21 at 02:22
  • @guiverc what's "WM"? what's "DE"? – Noone AtAll Aug 08 '21 at 10:05
  • DE = desktop, WM = window manager. Xfce for example uses xfwm4 as it's WM, GNOME uses gdm3 (gdm3 used by GNOME 3) etc.. A WM is lighter than a full desktop (but handles a lot less; mostly windows as it's name implies so far fewer features). Some desktops (eg. LXQt) are WM agnostic so you can use anything; Lubuntu uses openbox as it's WM; but you can use openbox by itself - Lubuntu offers its users 3 sessions on a new install: Lubuntu (full experience), LXQt (purer upstream LXQt only) & Openbox (window manager only). – guiverc Aug 08 '21 at 10:10
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No. Most GUI applications depend upon the entire desktop stack.

user535733
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