All I want is to sign into a simple server and use it to view gmail/google drive. How do I do that? I have an Ubuntu 22.04 instance and I can get to the terminal, but cannot view a browser. Haven’t been able to find any tutorial or anything to help set this up.
This textbox defaults to using Markdown to format your answer.
You can type !ref in this text area to quickly search our full set of tutorials, documentation & marketplace offerings and insert the link!
These answers are provided by our Community. If you find them useful, show some love by clicking the heart. If you run into issues leave a comment, or add your own answer to help others.
Become a contributor for community
Get paid to write technical tutorials and select a tech-focused charity to receive a matching donation.
DigitalOcean Documentation
Full documentation for every DigitalOcean product.
Resources for startups and SMBs
The Wave has everything you need to know about building a business, from raising funding to marketing your product.
Get our newsletter
Stay up to date by signing up for DigitalOcean’s Infrastructure as a Newsletter.
New accounts only. By submitting your email you agree to our Privacy Policy
The developer cloud
Scale up as you grow — whether you're running one virtual machine or ten thousand.
Get started for free
Sign up and get $200 in credit for your first 60 days with DigitalOcean.*
*This promotional offer applies to new accounts only.
Hey Jim 👋
If you want to access Gmail or Google Drive from your Ubuntu 22.04 Droplet, you’ll need a graphical desktop environment, since Droplets come with terminal-only access by default.
There’s a great step-by-step guide you can follow to set up Remote Desktop (RDP) on your Droplet using XFCE and xRDP: 👉 How to Enable Remote Desktop Protocol Using xRDP on Ubuntu 22.04
Once that’s set up, you can connect to your Droplet from your local machine and browse the web using Firefox or any other browser.
Also, for an alternative approach, you might consider running a VPN like Pi-hole + VPN from the Marketplace. That way you can connect to the VPN from your local PC and use your local browser instead.
- Bobby
Heya,
The thing is, server versions of Ubuntu don’t come with a graphical interface (like the one you’d find on Ubuntu Desktop). They’re just a terminal — super efficient for running scripts, web servers, bots, that kind of thing. If you want to configure it anyway, check the following article:
https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-enable-remote-desktop-protocol-using-xrdp-on-ubuntu-22-04