Graphical Console (beta)

What is the Graphical Console?

Glish, the graphical console, allows you to view and interact with your virtual machine's graphical output.

We expose the output to you through the Glish service. Glish is out of band, meaning it doesn't go through your Linode's networking. It runs completely outside of your Linode. It's similar to Lish, except instead of connecting to your Linode's serial port and being text, Glish connects to your Linode's graphics port and displays, you guessed it, raster graphics.

What is it good for?

It gives a "computer monitor" to your Linode.

Under Linux, it behaves just like any other Linux box would that has a monitor attached. Your virtual terminals can be displayed on Glish (tty1, for example). Or, a graphical environment can be configured to use the on-board graphics, and you'd have a remote desktop.

When using weird OSs: you'll see inside of Glish what you would see on a real computer's monitor. So, that glorious Windows 3.1 installation screen awaits you…

How do I use it?

The "Launch Graphical Web Console" link on the bottom of your Linode's "Remote Access" subtab. You'll need something inside of your Linode actually making graphical output for you to see anything.

How do I make my Linode generate graphical output?

We're now passing "console=tty1" (in addition to ttyS0) when booting our kernels, so you will see boot messages on both Lish and Glish on your next reboot. We've also changed the Distro Helper to enable a getty on tty1. You should see a getty login prompt on both Lish and Glish, after your next reboot.

Other than that, you're free to use the graphic device for whatever you see fit. Glish supports mode and size switching, too.

Are there any limitations?

* Glish works only with KVM Linodes. You can convert to KVM via the "Upgrade to KVM" button on the bottom right-hand side of your Linode's dashboard.

The bandwidth consumed by Glish is currently free, however it is rate-limited.

Beta feedback is always appreciated!

-Chris