Cinnamon Desktop On Github Codespace

This setup installs an Ubuntu 24.04 container with the Cinnamon desktop environment and configures a VNC connection.

Running a desktop environment in Codespaces is generally permitted, as Microsoft themselves provide documentation for setting up a Fluxbox-based desktop with a browser: https://github.com/devcontainers/features/tree/main/src/desktop-lite. In this case, we’ll be using Cinnamon instead. You don’t need to worry about account issues as long as you use the service responsibly and stay within GitHub’s Terms of Service.

How to use

1. Create a new space: https://github.com/codespaces/new
2. Select this repo AndnixSH/codespace-desktop
3. Select a machine type. To unlock better machine types, file a ticket to Github: https://support.github.com/contact?tags=rr-codespaces%2Ccat_codespace
4. Click "Create codespace". It will take a while to create
5. Once created, open PORTS tab, open forwarded address, click on vnc.html link and enter your VNC password

The default VNC password is just password. You can change it using vncpasswd in Terminal. You don't need to worry about weak password because the vnc ports are not public by default, accessing the ports requires your Github account to be logged in. This makes it a lot secure

The default keyboard layout is English (US). You can change it in Cinnamon settings

To run Windows app, install Wine: https://wiki.winehq.org/Ubuntu

Limitations & bugs

• No hardware acceleration because Codespace does not have a GPU
• Terminal won't open. Use Xfce Terminal or others instead

Screenshots