Is it possible to run Firefox or other graphical applications without a desktop environment?
Yes.
If you have a Linux virtual server that uses low hardware resources and you need to run software such as Firefox, Chrome or other graphic programs without installing desktop environments such as GNOME, XFCE, KDE, … Follow the instructions below:
At this tutorial i used Ubuntu.
1- Update linux repository
sudo apt-get update -y
2- install X Window System
sudo apt-get install xorg
3- Install xinit
xinit is an X display server
sudo apt-get install -y xinit
4- Install the required program. I need Firefox and Google Chrome
Install firefox-esr
sudo apt-get install firefox-esr
5- Install Google Chrome
wget https://dl.google.com/linux/direct/google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb
sudo apt-get install ./google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb
6- Run X Environment
startx
7- Run your Browser
Run Firefox:
firefox-esr
Run google chrome:
You should not use the root user to run Chrome. Create a new user and give it the necessary access.
Then restart the Linux and login with a new user . Chrome does not run with the root user
adduser mirdehghan
usermod -aG sudo mirdehghan
reboot
After login
startx
google-chrome-stable
After finishing the work, you can exit the X environment so that the server resources are not involved.
exit