# Preparing a Desktop Type

Your research environment supports many types of graphical session designed to provide interactive applications directly to users. To view the available types of session, use the command flight desktop avail:

[flight@chead1 (mycluster1) ~]$ flight desktop avail
┌───────┬──────────────────────────────────────────────────┬────────────┐
│ Name  │ Summary                                          │ State      │
├───────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────────┼────────────┤
│ gnome │ GNOME v3, a free and open-source desktop         │ Unverified │
│       │ environment for Unix-like operating systems.     │            │
│       │                                                  │            │
│       │  > https://www.gnome.org/                        │            │
│       │                                                  │            │
│ kde   │ KDE Plasma Desktop (KDE 4). Plasma is KDE's      │ Unverified │
│       │ desktop environment. Simple by default, powerful │            │
│       │ when needed.                                     │            │
│       │                                                  │            │
│       │  > https://kde.org/                              │            │
│       │                                                  │            │
│ xfce  │ Xfce is a lightweight desktop environment        │ Unverified │
│       │ for UNIX-like operating systems. It aims to be   │            │
│       │ fast and low on system resources, while still    │            │
│       │ being visually appealing and user friendly.      │            │
│       │                                                  │            │
│       │  > https://xfce.org/                             │            │
│       │                                                  │            │
└───────┴──────────────────────────────────────────────────┴────────────┘
[flight@chead1 (mycluster1) ~]$ 

Application types that are unverified need to be prepared before they can be started.

# Preparing

To prepare a new session type, use the command flight desktop prepare <type> (preparing will automatically install any required application and support files, if these dependencies have been installed manually then a desktop session can be checked for verfication with flight desktop verify <type>). Once enabled, users can start a new session using the command flight desktop start <type>.

The prepare command is only available to the root user as it requires installation of packages

Preparing a new session type only enables it for the machine that you run the command from, any other nodes will need to have the type enabled too.

# Using sudo to prepare

Since only the root user can use prepare, you also cannot use sudo to run prepare.

Instead the user must become the root user and enable the Flight system then run prepare.