# VirtualGL without vglrun? **URL:** \ **Category:** General\ **Created:** [19 June 2026 15:47 UTC](https://community.thinlinc.com/t/virtualgl-without-vglrun/2023 "2026-06-19T15:47:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 2
**Author:** ![aaron](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/community.thinlinc.com/aaron/32/13_2.png) [@aaron](https://community.thinlinc.com/u/aaron)\ **Post date:** [21 June 2026 21:15 UTC](https://community.thinlinc.com/t/virtualgl-without-vglrun/2023/2 "2026-06-21T21:15:51Z")
Hi @jonb, The short answer is yes, it is possible, but generally not recommended. For example, you can launch the entire desktop environment via VirtualGL by setting the relevant `cmdline` parameter in `profiles.hconf` to something like `vglrun +wm mate-session` (or whatever your desktop environment happens to be). But this means every single application will be run through VirtualGL’s interposer (including the desktop environment itself). This makes life easier for the end user, but isn’t very efficient use of system resources. A common approach is for administrators to create application shortcuts which launch via `vglrun`. If you are using a desktop environment which confirms to `freedesktop.org` standards (such as MATE or Xfce), the ThinLinc Desktop Customizer can be used to manage these shortcuts: > **[ThinLinc Desktop Customizer — ThinLinc Administrator's Guide](https://www.cendio.com/resources/docs/tag/tldc.html)** > > Learn how to create custom desktops for ThinLinc users using the ThinLinc Desktop Customizer (TLDC), which tailors application menus and desktop icons based on conditional parameters. For more information on using VirtualGL in ThinLinc, see: > [@Is it possible to provide server-side graphic acceleration via ThinLinc?](https://community.thinlinc.com/t/is-it-possible-to-provide-server-side-graphic-acceleration-via-thinlinc/405): > > [tl;dr](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/TL%3BDR): yes, provided that the following conditions are met: the server has a GPU available the application is OpenGL-based the application is run via [VirtualGL](https://virtualgl.org/) For a more detailed description, see below. Background Many Linux applications - even entire [desktop environments](https://community.thinlinc.com/t/which-desktop-environment-should-i-use-with-thinlinc/172) - require hardware-based graphic acceleration in order to function properly. This can pose a problem for headless installations (which remote desktop servers often are), since many servers don’t provide a GPU for this purp… Hope that helps! --- _[View the full topic](https://community.thinlinc.com/t/virtualgl-without-vglrun/2023)._