ESA's Sentinel Application Platform GUI usually crashes shortly after it is started on a virtual machine. The problem are missing 3D drivers that are needed for the Worldwind plug-in.

In order to be able to use SNAP, the Worldwind plug-in needs to be disabled. This plug-in is usually located in the .snap directory in the users' home folder.

You can move the file to a different location if you would like to keep it as a backup. Open a Terminal/Console and run the following command:

mv ~/.snap/system/modules/org-esa-snap-snap-worldwind.jar ~/

Alternatively, you can delete it for good:

rm -rf ~/.snap/system/modules/org-esa-snap-snap-worldwind.jar

Upon the next startup of SNAP, you will receive a message saying that some modules are not available. Click "Disable Modules..." to continue.

! Please note that you might need to perform this tasks after every update of the SNAP software.

The commands shown above might fail if the location of the plug-in differs. You can find the location with the following command.

find / -iname "org-esa-snap-snap-worldwind.jar"

If the plug-in is enabled system-wide, or in a directory where you don't have access to,  please contact your administrator to help you. The module might be located somewhere in /opt/snap, /usr/local/ or /etc.