HOWTO: Set up VNC server with resumable sessions

[cowmix]

I am running Breezy 64bit and I am having the same issue where I get the 'startup' X screen but no login prompt.

hello, I did steps 1 thru 6 however when i complete step 6 i get a i guess you can say a pixel screen because the resolution seems low but no GDM login, attached in the pastebin link below, is the pixel screen that appears once i type in 'vncviewer localhost:1'


In the terminal this is displayed while you see the screen -



can someone tell me if this is normal and i assume that it didnt work right. also when i enter vncviewer localhost:0 i get to see my own desktop. so i dont know if that helps you guys figure out what wrong or not just thought iwould tell you. also on page 7 Tichondrius gives a how to login remotely to an existing session using vncviewer vnchost:0
am i able to try this and log in using the physical computer the one im using that is... to see if itll work. and what is the difference between his how to on page 1 and his how to on page2 i noticed one you instal vnc4server and the other x11vnc. and that you edit different files with gedit like vnc and the other is x11vnc. i just like to now what im doing when im following these threads. one thing is copying and solving a problem the other is knowing what you are doing.

Also Im only at this thread in the first place because someone in #ubuntu channel on irc pointed me here when i had a problem with my ext harddrive.. which i still have.. accessing it.. and then setting up samba to share it with a win box that is the host computer on my wireless network. so i then mentioned how i also wanted to share the ext hd on my wireless network for my bro to access but also for me to access if im somewhere else like a friends house. and to be able to use their computer to read and write to the shared ext hd on my network home. so thats how i got here

thanks in advance

Linux 4 ever.

[cowmix]

Ok.. I found the answer.. I have to run 'gdmsetup' to allow XDMCP...

BTW.. the solution was contained in this post.

I am running Breezy 64bit and I am having the same issue where I get the 'startup' X screen but no login prompt.

[kmi]

Hello !
Thanks a lot for this how-to and the follow-up !

In my case it worked flawlessly at the first try... but not the second : every time I logged out after a successful login I could not manage to get the display back again. I had to reboot to be able to do it again...

I installed vnc4-common and xvnc4viewer (I guess xvnc4viewer has nothing to do with the trick but installing it seemed quite logical ) and removed vnc-common & xvncviewer.
Now everything is ok... I can log in/out/in/out/etc...

Do you also need to have these packages installed ? Are they installed during a step in the how-to that I haven't seen or that got messed up for some reason ?

Well... It appears it still does not work perfectly at all : if I log out, I can log in back... BUT the simple fact to log out drives Xvnc to get crazy : it takes 99% CPU usage (controlled after I log out via ssh then 'top') !

Please have you got an idea/tip/solution ? Or maybe a good joke that would make me forget it still does not work after so much PITA ?

MANY thanks in advance !

[m0ps]

when trying to install vnc4server package i get this:

vnc4server:
 Depends: xserver-common  but it is not installable

tried getting xserver-common from somewhere else, but i can't find one matching my X.org ver (7.0.0)

what else can i do?
or will this how-to also work with vncserver_3.3.7?

Hello,

I have the same problem and I can`t find resolution

[iMick]

I am having an intermittant problem VNC'ing to my ubuntu box. Sometimes I cannot connect, my VNC viewers just don't show anything without errors.

I run top on the box locally, the xvnc process is running at 100% CPU which seems to be blocking the connections.

Running:
sudo /etc/init.d/xinetd stop
sudo killall Xvnc
sudo /etc/init.d/xinetd start
is my work around at the moment as is a reboot.

Is there anyway to prevent this from happening?

[galesteven]

Here's a cool one. Tichondrius' HOWTO works if in /etc/xinetd.d/Xvnc I change the port to 5902 and the display to :2 . If I use the instructions as-is (port 5901, display :1) then the following strange things happen:

1.

$ sudo netstat -tap | grep xinetd

gives the expected LISTENing results. So all is ok, right? Not so fast!

2.

$ vncviewer localhost:1

gives the error message

ReadFromRFBServer: rdr::SystemException: read: Connection reset by peer (104)

3.

grep xinetd /var/log/syslog

shows lots of errors like this:

Apr 21 11:40:33 localhost xinetd[11941]: warning: can't get client address: Transport endpoint is not connected
Apr 21 11:40:33 localhost xinetd[11942]: warning: can't get client address: Transport endpoint is not connected
Apr 21 11:40:33 localhost xinetd[11943]: warning: can't get client address: Transport endpoint is not connected
Apr 21 11:40:33 localhost xinetd[11944]: warning: can't get client address: Transport endpoint is not connected
Apr 21 11:40:33 localhost xinetd[11945]: warning: can't get client address: Transport endpoint is not connected
Apr 21 11:40:33 localhost xinetd[10218]: Deactivating service Xvnc due to excessive incoming connections.  Restarting in 10 seconds.
Apr 21 11:40:43 localhost xinetd[10218]: Activating service Xvnc

I can use VNC on display :2, but that is just a work-around. Why can't I use display :1?

Reboots do not help.

Thanks,
Steve

[Nordoelum]

Thank you for the guide

One prob though. After I had installed and configed it. I tryed to run the command

$ sudo vncviewer localhost:1

I got this:

nordoelum@ubuntu-server:~$ vncviewer localhost:1
bash: vncviewer: command not found

To fix this I needed to install xtightvncviewer. It might have something with that I am using XFCE on my testing server.

If so, please add it to the main post, that you need xtightviewer to get to work in XFCE.

But anything else worked well.

[Nordoelum]

Ed1t: It does

[Morphius]

vnc4server:
 Depends: xserver-common  but it is not installable

This is an error which results on dapper. This is because the name of the xserver-common package has changed. Furthermore, due to a problem in the program this cannot be easily remedied. This bug has been documented. You should be able to subsitute vnc4server with Xvnc or vncserver. I am working on this problem now but have run up against this error:

Apr 21 11:40:33 localhost xinetd[11941]: warning: can't get client address: Transport endpoint is not connected
Apr 21 11:40:33 localhost xinetd[11942]: warning: can't get client address: Transport endpoint is not connected
Apr 21 11:40:33 localhost xinetd[11943]: warning: can't get client address: Transport endpoint is not connected
Apr 21 11:40:33 localhost xinetd[11944]: warning: can't get client address: Transport endpoint is not connected
Apr 21 11:40:33 localhost xinetd[11945]: warning: can't get client address: Transport endpoint is not connected
Apr 21 11:40:33 localhost xinetd[10218]: Deactivating service Xvnc due to excessive incoming connections.  Restarting in 10 seconds.
Apr 21 11:40:43 localhost xinetd[10218]: Activating service Xvnc

I'll update everyone if there's more that you need to know on dapper.

[zasf]

Thanks for the howto, it works on my Ubuntu Dapper box as client and Xubuntu Dapper as server just a few notes:



1. Enable XDMCP
On Xubuntu, run 'sudo gdmsetup'

2. Install required packages (vncserver and xinetd)
On Xubuntu, run 'sudo apt-get install vncserver'

3. Set the VNC passwd

sudo vncpasswd /root/.vncpasswd

4. Start the VNC server

sudo /usr/bin/Xvnc :2 -query localhost -geometry 800x600 -depth 16 -once -fp /usr/share/X11/fonts/misc -dontdisconnect -nevershared -rfbauth /root/.vncpasswd

5. Connect the client

xvncviewer <ip.ad.re.ss>:2

don't ask me why xvncviewer instead of vncviewer, but the former one didn't work ending up with a grey screen.

It works beautifully under win as well



I used tightvnc as client

Now I only miss how to configure xinted.