HOWTO: Setup vncserver + gdm on Ubuntu 8.04 Desktop

[geezerone]

In my case I don't have a need for those so I don't ready know how to do it. Maybe someone has an idea?

Thanks for replying. I know I can

sudo shutdown now -P

from terminal or create launcher, to shutdown the box but maybe it is because I am logging on twice as the same user? The remote unit auto-logins to allow wireless to come up and thus my remote connection to connect as I am using this remote unit as a download file server.

[Rigrig]

Thanks you for this guide, finally got this working thanks to you.

Something that might be usefull to add:

How to connect with an Ubuntu remote using vinagre (Ubuntu's default vnc client) through an ssh tunnel:

Make sure the right packages are installed on the remote: (Ubuntu should already have vinagre installed by default)

sudo apt-get install openssh-client vinagre

To login through an ssh tunnel:

ssh -fNT user@hostname -L 5900:127.0.0.1:5901 && vinagre localhost:5900 && ps -AO pid,command | grep 'ssh -fNT .*@.* -L 5900:127.0.0.1:5901' | sed 's/^[ ]*//' | cut -d' ' -f1 | xargs kill

Replace user and hostname with the user name and address used to login.

This will start ssh, which will prompt you for your password, and then forward port 5900 to the host.
Then it starts vinagre on the forwarded port.
When you close vinagre the ssh tunnel is closed (the part from && ps to the end is to find the tunneling ssh process, then kill it. There's probably some much simpler way to do this that I missed)
You could also remove the end of the line, starting from && ps -AO to leave the tunnel open, then you can always reconnect by just opening vinagre (in the menu: 'Internet' > 'Remote Desktop Viewer') and connecting to localhost on port 5900.

Because its forwarding port 5900 to 5901, this will also work if you try it out on the same machine as you are running the server.

[XekaLula]

I tried the how-to on a new 8.04 installation.
I must be really close here but for some reason I don't see the login screen, only a gray background with a big X cursor.

Does anyone have an idea what I am doing wrong?

Thanks,
Lu

[cyboc]

Thanks for this HOWTO. It mostly works but one problem is that after I login, I get this error message:

There was an error starting the GNOME Settings Daemon.

Some things, such as themes, sounds, or background settings may not work correctly.

The Settings Daemon restarted too many times.

GNOME will still try to restart the Settings Daemon next time you log in.

Any suggestions on how to fix that error?

Some more questions:

• Would this HOWTO also work with tightvncserver instead of vnc4server?
• Should I uninstall the vino VNC server?

Cheers

[geezerone]

The last page in THIS particular post may be of interest with regards to your Gnome error messages.

[cyboc]

geezerone, thanks for the suggestion. Unfortunately, it doesn't fix the error message for me. Note that I ONLY get the error message when I login via VNC. I do NOT get the error message when I login at the console.

[geezerone]

I found THIS post also which looks like others had the same problem but no solution to that post anyhow. On page 1 of this topic This is regarding VNC/SSH in general.

Do you get this problem if you create a different user and login as that via VNC?

[dylansimpson]

Thanks worked great for me.

However how would one keep the session alive so that you could continue to run programs on the remote machine while closing your VNC viewer?

[pumax84]

Hi all... I'm italian, so sorry for my bad english!

It worked for me, but i have a problem in vnc session: Gnome theme "switching"... Why? Can you help me?

Thanks,
pumax84

[Amannim]

service xvnc
{
        type = UNLISTED
        disable = no
        socket_type = stream
        protocol = tcp
        wait = yes
        user = root
        server = /usr/bin/Xvnc
        server_args = -inetd :1 -query localhost -geometry 1216x960 -depth 24 -once -fp /usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi/,/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi/,/usr/share/fonts/X11/encodings/,/usr/share/fonts/X11/misc/,/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1/,/usr/share/fonts/X11/util/ passwordFile=/home/adam/.vnc/passwd -extension XFIXES -desktop WindowName
        port = 5901
}

Here's a copy of the xinetd config I'm using for resumable sessions in 8.04 /w VNC.

I had to kill my .gconf folder in order for everything to work after upgrading from 7.10. Kind of bummed about that, but after logging in through gdm the vnc server would segfault and throw me out. Creating a new user and logging in as them worked fine. Tried my best to reset everything to default but I just wasn't getting it all.

Both the new test account and my personal account I get the gnome-settings warning box, but frankly I'd take that message over the system not working.