Recent Story Comments

Logout not working ...

tweety — Wed, 06 Aug 2014 12:57:41 +0000

Thanks for your tuto. I tried on ubuntu server 14.04 and kde (kubuntu-desktop).
It's working fine using windows client tightvnc viewer except that when I logout (Leave - Log Out) the screen becomes (and remains) black. Only solution connect with ssh and do killall -u ...
What's wrong ?

Thanks for your tuto. I

tweety — Wed, 06 Aug 2014 12:56:15 +0000

Login problems

Lee Neighoff — Sat, 07 Dec 2013 18:21:52 +0000

I followed the tutorial, and ran all the needed commands.

I ran update-rc.d vncserver defaults, then went back to the vncserver script in init.d and changed display to 0, saved, and rebooted.

Once it was booted, I tried connecting using VNC Viewer. When I tried to connect, the connection was refused. So, I went to the server itself, and it was at the login screen. I logged in, but the screen went black for about a second, then came back at the login screen.

I can no longer log in, and therefore cannot really do anything to the server anymore.

How can I fix this?

Login problems

Lee Neighoff — Sat, 07 Dec 2013 18:20:54 +0000

I followed the tutorial, and ran all the needed commands.

I ran update-rc.d vncserver defaults, then went back to the vncserver script in init.d and changed display to 0, saved, and rebooted.

I can no longer log in, and therefore cannot really do anything to the server anymore.

How can I fix this?

I wish I didn't have to do this kind of stuff

Dave Kimble — Sat, 23 Nov 2013 05:44:32 +0000

When I install tightvncserver from the Ubuntu 13.04 repository, why isn't it already set up as a "proper server", (starting automatically at clean boot or reboot), obviating the need for your article? I mean what is the point of a server that you have to launch yourself? - especially since you have to use ssh (a proper server that does launch automatically) to do it. Is it because the Ubuntu developers are a bunch of amateurs ?

My Apache2 box uses LXDE desktop, and doesn't have /usr/X11R6/bin/ , so what do I put in PATH="$PATH:..." ?

Do I have to change Line 3 to:
# Provides: tightvncserver

thank you for share it's done

leaf — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 06:43:13 +0000

thank you for share
it's done

VNC server start at boot

rillg — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 02:58:02 +0000

Thank you! Thanks, and thanks again! This is the quickest and best solution for getting the server up and running at boot. I wish I had found it earlier.

still having a useless grey vnc client !!!!

sun — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 15:43:50 +0000

I tried to follow these instructions in order to configure "Ultravnc viewer" on a wondows vista system (with an intel integrated graphics card with 32bits color/ 1280x800 / 59HTZ) in order to manage an ubuntu 10.04 64bits system (the desktop amd64 bits install from the main ubuntu repository).

went through all the steps but I still have a grey screen on ultravnc viewer which blocks me from using the tool??

tried to install other tools (clients) such as VNC viewer and tightvnc viewer ,but they all end up with a grey interface!!!
I tried different settings " geometry 800x600/1280x1024/1024x768" ,but still stuck with this grey screen!!

Any suggestions please??

starting thightvncserver in Raspberry PI Debian zqueeze.

rocketero — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 11:30:13 +0000

I didn't have to do all those steps exposed in this headlines,

What it did the job for me was:

sudo nano /etc/rc.local

And add this line somewhere in the middle or beginning:

su -c "/usr/bin/tightvncserver -geometry 1280x1024" username

Before I had included other options/parameters in that line and I was getting black icons on the screen, but with only -geometry option did the trick and it work great!

nice

Sandra23 — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 15:19:46 +0000

only want to say well done article

Authentication Issues

JD — Tue, 29 May 2012 19:04:10 +0000

It all seems to work, but when I try and use Synaptic (as an example) it doesn't load the auth prompt, presumably it's trying with a text prompt (it does when I run synaptic-pkexec from the terminal)

I'm guessing that this is a security feature to prevent su from dropping to whoever, but is there a way around this? or am I doing something wrong?

Thank you

Anonymous — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 16:00:12 +0000

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you

Too right!

Jeff Dickey — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 07:20:23 +0000

Let's see… in OS X all I have to do is select the server I want from the Shared area of the Finder window (for local-network systems), click the 'Share Screen' button and enter my login credentials. Works first time, every time in my experience.

This kind of arcane masochism is why I left Linux as a day-to-day desktop after 10+ years of use and evangelism. If your time and sanity are worth anything at all to you, you start looking for ways to make the tools you use to do your work get out of the way as much as possible so you can accomplish the mission you set out to. Digging coal to fire a furnace on which you forge blades with which to shave your yak is the historically pandemic Linux experience, and that's why proportionally fewer people are using it as a desktop system now than 5 years ago, and fewer still will be in 5 years' time unless Ubuntu and friends get out of their navels and start innovating again. When anyone asks me about putting a Linux desktop on an existing PC, I recommend openSUSE, Fedora and Mint. It's been two years since anybody asked me about Ubuntu… and getting people off Windows was my bread-and-butter business until very recently.

Debian 6.0

F4FXL — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 13:11:34 +0000

Your article is great ! Thank you !
For those who might to try this under Debian 6.0 Squeeze some rework of the script is needed :

change the header to look like this

#!/bin/sh -e
### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides: vncserver
# Required-Start: $all
# Required-Stop:
# Default-Start: 2 3 4 5
# Default-Stop: 0 1 6
### END INIT INFO

Do not use update-rc.d but insserv

Only getting a black screen with X pointer

Sameer Manas — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 10:38:14 +0000

Hey guys i followed these steps but all i get is a Black screen with a X shaped pointer that can be moved by mouse :/

Any solutions ?