VNC to Ubuntu LTS

[Neil Waldhauer]

I'm trying to use our VNC to connect to Ubuntu LTS.

It looks like it's trying to work, but I can never get a password accepted.

Has anyone gotten this to work?

[Andi B.]

Once I've VNC working to my NAS I think (Debian) but just checked, does not work anymore. I usually connect via RDP cause I can select the screen resolution I wanna see on the host not dependent on the physical setting of the guest. Copy/paste works too. Only drawback is the rectangular cursor shape background.

Anyway I think you need X11 for VNC and RDP instead Wayland. I've not very much experience with Linux but what I've read and tested a while ago is - VNC/RDP does not work with Wayland. Maybe this is not true anymore though. Just a hint for start searching. Probably you need to add your user to some 'allowed users' file too for VNC (as it is with RDP).

[Andy Willis]

Which VNC are you using?  The old PMVNC or the newer one?

[Neil Waldhauer]

So far, I'm using the latest one, VNC by Andrey Vasilkin

Progress: Ubuntu was not saving my password. I was able to log in, but each time I start Ubuntu, I need to set the VNC password. Connection only works from iOS.

Our VNC client is able to authenticate and connect, but the display is the wrong size and always just a black screen.

[Andy Willis]

Which VNC server did you go with?  I will need to bring my OpenSuse laptop home and test as I have VNC working on it.  On my Linux Mint here acts like it is only binding to localhost and I haven't yet figured out how to either use ssh to connect first nor how to change the binding.   

[Neil Waldhauer]

This must be the vino server. I didn't install anything, I just enabled VNC in settings. This is Ubuntu LTS 22.04.

[Andy Willis]

I got it working using tigervncserver on Linux Mint.  Installed stunnel rather than changing the binding. 

[Andy Willis]

I also installed xrdp and am using freerdp to connect.  I've found it has been more stable.  VNC keeps just closing out, I am not getting any popuplog.os2 entries nor any exceptq files so I don't know if it is the VNC client crashing, a problem with the VNC server or if maybe the network is blipping and rdp is able to keep going while VNC does not.

[Greg Pringle]

When SUSE enterprise went from 15.4 to 15.5 vnc stopped working. does not accept password.

I went to the /usr/bin/vncserver script was not found in 15.5 so I copied the 15.4 version to 15.5 and removed the line "$default_opts{rfbwait} = 30000;"

Then I use this to start the vnc server for a one time connection:
vncserver :2 -geometry 1280x1024 -depth 24 -autokill

that works.

[Andy Willis]

I also installed xrdp and am using freerdp to connect.  I've found it has been more stable.  VNC keeps just closing out, I am not getting any popuplog.os2 entries nor any exceptq files so I don't know if it is the VNC client crashing, a problem with the VNC server or if maybe the network is blipping and rdp is able to keep going while VNC does not.

I've found that RDP keeps reconnecting occasionally, which looks like the network drops out momentarily and RDP reconnects without my really noticing it but VNC is not as tolerant to these drop outs.

[Andy Willis]

Neil,
For the black screen, you may need to add:
unset DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS
to ~/.vnc/xstartup

I just recalled, I actually placed it in 3 files as it did not work for me in the xstartup (for some it does)
I also had created a ~/.xsession  wherein I added it as the first line and also in in /bin/startx
as I recall, here I needed it for both vnc and rdp (I understand the need for it may depend on the desktop in use... I use mate).

[Neil Waldhauer]

I don't know what desktop Ubuntu LTS uses.

Interestingly, /bin/startx already has unset DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS

[Andy Willis]

I don't know what desktop Ubuntu LTS uses.

Interestingly, /bin/startx already has unset DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS

Interesting... I had not remembered adding it there myself but could not remember where all I had but having recalled I had put it somewhere else than just the ~/.vnc/startup I had done a grep searching it out and finding it in /bin/startx figured I must have.  Can't say for sure now if I did or did not.