tarqmamdouh/tigervnc-gnome

Introducing Tiger VNC

VNC stands for “Virtual Network Computing” is a sharing system or set of protocols for sharing desktops. There is much software available to access Linux-based desktop remotely including, TigerVNC, TightVNC, Vino, vnc4server, and more.

TigerVNC is a free, open-source, and high-performance VNC server used to control or access Linux-based desktop remotely. It is a client/server application that allows you to interact with graphical applications on remote machines.

Installing Requirements

By default, Ubuntu Server does not include a Desktop Environment, We will start by getting gnome desktop.

You should Be logged in to your server terminal using ssh

Hint:

If you are not familiar with nano,

CTRL + X Will Allow you to save your new file
CTRL + SHIFT + V will paste your copied snippet

Step 1 - Keep it up to date !

First you will need to update and upgrade your system

apt update -y && apt upgrade -y

Step 2 - Install Task Select & Gnome

Task Select will allow you to download and install ubuntu modules without affecting your system, install the Tasksel utility to install a desktop environment:

apt install tasksel -y

After installing task select, execute it's option menu:

tasksel

You should see the following interface:

Use the arrow key to scroll down the list and find Ubuntu desktop. Next, press the SPACE key to select it then press the TAB key to select OK then hit Enter to install the Ubuntu desktop (Gnome).

Once it finished you need to target your system to boot the graphical interface each time your server reboots:

systemctl set-default graphical.target

Step 3 - Install Tiger VNC

Tiger VNC is available in ubuntu default package manager, install it by typing

apt install tigervnc-standalone-server -y

Provide you vnc password for your current user:

vncpasswd

(Optional): you can create a new user for vnc connection which is separated from your current user by typing su - <user name should be here>

You should see something similar to this:

Password:
Verify:
Would you like to enter a view-only password (y/n)? n

Skip the option to enter view-only password by typing n.

Start vnc server by typing vncserver -localhost no :<number> replace <number> with the instance number you need if you don't know what is that just type

vncserver -localhost no

Once the VNC server is started, you should get the following output:

New 'ubuntu2004:1 (tariq)' desktop at :1 on machine ubuntu2004

Starting applications specified in /etc/X11/Xvnc-session
Log file is /home/tariq/.vnc/ubuntu2004:1.log

Use xtigervncviewer -SecurityTypes VncAuth,TLSVnc -passwd /home/tariq/.vnc/passwd ubuntu2004:1 to connect to the VNC server.

You can verify your running VNC server using the following command:

vncserver -list

This will gives you:

TigerVNC server sessions:

X DISPLAY #	RFB PORT #	PROCESS ID
:1		5901		1719

Step 4 - Configure Xterm, xstartup

Before we start:

if you have created a new user you should login to it using su - <user name>
install xterm using apt install xterm

Start by killing your vncserver by typing vncserver -kill :1.

Next, you will need to configure TigerVNC to work with Gnome. You can do it by creating new file xstartup inside .vnc directory:

nano ~/.vnc/xstartup

Add the following lines:

#!/bin/sh
[ -x /etc/vnc/xstartup ] && exec /etc/vnc/xstartup
[ -r $HOME/.Xresources ] && xrdb $HOME/.Xresources

then:

chmod u+x ~/.vnc/xstartup

Next, create the folder by typing mkdir /etc/vnc then nano /etc/vnc/xstartup and fill it with those lines

# !/bin/sh

test x"$SHELL" = x"" && SHELL=/bin/bash
test x"$1"     = x"" && set -- default

vncconfig -iconic &
"$SHELL" -l <<EOF
export XDG_SESSION_TYPE=x11
dbus-launch --exit-with-session gnome-session
exec /etc/X11/Xsession "$@"
EOF
vncserver -kill $DISPLAY

Then give it executable permission sudo chmod u+x /etc/vnc/xstartup

Next, you will need to create a systemd file for TigerVNC to manage the VNC service. You can create it with the following command:

nano /etc/systemd/system/vncserver@.service

Add the following lines and make sure to replace root with your user name:

[Service]
Type=forking
User=root
Group=root
WorkingDirectory=/root

PIDFile=/root/.vnc/%H:%i.pid
ExecStartPre=-/usr/bin/vncserver -kill :%i > /dev/null 2>&1
ExecStart=/usr/bin/vncserver -depth 24 -geometry 1360x768 -localhost :%i
ExecStop=/usr/bin/vncserver -kill :%i


[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Save and close your file then reload the configs cache systemctl daemon-reload

Next, enable the VNC service to start at system reboot with the following command:

systemctl enable vncserver@<number>.service the phrase <number> refers to the instance number you specified when starting your vnc server in step 3.

Next, start the VNC service with the following command:

systemctl start vncserver@<number>.service the phrase <number> refers to the instance number you specified when starting your vnc server in step 3

(Note): You should never see any kind of errors after running the previous line, if you do please debug what is happend using systemctl status vncserver@<number>.service and google it.

keep the RFB PORT of the running instance of vnc to use it in the connection step.

To do that run: