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idgar
Asked: 2012-07-28 07:13:30 +0800 CST

How do I install a VNC server?

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I want to install some VNC server on my ubuntu 12.04. which one is the best / recommended? how do i configure it?

all i want is to be able to connect my desktop computer through my laptop. i want something simple like connecting with RDP protocol between windows computers.

vnc

5 Answers

  1. To install VNC just press Ctrl+Alt+T on your keyboard to open Terminal. When it opens, run the command below.

    sudo apt-get update

    This updates the package list for apt.

    Then you'll need to install the Gnome components using Software Center:

    Install via the software center

    Or Using Terminal:

    sudo apt-get install gnome-core

    To install VNC server using Software Center:

    Install via the software center

    Or Using Terminal:

    sudo apt-get install vnc4server

    For more info just take a look at Complete VNC Server Setup.

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  2. Another option, if you're using Microsoft's Remote Desktop Connection client:

    sudo apt-get install xrdp

    That's it, no additional configuration needed! Now you can connect from your Windows or Mac laptop using Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection client. I was actually quite surprised how simple it was.

    Edit: This doesn't seem to work out-of-the-box with anymore with 16.04.

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  3. Here I am going to show you that how to install vnc server and configure it. We use VNC package to Remote Graphical Access. I will tell you the configuration of VNC for Linux on Ubuntu Platform.

    There are the 4 easy steps to install and configure the VNC.

    On Server:

    1. Install the required x11vnc package in ubuntu.

      sudo apt-get install -y x11vnc

      If headless server (EC2 aws Instance) install gnome packages. 

      sudo apt-get install gnome-core

    2. Create a password for a user.

      x11vnc -storepasswd

      Output:

      Enter VNC Password:
Verify password:
Write password to /home/user/.vnc/passwd? [y]/n y
Password written to: /home/user/.vnc/passwd

    3. To run the vnc server on every start automatically. We have to open /etc/rc.local file.

      sudo nano /etc/rc.local

      Copy the below line to start vnc session automatically with system startup, paste it the line before the exit 0.

      sudo x11vnc -xkb -noxrecord -forever -noxfixes -noxdamage -display :0 -auth /var/run/lightdm/root/:0 -usepw &

    For more details see My Article.

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  4. I found that I had to make some changes to my Ubuntu box after installing xrdp per this article, How to use xRDP for remote access to Ubuntu 14.04.

    The basic procedure was to install and set up xrdp and xfce4:

    sudo apt-get update    
sudo apt-get install xrdp
sudo apt-get install xfce4 xfce4-terminal
echo xfce4-session >~/.xsession

    Then modify the last line of the file /etc/xrdp/startwm.sh to start startxfce4 rather than what is there, I think it was originally a path to Xsession.

    After modifying the file use the command sudo service xrdp restart to restart xrdp so that it will have the changes.

    See also this article, How do I get xrdp to work form windows to linux on Ubuntu forums which describes modifying the /etc/xrdp/startwm.sh file as well though the procedure is a bit different by creating a configuration file in the user's root directory.

    In the Remote Desktop Connection application in Windows I set the Colors to be High Color (16 bit).

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  5. Vino "Desktop Sharing" pre-installed VNC server

    Desktop Ubuntu comes with a server pre-installed called Vino from the GNOME project.

    It is hidden behind the "Desktop Sharing" application name in dash, even the executable is not in the path!

    Once you launch it check:

    • Allow other users to [view | control] your desktop
    • Require the user to enter this password
    • Automatically configure UPnP router to open and forward ports

    And then from the other computer, connect as:

    sudo apt-get install vinagre
vinagre host-name:0

    There is however a protocol incompatibility problem with the encryption of major Windows clients like TigerVNC and RealVNC: Gnome 3.10 sharing desktop --- how to configure the security type for VNC? Disabling encryption is a possible workaround in some cases.

    I could only configure the port with dconf... the default is port 5900 which means :0. sudo netstat -tupan | grep vino may also help.

    To shutdown the server, just uncheck "Allow other users to [view | control]" and that kills the server process.

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