I have one computer running Ubuntu 10.04, and is running Vino, the default VNC server.
I have a second Windows box which is running a VNC client, but does not have any X11 capabilities. I am ssh'd into the Ubuntu host from the Windows host, but I forgot to enable VNC access on the Ubuntu host.
On the Ubuntu host, is there a way for me to enable VNC connections from the Ubuntu commandline?
Update:
As @koanhead says below, there is no man page for vino
(e.g. man -k vino
and info vino
return nothing), and vino --help
doesn't show any help).
I also wanted to enable vino with the command line without going in vino-preferences.
When I started
/usr/lib/vino/vino-server
, it says that I didn't have desktop sharing service enabled.With Unity
gconftool
isn't usable anymore. We have to do it viagsettings
.So, first, enable vino :
Then start vino :
Now you can access remotely to your computer.
If you want to see all configs available for Vino :
Short Answer:
as the accepted answer mentions, if vino isn't started on the remote machine, use
Long Answer and more info:
A subset of the settings for the current built-in remote access server (vino) can be seen, as mentioned, from vino-preferences. A complete list of gconf flags can be seen with the
gconf-editor
command, listed under /desktop/gnome/remote_access . You can see also the other remote_access keys with this command (or a variation on it):(For whatever reason,
-R
will also work.)You can also get the schema key documentation via the
--long-docs
arg.E.g., for the alternative_port key :
So, for example, here's how to change default port via command line:
gconftool will give you the keys under a given directory. Here is the 'remote_access' section:
Here is how to list all the schema docs under /desk/gnome/remote/access (via command-line /bin/bash):
Just running
should do the job.
Once you have access to your server, I would recommend that you add it to Autostarted Apps so it is always started.
You'll probably like change some settings with :
be very careful when you run vino-preference on a remote machine, if you uncheck "Allow other users to control your desktop", you won't be able to check it back.
or to edit :
Here a sample file :
Be careful, the password is base64 encoded. For this file, the password is qwerty. I see on some forum that people have change it successfully, but I had issue with it.
Here an online base64 encoder :
http://www.motobit.com/util/base64-decoder-encoder.asp
On Ubuntu 14.04, I found the following variation worked for me:
If this doesn't work, your X session might be running on something other than
:0
, so a quickps aux | grep X
should show a:1
or:2
Why, for the love of all that is good in this hard world, is there no man entry for vino or vino-server or for any of the commands listed in
dpkg -L vino
's output? For that matter, why should any package at all be installed on an Ubuntu system, ever, which omits a man page at least for the relevant commands? Ok, rant over. The best answer I've found so far is here: http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-266981.htmlI really hope this helps, and I hope that in future the Ubuntu community documents all these orphaned commands. "Ease of use" does not mean abandoning the command line, and it certainly does not mean abandoning easily accessible documentation. </grumble>
This doesn't seem to work remotely via ssh due to errors about the display and so on. Here's what I did:
Mostly works now!
I was able to set a fresh Ubuntu 16.04 install from a remote ssh connection with the following script:
The quoting is important for any of the string settings (single ticks inside quotes). For dconf to be able to write it needs access to XWindows, so that's why the export DISPLAY part is needed. I think you still need to be logged in to the desktop on the actual Ubuntu machine to connect with VNC after this. The dump command is just there to confirm all the settings took hold, you don't really need that.
Optionally you may want to do this if you want to keep the display up all the time:
For anyone using Linux Mint 15, I got this all to work on my MintBox2 by doing the following. I can now run the MintBox 2 entirely headless with: ssh + vino + Tight VNC.
Type into putty via ssh connection to the LinuxMint MintBox2 machine:
Now, if you like (this isn't necessary) on a LinuxMint terminal (i.e. not on putty) type:
=> You get an output of :1 [i.e. this caused me a lot of trouble to figure out i.e this is not 0:0 !!!!!!!!!!]
Now, go back to putty and type:
=> It now loads & you can use window 7 Tight VNC Viewer to access Linux Mint etc
I hope this helps some one out there...
I had that same issue with xubuntu after 18.04 upgrade. First install vino. Mine was removed on upgrade without any notice. Also even after installing vino, the command vino-preferences doesn't work.
Here is an easy workaround:
Install dconf-editor
then open it and go to
/org/gnome/desktop/remote-access/require-encryption
andturn off encryption
.There are also several other remote options you can set in dconf-editor. However until you install vino, the remote-access doesn't show in dconf-editor.
I hope someone can explain what happened to vino-preferences.
Then check this.