{"id":38,"date":"2016-04-01T20:24:12","date_gmt":"2016-04-01T20:24:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pure-media.info\/?p=38"},"modified":"2017-04-06T03:53:13","modified_gmt":"2017-04-06T03:53:13","slug":"how-to-install-vnc-server-on-ubuntu-14-04","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pure-media.info\/index.php\/2016\/04\/01\/how-to-install-vnc-server-on-ubuntu-14-04\/","title":{"rendered":"How to install VNC Server on Ubuntu 14.04+"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Ubuntu-Logo\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This Guide will show you how to Install a GUI or Desktop on a Headless\/Server machine. This will work with ubuntu 14.04+<\/p>\n

As usual I always update my system before I install anything. It’s a good practice to keep our servers\/machines secured also<\/p>\n

apt-get update && apt-get upgrade<\/code><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Install GUI Desktop<\/h3>\n

I’m using Ubuntu 14.04 64-bit Server for this tutorial so I will install a GUI of my choice, XFCE is always my favorite Desktop Environment. You can install other but for the shake of this tutorial I will just use XFCE.<\/p>\n

apt-get install xubuntu-desktop xfce4 firefox nano<\/code><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Install VNC Server on Ubuntu 14.04<\/h3>\n

Installing VNC Server on Ubuntu 14.04 is simple, but configuration is a different story.<\/p>\n

apt-get install vnc4server<\/code><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Configure VNC Server to work on Ubuntu<\/h3>\n

Adding VNC User<\/strong>
\nYou can always run your system with root, but it’s not a good security practice. If you have a regular\/privileged user, you can skip this step. If you are using root, I strongly recommend you to create a regular\/privileged user and use this user rather than root. For the purpose of this tutorial, I’m creating “puremedia” user, but you can choose whatever user\/username you want to use or even your exiting privileged user.<\/p>\n

adduser puremedia<\/code><\/p>\n

Lets let them add them to the sudo list to allow for installing and updating applications<\/p>\n

adduser puremedia sudo<\/code><\/p>\n

Now lets login as that user to generate the default configuration for VNC<\/p>\n

su puremedia<\/code><\/p>\n

Lets start VNCserver as this user<\/p>\n

vncserver<\/code><\/p>\n

First time you startup vncserver, you will be asked to provide vnc’s password to access to your VNC Server. This password can be the same as your user’s password or different, it’s up to you but I highly recommend you to set this password different to your user’s password for better security measure.<\/p>\n

The next step is to turn off vncserver to modify the xstartup file (startup script) to make vncserver start with xfce4 (we installed xfce4 for this tutorial)<\/p>\n

vncserver -kill :1<\/code><\/p>\n

Now lets edit the xstartup for vncserver<\/p>\n

cd <\/code><\/p>\n

nano .vnc\/xstartup<\/code><\/p>\n

This is the original configuration file<\/p>\n

#!\/bin\/sh\r\n \r\n# Uncomment the following two lines for normal desktop:\r\n# unset SESSION_MANAGER\r\n# exec \/etc\/X11\/xinit\/xinitrc\r\n \r\n[ -x \/etc\/vnc\/xstartup ] && exec \/etc\/vnc\/xstartup\r\n[ -r $HOME\/.Xresources ] && xrdb $HOME\/.Xresources\r\nxsetroot -solid grey\r\nvncconfig -iconic &\r\nx-terminal-emulator -geometry 80x24+10+10 -ls -title \"$VNCDESKTOP Desktop\" &\r\nx-window-manager &<\/pre>\n
What you need to do is to uncomment two lines “unset SESSION_MANAGER” and “exec \/etc\/X11\/xinit\/xinitrc”, then add “startxfce4 &” to the file. The modified xstartup file should look like this<\/p>\n
#!\/bin\/sh\r\n \r\n# Uncomment the following two lines for normal desktop:\r\nunset SESSION_MANAGER\r\nexec \/etc\/X11\/xinit\/xinitrc\r\n \r\nstartxfce4 &\r\n \r\n[ -x \/etc\/vnc\/xstartup ] && exec \/etc\/vnc\/xstartup\r\n[ -r $HOME\/.Xresources ] && xrdb $HOME\/.Xresources\r\nxsetroot -solid grey\r\nvncconfig -iconic &\r\nx-terminal-emulator -geometry 80x24+10+10 -ls -title \"$VNCDESKTOP Desktop\" &\r\nx-window-manager &<\/pre>\n
Save xstartup when you are done.<\/p>\n
CTRL + X<\/code><\/p>\n
Create VNC Server statup script<\/h3>\n
sudo nano \/etc\/init.d\/vncserver<\/code><\/p>\n
Now add<\/p>\n
#!\/bin\/bash\r\n### BEGIN INIT INFO\r\n# Provides:          tightvncserver\r\n# Required-Start:    $syslog\r\n# Required-Stop:     $syslog\r\n# Default-Start:     2 3 4 5\r\n# Default-Stop:      0 1 6\r\n# Short-Description: vncserver\r\n#\r\n### END INIT INFO\r\n \r\nunset VNCSERVERARGS\r\nVNCSERVERS=\"\"\r\n[ -f \/etc\/vncserver\/vncservers.conf ] && . \/etc\/vncserver\/vncservers.conf\r\nprog=$\"VNC server\"\r\nstart() {\r\n. \/lib\/lsb\/init-functions\r\nREQ_USER=$2\r\necho -n $\"Starting $prog: \"\r\nulimit -S -c 0 >\/dev\/null 2>&1\r\nRETVAL=0\r\nfor display in ${VNCSERVERS}\r\ndo\r\nexport USER=\"${display##*:}\"\r\nif test -z \"${REQ_USER}\" -o \"${REQ_USER}\" == ${USER} ; then\r\necho -n \"${display} \"\r\nunset BASH_ENV ENV\r\nDISP=\"${display%%:*}\"\r\nexport VNCUSERARGS=\"${VNCSERVERARGS[${DISP}]}\"\r\nsu ${USER} -c \"cd ~${USER} && [ -f .vnc\/passwd ] && vncserver :${DISP} ${VNCUSERARGS}\"\r\nfi\r\ndone\r\n}\r\nstop() {\r\n. \/lib\/lsb\/init-functions\r\nREQ_USER=$2\r\necho -n $\"Shutting down VNCServer: \"\r\nfor display in ${VNCSERVERS}\r\ndo\r\nexport USER=\"${display##*:}\"\r\nif test -z \"${REQ_USER}\" -o \"${REQ_USER}\" == ${USER} ; then\r\necho -n \"${display} \"\r\nunset BASH_ENV ENV\r\nexport USER=\"${display##*:}\"\r\nsu ${USER} -c \"vncserver -kill :${display%%:*}\" >\/dev\/null 2>&1\r\nfi\r\ndone\r\necho -e \"n\"\r\necho \"VNCServer Stopped\"\r\n}\r\ncase \"$1\" in\r\nstart)\r\nstart $@\r\n;;\r\nstop)\r\nstop $@\r\n;;\r\nrestart|reload)\r\nstop $@\r\nsleep 3\r\nstart $@\r\n;;\r\ncondrestart)\r\nif [ -f \/var\/lock\/subsys\/vncserver ]; then\r\nstop $@\r\nsleep 3\r\nstart $@\r\nfi\r\n;;\r\nstatus)\r\nstatus Xvnc\r\n;;\r\n*)\r\necho $\"Usage: $0 {start|stop|restart|condrestart|status}\"\r\nexit 1\r\nesac<\/pre>\n
Let enable this file to execute<\/p>\n
sudo chmod +x \/etc\/init.d\/vncserver<\/code><\/p>\n
 Create VNC Server configuration file<\/h3>\n
We are going to create vncservers.conf file in \/etc\/vncserver directory to set VNC’s port, screen resolution for each user.<\/p>\n
mkdir -p \/etc\/vncserver <\/code><\/p>\n
nano \/etc\/vncserver\/vncservers.conf<\/code><\/p>\n
 <\/p>\n
# VNC port:user\r\n# 1 for port 1 and 5901, 2 for port 2 and 5902, 3 for port 3 and 5903, and so on\r\nVNCSERVERS=\"1:puremedia\"\r\n \r\n# VNC screen resolution\r\n#GEOMETRY=\"<WIDTH>x<HEIGHT>\"\r\nVNCSERVERARGS[1]=\"-geometry 1024x768\"\r\n \r\n# Color depth (choose 8, 16, or 32)\r\nDEPTH=\"32\"<\/pre>\n
Save again<\/p>\n
CTRL + X<\/code><\/p>\n
 Set VNC to start on boot<\/h3>\n
update-rc.d vncserver defaults 99<\/code><\/p>\n
 <\/p>\n
 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This Guide will show you how to Install a GUI or Desktop on a Headless\/Server machine. This will work with<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[85],"tags":[12,31,28,29,10,4,11,5,9,8,7,27,30],"class_list":["post-38","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tech-tip","tag-create","tag-debian","tag-desktop","tag-gui","tag-install","tag-server","tag-setup","tag-ssh","tag-tahr","tag-trusty","tag-ubuntu","tag-vnc","tag-xfce"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":false,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7oBs4-C","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pure-media.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pure-media.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pure-media.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pure-media.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pure-media.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pure-media.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pure-media.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pure-media.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pure-media.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}