Revision 16 as of 2013-11-07 07:02:51

Clear message

How do I use VNC?

Start a vnc-server on the machine you want to control, with vncserver :1 (:1 means display, resp. port 1). You will be asked to define a password for accessing your server and another one for just observing without interacting. After that, your server is up and running and you can connect to it with any available VNC-clients (e.g. TightVNC) by entering the hostname you want to connect to, like hostname:1.

VNC through SSH tunnel

  1. Start VNC Server on remote host 
      $ ssh <remoteHost>
  $ vncserver :<display#> -localhost

    Attention! Always choose a strong password when starting vncserver. Otherwise, you'll make it trivial for intruders to hijack your account!

  2. Start VNC viewer on your machine 
      $ vncviewer -via <remotehost>.ee.ethz.ch localhost:<display#>

    • Note: For Windows users the 'RealVNC' client would be a good choice.
      Mac users may establish the tunnel via SSH, then use "open vnc://localhost:PORT" to use the built-in VNC client.


  3. And finally, after you have closed the VNC-Window on your machine, it's important to end the vnc process on the remote host to avoid unused processes: 

      $ ssh <remoteHost>
  $ vncserver -kill :<display#>

/!\ Warning! Do not log out via the logout menu of the Operating System within the VNC session!
This causes a dead VNC connection. Dead means, you can't connect to that display anymore, which results in an unusuable, ressource consuming VNC server process on the host side.

Troubleshooting

  1. If you are using gnome as default desktop environment and are affected by completely wrong keyboard-layout after logon to gnome (http://bugs.debian.org/476727) use the following workaround:

    Directly in the line before /etc/X11/Xsession of $HOME/.vnc/xstartup add the line 

      export XKL_XMODMAP_DISABLE=1
  2. If you still want to use gnome2 or xfce instead of gnome3 change following: 
    •    #!/bin/sh

    xrdb $HOME/.Xresources
    xsetroot -solid grey
    export XKL_XMODMAP_DISABLE=1
    /usr/bin/gnome-session-fallback
   #/etc/X11/Xsession
   #/usr/bin/wmaker
   #/usr/bin/startkde
      In this case with gnome-session-falllback please make sure to check next point with the keyboard changes. Point 3

  3. If you are using gnome as default desktop environment and the up and down arrows behave wrong (http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=679543) do the following:

    • Go to: Applications->System Tools->Preferences->System Settings->Keyboard->Shortcuts->Windows

    • And disable options: "Toggle maximization state" and "Restore windows"

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