vnc server not working

Troubleshooting
1

Hello,

I’m trying to setup a vnc server on my dietpi so that I may look over an employees shoulder to provide remote assistance. I’ve tried installing both vnc4server and tightvnc and both are not working in that I can install them and they ask for me to setup a new password, but after the install and reboot of dietpi I am not able to remote into my dietpi using my vnc client on another computer in our network.

Has others had problems setting up remote assistance (from within the same network…not from outside) using a vnc server on dietpi?

How can I tell if the vnc server is running at start on my dietpi?

thank you.

2

Hi,

As per documentation: https://dietpi.com/forum/t/resolved-cannot-log-in-to-the-mysql-server/41/1
On the VNC client, have you tried to connect with the IP on screen 1, eg:
192.168.0.123**:1**

Check status of service with:

systemctl status vncserver.service -l
3

Shared desktop isn’t currently integrated into our VNC installations yet and would require changes to the launch script:

/usr/local/bin/vncserver

I’ve created a ticket for this, you can track its status here: https://github.com/Fourdee/DietPi/issues/607

4

Hello Fourdee,

My apologies…I missed that part about when using the desktop I can’t use vncserver.

Yes I am booting into an LXDE desktop and what I was hoping was to be able to provide ‘over the shoulder’ assistance to users by connecting to their 192.168.0.123:0 session so I could see exactly what they see. Is there a way to configure dietpi myself so that I may have this ability? Being able to connect to a 192.168.0.123:1 session won’t help me.

Thank you for creating a ticket for this question. Much appreciated!

5

Hi,

Shared desktop mode will be available in DietPi v137 update. Should be released within a few days.

To enable shared desktop after the v137 patch:

  • Edit /DietPi/dietpi.txt
  • Change entry dietpi_vncserver_shared_desktop=1
  • systemctl restart vncserver
  • Connect using IP address in vncviewer
6

Wait…it’s fixed in the next update…already!

Seriously…this is amazing! Thanks Fourdee…I appreciate all your hard work you put into this.

Question for you about vnc viewing console session…is this persistent across reboots or will I need to enable something after a reboot before I can connect to the users console over vnc to assist them? I just want to ensure I know the steps I’ll need to take to provide assistance if I’m called.

Thank you.

7

X11 (desktop) is persistent across reboots. We create a service that gets executed during boot, to start the VNC server :slight_smile:

If your using LXDE, you can launch LXterminal on the client system (remotely or at host). This will create a console environment you can run commands from.