RealVNC Server ... not in softwarelist anymore? Topic is solved

[noobian]

No clue how they do it ... But I prefer that over tinkering with the router.
another option is remote.it ... doesn‘t need portforwarding either

[Joulinar]

I was able to get it working without PortForwarding or other Stuff on my router. Just you need to use a RealVNC account. Downside at the moment, you need to have an active desktop session running. Otherwise I just get the back screen. So I setup 23 LXDE: ultra lightweight desktop and put it to autostart. I guess it's not perfect as on RPi this is not needed. There the RealVNC Service is working without additional desktop being set to autostart.

[MichaIng]

Ah, probably with the account, RealVNC keeps a connection open via some RealVNC relay server or or what? Although this was not something I would want... Could you check which ports it uses and if it keeps any network connection up even when no VNC client is connected? E.g. via iptraf-ng or such. Also probably in router you find the used port forwarded now if RealVNC install uses UPnP to open it automatically.

The thing with the active session is that by default it obviously uses shared desktop for VNC. There is a dedicated RealVNC virtual desktop service that is not enabled/running by default but can be enabled. Then, when connecting, it spawns a new virtial desktop instead of attaching to an existing session.

[Joulinar]

it keeps an active connection open

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root@DietPiVM1:~# lsof -i -P -n | grep vnc
vncserver  522 root   14u  IPv4  15492      0t0  TCP 192.168.0.13:51084->165.254.191.194:443 (ESTABLISHED)
root@DietPiVM1:~#

[Joulinar]

one more. Connecting the VNC Server to RealVNC Account is quite a challenge as you already need a running xServer/Gui session. So you definitely need to install a desktop first to be able to configure the VNC Server. Buhhhh

[MichaIng]

Please read my edit above about shared desktop vs virtual desktop services. However yeah a desktop or Xserver application is of course required in every case. It should be possible to define the exact x application to start, by default most likely it is "startx", hence the default desktop or LightDM login mask if installed.

[Joulinar]

well you need to have a desktop environment to be able to login to your RealVNC account. On command line it's not possible for RealVNC Home subscription. There you would need a Enterprise Version. Maybe I will check later with a 30 days trail period if it's working without desktop.

[MichaIng]

So it really keeps a connection up to a public RealVNC IP, just checked 165.254.191.194. I guess you can then only connect via RealVNC client and not any other VNC client, can you? I mean any other VNC client requires a port (or uses the default), hence it must be open, of course for non-local network connections only.

On RPi this is all not required AFAIK. The RealVNC server behaves like any other VNC server, one simply connect through any VNC client with given port and required forwarding for non-local connections.

[Joulinar]

@MichaIng

It all depends on your license type. I was testing the Enterprise subscription now and I'm able to run it same way as on RPi (local without Cloud connection).

Code: Select all

root@DietPiVM1:~# echo $G_HW_MODEL_DESCRIPTION
Virtual Machine (x86_64)
root@DietPiVM1:~#
root@DietPiVM1:~# lsof -i -P -n | grep vnc
vncserver 518 root    6u  IPv6  13516      0t0  TCP *:5999 (LISTEN)
vncserver 518 root    7u  IPv4  13517      0t0  TCP *:5999 (LISTEN)
vncserver 518 root    8u  IPv4  13518      0t0  UDP *:5999
vncserver 518 root    9u  IPv6  13519      0t0  UDP *:5999
vncserver 522 root   10u  IPv6  13579      0t0  TCP *:5900 (LISTEN)
vncserver 522 root   11u  IPv4  13580      0t0  TCP *:5900 (LISTEN)
vncserver 522 root   12u  IPv4  13581      0t0  UDP *:5900
vncserver 522 root   13u  IPv6  13582      0t0  UDP *:5900
Xvnc-core 713 root    0u  IPv6  14903      0t0  TCP *:6001 (LISTEN)
Xvnc-core 713 root    1u  IPv4  14904      0t0  TCP *:6001 (LISTEN)
Xvnc-core 713 root    6u  IPv6  14916      0t0  TCP *:5901 (LISTEN)
Xvnc-core 713 root    7u  IPv4  14917      0t0  TCP *:5901 (LISTEN)
Xvnc-core 713 root    8u  IPv4  14918      0t0  UDP *:5901
Xvnc-core 713 root    9u  IPv6  14919      0t0  UDP *:5901
Xvnc-core 713 root   28u  IPv4  15432      0t0  TCP 127.0.0.1:59130->127.0.0.1:37387 (ESTABLISHED)
vncserver 771 root    8u  IPv4  15585      0t0  TCP 127.0.0.1:37387->127.0.0.1:59130 (ESTABLISHED)
root@DietPiVM1:~#

If you are not running Enterprise version, you need to have your VNC server connected to RealVNC Cloud, leading to the permanent connection. However, even on Enterprise you can use the Cloud connection to be able to connect without opening ports. But yeah it's working.

[MichaIng]

Ah cloud connection, that is it: https://www.realvnc.com/en/news/what-vnc-cloud/
Explained very well, however I personally would always prefer to connect to my server directly without any cloud service in the middle, for privacy reasons at least, and to not have a permanent network connection open. Forwarding that port is required then but not that hard that such a service has any benefit IMO. However it makes sense when they want to sell their software/service to include authentication against their licenses/subscriptions. Free plan than means you pay with your data via forced cloud connection.