How to configure VNC on ubuntu

How to Install VNC on Ubuntu 16.04

Install VNC on Ubuntu 16.04

As you know, VNC is a protocol that allows sharing the desktop and controlled remotely over the internet. This simple guide helps you to install VNC on Ubuntu 16.04 machines.

Before installing the VNC server, let us install Xfce desktop.

$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install xfce4 xfce4-*

Install the VNC server using the following command.

$ sudo apt-get install vnc4server

VNC server listens on port 5900, but if you plan to setup port-offset in VNC; we can run a VNC service on a sub-port of the default port 5900.

For example, if we configure VNC for port 5, the desktop will be accessible on port 5905. To connect, you can use the standard format ipaddress:sub-port (192.168.2.109:5 or 192.168.2.109:5905)

$ sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/vncserver@:5.service

Replace with your real user.

[Unit]
Description=Start TightVNC server at startup
After=syslog.target network.target
[Service]
Type=forking
User=raj
PAMName=login
PIDFile=/home/raj/.vnc/%H%i.pid
#ExecStartPre=/usr/bin/vncserver -kill %i > /dev/null 2>&1
ExecStart=/usr/bin/vncserver -depth 24 -geometry 1024x768 %i
ExecStop=/usr/bin/vncserver -kill %i

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Reload the systemctl daemon as root

$ sudo systemctl daemon-reload

Start VNC server as user “raj”

raj@server:~$ vncserver

Set the password.

You will require a password to access your desktops.

Password:
Verify:
xauth: file /home/raj/.Xauthority does not exist

New 'server.itzgeek.local:1 (raj)' desktop is server.itzgeek.local:1

Creating default startup script /home/raj/.vnc/xstartup
Starting applications specified in /home/raj/.vnc/xstartup
Log file is /home/raj/.vnc/server.itzgeek.local:1.log

Now, Edit the xstartup file to start Xfce desktop in VNC.

raj@server:~$ nano /home/raj/.vnc/xstartup

Delete all the existing entries and place the below lines into the file.

#!/bin/sh
[ -r $HOME/.Xresources ] && xrdb $HOME/.Xresources
startxfce4 &

Start the VNC service as root.

$ sudo systemctl start vncserver@:5.service

Enable it on system startup as root.

$ sudo systemctl enable vncserver@:5.service

Now use a VNC viewer to take the shared desktop.

ipaddress:5905 or ipaddress:5

That’s All.