Ubuntu – How to configure VNC server to get full Gnome desktop

gnomeremote desktopsshtightvncservervnc

I have a home server running Ubuntu Gnome 16.10. I installed the Desktop Environment to have a nicer way to configure my server, I chose Gnome because of it is lightweight enough and has the Google drive integration for backup (somewhat).

I would like to access through VNC and have the same interface. I am talking about this one.

I got my VNC configured and my ~/.vnc/xstartup looks like :

#!/bin/sh

# Uncomment the following two lines for normal desktop:
# unset SESSION_MANAGER
# exec /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc

[ -x /etc/vnc/xstartup ] && exec /etc/vnc/xstartup
[ -r $HOME/.Xresources ] && xrdb $HOME/.Xresources
xsetroot -solid grey 
vncconfig -iconic &
x-terminal-emulator -geometry 80x24+10+10 -ls -title "$VNCDESKTOP Desktop" &
x-window-manager &
gnome-session & #this line has been added based on some comments found online, but no effect whatsoever.    
gnome-panel &
gnome-settings-daemon &
metacity &
nautilus &

I can perfectly connect from my Windows machine using Putty and a SSH tunnel like explained here, but the outlook is not at all what I would desire. it is like that :
VNC session outlook

and if I uncomment the 2 lines at the top of the file, I get that
enter image description here

What am I doing wrong?

Best Answer

Few people know this, but Ubuntu already comes with everything you need.

Just search in the menus:

  • Vino: this is the server application; there is a configuration UI that lets you configure. Use this in your desktop computer.
  • Remmina: the client. If your client is not Ubuntu, you have to use some other application. Remmina is very cool because you can setup tunnels and etc directly.

Notice this comes installed only for Ubuntu proper. For XUbuntu or other distributions, you will need to install these tools. Also, Vino may not work in Wayland -- I would use 16.04 or 18.04.

Related Question