Ubuntu – how to remote desktop into server gui without logging into the console beforehand

remote accessremote desktopservervnc

ok so I want to use something like VNC or RDP to connect to my Ubuntu ~~12.04~~ 14.04 LTS server after it has booted up and is displaying a login prompt without having to go to the console and actually log in at the console first. I don't need to see the login screen that the console displays, but once it connects I'd like to be able to use the full desktop GUI.

This will be for admin management of the server, so it is ok if there is a single user/password for this access. It doesn't need to provide multiple concurrent access either, though that would be nice.

The machine was installed choosing "minimal" then running the commands

sudo apt-get install aptitude
sudo aptitude install screen openssh-server
sudo aptitude install --no-install-recommends ubuntu-desktop landscape-client-ui-install
sudo aptitude install indicator-application indicator-appmenu indicator-datetime indicator-session indicator-sound unity-lens-applications unity-lens-files xdg-utils

Now what?

I've tried

vino (aka "Desktop Sharing") seems to require that someone already be logged in to the server before it can be used.
tightvncserver says it can be run from the command line, but I must have been doing it wrong.
xrdp looks promising but just presents me with a blank window instead of a desktop when I log in
x11vnc with xvfb is complex and I only managed to create a VNC session from the ssh console of a terminal console.

Again, I seem to be missing something as there surely is a way, and possibly with the tools I've already tried.

Best Answer

You should take a look on the X11RDP.

It's really a great update of the Xrdp in addition you can customize the behavior as u need. The guy there "Kevin Cave" is genius and now he make some update so you can install x11rdp as Debian packages.

Also you can use the regular xrdp with specifying ubuntu-2d as default session for xrdp. That should solve your problem with xrdp. To do that:

cd /home/user
echo "gnome-session --session=ubuntu-2d" > .xsession
sudo /etc/init.d/xrdp restart

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – tightvncserver on ubuntu 12.04 server with ubuntu-desktop installed no unity

Here's what worked for me (on an amazon EC2 instance)

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop tightvncserver

Edit ~/.vnc/xstartup to read (modified from the one found in the ubuntu docs):

#!/bin/sh

# Change "GNOME" to "KDE" for a KDE desktop, or "" for a generic desktop
MODE="GNOME"

#Uncommment this line if using Gnome and your keyboard mappings are incorrect.
#export XKL_XMODMAP_DISABLE=1

# Load X resources (if any)
if [ -e "$HOME/.Xresources" ]
then
        xrdb "$HOME/.Xresources"
fi

# Try a GNOME session, or fall back to KDE
if [ "GNOME" = "$MODE" ]
then
        if which gnome-session >/dev/null
        then
                echo starting gnome
                gnome-session &
        else
                MODE="KDE"
        fi
fi

# Try a KDE session, or fall back to generic
if [ "KDE" = "$MODE" ]
then
        if which startkde >/dev/null
        then
                startkde &
        else
                MODE=""
        fi
fi

# Run a generic session
if [ -z "$MODE" ]
then
        xsetroot -solid "#DAB082"
        x-terminal-emulator -geometry "80x24+10+10" -ls -title "$VNCDESKTOP Desktop" &
        x-window-manager &
fi

Run:

tightvncserver -nolisten tcp -localhost -geometry 1024x786 :1

Like I said, it worked great for me, but your mileage may vary.

Ubuntu – VNC session very slow in 12.04 compared to older versions

By default 12.04 takes advantage of hardware acceleration. The graphical interface is so on the graphics card instead of on the CPU. This should grant overall better performance and augmented visual effects on decently spec'd desktop/laptop computers.

All that comes to a cost though. Apart from the fact that complex visual effects require more bandwidth, Vino doesn't seem ready for hardware compositing (GPU acceleration) anyway.

If you have a very good connection to the computer (ie. local wired connection), you can try to disable what is called "xdamage". Open the terminal and issue the following command (as standard user, not root):

gsettings set org.gnome.Vino disable-xdamage true

This will force the server to re-send the whole screen at each refresh and not just the changed areas. It is extremely stressful for your network of course.

As an alternative to entering this command in a terminal window, you may use the dconf-editor which can be installed using the Ubuntu Software Center.

If you feel adventurous you may also try to install "CompizConfig Settings Manager" (package compizconfig-settings-manager) and carefully reduce the number of effects (especially those related to windows and menus placement). The fewer the better for VNC.

Otherwise you can try to disable compositing altogether and login into Unity 2d you can follow these instructions, but you are of course disabling 3d effects and HW acceleration.

Best Answer

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Ubuntu – tightvncserver on ubuntu 12.04 server with ubuntu-desktop installed no unity

Ubuntu – VNC session very slow in 12.04 compared to older versions

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