Developing Community and IT products/services

Virtual Network Computing, or VNC, is a connection system
that allows you to use your keyboard and mouse to interact with a
graphical desktop environment on a remote server. It helps users who are
not yet comfortable with the command line with managing files,
software, and settings on a remote server.

In this guide, you’ll set up a VNC server with TightVNC
on a Debian 11 server and connect to it securely through an SSH tunnel.
Then, you’ll use a VNC client program on your local machine to interact
with your server through a graphical desktop environment.


To follow this tutorial, you’ll need:

• One Debian 11 server set up by following the Debian 11 initial server setup guide, including a non-root user with

  Code: Select all

  sudo

  access and a firewall.
• A local computer with a VNC client installed that supports VNC connections over SSH tunnels.
  • On Windows, you can use TightVNC, RealVNC, or UltraVNC.
  • On macOS, you can use the built-in Screen Sharing program, or can use a cross-platform app like RealVNC.
  • On Linux, you can choose from many options, including

    Code: Select all

    vinagre

    ,

    Code: Select all

    krdc

    , RealVNC, or TightVNC.

Once you have everything set up, you can proceed to the first step.

Step 1 — Installing the Desktop Environment and VNC Serverhttps://www.digitalocean.com/community/ ... vnc-server

By default, a Debian 11 server does not come with a graphical desktop
environment or a VNC server installed, so you’ll begin by installing
those.

You have many options when it comes to which VNC server and desktop
environment you choose. In this tutorial, you will install packages for
the latest Xfce
desktop environment and the TightVNC package available from the
official Ubuntu repository. Both Xfce and TightVNC are known for being
lightweight and fast, which will help ensure that the VNC connection
will be smooth and stable even on slower internet connections.

After connecting to your server with SSH, update your list of packages:
Now install the Xfce desktop environment, along with the package, on your server:
During installation, you may be prompted to choose a default display
manager for Xfce. A display manager is a program that allows you to
select and log in to a desktop environment through a graphical
interface. You’ll only be using Xfce when you connect with a VNC client,
and in these Xfce sessions you’ll already be logged in as your non-root Debian user. So for the purposes of this tutorial, your choice of display manager isn’t pertinent. Select either one and press .

Once the installation completes, install the TightVNC server:
Next, install the dependency to ensure a proper connection to your VNC server:
To complete the VNC server’s initial configuration after installation, use the command to set up a secure password and create the initial configuration files:
Next there will be a prompt to enter and verify a password to access your machine remotely:
The password must be between six and eight characters long. Passwords
with more than eight characters will be truncated automatically.

Once you verify the password, you have the option to create a
view-only password. Users who log in with the view-only password will
not be able to control the VNC instance with their mouse or keyboard.
This is a helpful option if you want to demonstrate something to other
people using your VNC server, but this isn’t required.

The process then creates the necessary default configuration files and connection information for the server:
Next, configure it to launch Xfce and give access to the server through a graphical interface.

Step 2 — Configuring the VNC Serverhttps://www.digitalocean.com/community/ ... vnc-server

The VNC server needs to know what commands to execute when it starts
up. Specifically, VNC needs to know which graphical desktop it should
connect to.

These commands are located in a configuration file called in the folder under your home directory. The startup script was created when you ran the command in the previous step, but you’ll create your own to launch the Xfce desktop.

When VNC is first set up, it launches a default server instance on port . This port is called a display port, and is referred to by VNC as . VNC can launch multiple instances on other display ports, like , , and so on.

Because you are going to change how the VNC server is configured, first stop the VNC server instance that is running on port with the following command:
The following is the output with a PID specific to your server environment:
Before you modify the file, back up the original:
Now create a new file and open it in your preferred text editor:
Commands in this file are executed automatically whenever you start
or restart the VNC server. You need VNC to start your desktop
environment if it’s not already started. Add the following commands to
the file:
Here is a brief overview of what each line is doing:

• Code: Select all

  #!/bin/bash

  : The first line is a shebang.
  In executable plain-text files on *nix platforms, a shebang tells the
  system what interpreter to pass that file to for execution. In this
  case, you’re passing the file to the Bash interpreter. This will allow
  each successive line to be executed as commands, in order.

• Code: Select all

  xrdb $HOME/.Xresources

  : This command tells VNC’s GUI framework to read the user’s

  Code: Select all

  .Xresources

  file.

  Code: Select all

  .Xresources

  is where a user can make changes to certain settings for the graphical
  desktop, like terminal colors, cursor themes, and font rendering.

• Code: Select all

  startxfce4 &

  : This command tells the server to
  launch Xfce. This is where you will find all the graphical software that
  you need to comfortably manage your server.

When you’re finished, save and exit out of your editor. If you’re using , you do so by pressing , then , then .

To ensure that the VNC server will be able to use this new startup file properly, you need to make it executable:
Now, restart the VNC server:
The output will be similar to the following:
With the configuration in place, you’re ready to connect to the VNC server from your local machine.