ubuntu 18.04 VNC Grey screen

Question

I'm havinng problems getting my gnome desktop to load via vnc

initially I followed this guide for xfce vnc https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-install-and-configure-vnc-on-ubuntu-18-04

working Xfce config:

#!/bin/sh
unset SESSION_MANAGER
unset DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS
startxfce4 &

[ -x /etc/vnc/xstartup ] && exec /etc/vnc/xstartup
[ -r $HOME/.Xresources ] && xrdb $HOME/.Xresources
xsetroot -solid grey
/usr/bin/autocutsel -s CLIPBOARD -fork
vncconfig -iconic &
x-terminal-emulator -geometry 80x24x10x10 -ls -title "$VNCDESKTOP Desktop" &
gnome-session &

im trying to change this to allow my gnome session:

I found a config from: How to make VNC Server work with ubuntu-desktop without xfce

export XKL_XMODMAP_DISABLE=1
# unset SESSION_MANAGER
# unset DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS

[ -x /etc/vnc/xstartup ] && exec /etc/vnc/xstartup
[ -r $HOME/.Xresources ] && xrdb $HOME/.Xresources
xsetroot -solid grey
vncconfig -iconic &
x-terminal-emulator -geometry 80x24x10x10 -ls -title "$VNCDESKTOP Desktop" &

gnome-session &
gnome-panel &
gnome-settings-daemon &
metacity &
nautilus &
gnome-terminal &

This gets me a grey screen but Nautilus is working (yay sort of)

my log looks like:

25/01/20 16:12:35 Xvnc version TightVNC-1.3.10
25/01/20 16:12:35 Copyright (C) 2000-2009 TightVNC Group
25/01/20 16:12:35 Copyright (C) 1999 AT&T Laboratories Cambridge
25/01/20 16:12:35 All Rights Reserved.
25/01/20 16:12:35 See http://www.tightvnc.com/ for information on TightVNC
25/01/20 16:12:35 Desktop name 'X' (Ubuntu-server:1)
25/01/20 16:12:35 Protocol versions supported: 3.3, 3.7, 3.8, 3.7t, 3.8t
25/01/20 16:12:35 Listening for VNC connections on TCP port 5901
Font directory '/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi/' not found - ignoring
Font directory '/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi/' not found - ignoring
No VNC extension on display :1
/home/dev/.vnc/xstartup: 14: /home/dev/.vnc/xstartup: gnome-settings-daemon: not found

** (gnome-panel:3635): WARNING **: 16:12:36.071: Failed to request name: the name already has an owner
metacity-Message: 16:12:36.101: could not find XKB extension.

(metacity:3637): metacity-WARNING **: 16:12:36.105: Failed to create MetaCompositorXRender: Missing composite extension required for compositing

25/01/20 16:12:40 Got connection from client 192.168.0.5
25/01/20 16:12:40 Using protocol version 3.8
25/01/20 16:12:40 Full-control authentication passed by 192.168.0.5
25/01/20 16:12:40 rfbProcessClientNormalMessage: ignoring unknown encoding 24
25/01/20 16:12:40 rfbProcessClientNormalMessage: ignoring unknown encoding 16
25/01/20 16:12:40 rfbProcessClientNormalMessage: ignoring unknown encoding 22
25/01/20 16:12:40 rfbProcessClientNormalMessage: ignoring unknown encoding 21
25/01/20 16:12:40 rfbProcessClientNormalMessage: ignoring unknown encoding 15
25/01/20 16:12:40 Using zlib encoding for client 192.168.0.5
25/01/20 16:12:40 rfbProcessClientNormalMessage: ignoring unknown encoding -314
25/01/20 16:12:40 Enabling full-color cursor updates for client 192.168.0.5
25/01/20 16:12:40 rfbProcessClientNormalMessage: ignoring unknown encoding -223
25/01/20 16:12:40 Pixel format for client 192.168.0.5:
25/01/20 16:12:40   8 bpp, depth 6
25/01/20 16:12:40   true colour: max r 3 g 3 b 3, shift r 4 g 2 b 0
25/01/20 16:12:40 Using raw encoding for client 192.168.0.5
25/01/20 16:12:40 rfbProcessClientNormalMessage: ignoring unknown encoding 24
25/01/20 16:12:40 rfbProcessClientNormalMessage: ignoring unknown encoding 22
25/01/20 16:12:40 rfbProcessClientNormalMessage: ignoring unknown encoding 21
25/01/20 16:12:40 rfbProcessClientNormalMessage: ignoring unknown encoding 16
25/01/20 16:12:40 rfbProcessClientNormalMessage: ignoring unknown encoding 15
25/01/20 16:12:40 rfbProcessClientNormalMessage: ignoring unknown encoding -314
25/01/20 16:12:40 Enabling full-color cursor updates for client 192.168.0.5
25/01/20 16:12:40 rfbProcessClientNormalMessage: ignoring unknown encoding -223
25/01/20 16:12:40 rfbProcessClientNormalMessage: ignoring unknown encoding 24
25/01/20 16:12:40 rfbProcessClientNormalMessage: ignoring unknown encoding 16
25/01/20 16:12:40 rfbProcessClientNormalMessage: ignoring unknown encoding 22
25/01/20 16:12:40 rfbProcessClientNormalMessage: ignoring unknown encoding 21
25/01/20 16:12:40 rfbProcessClientNormalMessage: ignoring unknown encoding 15
25/01/20 16:12:40 Using zlib encoding for client 192.168.0.5
25/01/20 16:12:40 rfbProcessClientNormalMessage: ignoring unknown encoding -314
25/01/20 16:12:40 Enabling full-color cursor updates for client 192.168.0.5
25/01/20 16:12:40 rfbProcessClientNormalMessage: ignoring unknown encoding -223
25/01/20 16:12:40 Pixel format for client 192.168.0.5:

I did some research and saw using gnome flashback might be the way to go

changed my config to:

#!/bin/sh

export XKL_XMODMAP_DISABLE=1
export XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP="GNOME-Flashback:GNOME"
export XDG_MENU_PREFIX="gnome-flashback-"

gnome-session --session=gnome-flashback-metacity --disable-acceleration-check --debug &

log looks better but non-existing or invalid file:

25/01/20 21:25:19 Xvnc version TightVNC-1.3.10
25/01/20 21:25:19 Copyright (C) 2000-2009 TightVNC Group
25/01/20 21:25:19 Copyright (C) 1999 AT&T Laboratories Cambridge
25/01/20 21:25:19 All Rights Reserved.
25/01/20 21:25:19 See http://www.tightvnc.com/ for information on TightVNC
25/01/20 21:25:19 Desktop name 'X' (Ubuntu-server:1)
25/01/20 21:25:19 Protocol versions supported: 3.3, 3.7, 3.8, 3.7t, 3.8t
25/01/20 21:25:19 Listening for VNC connections on TCP port 5901
Font directory '/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi/' not found - ignoring
Font directory '/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi/' not found - ignoring
gnome-session-binary[2658]: DEBUG(+): Enabling debugging
gnome-session-binary[2658]: DEBUG(+): hardware acceleration check is disabled
gnome-session-binary[2658]: DEBUG(+): Using systemd for session tracking
gnome-session-binary[2658]: DEBUG(+): GsmManager: setting client store 0x56286684db70
gnome-session-binary[2658]: DEBUG(+): GsmXsmpServer: SESSION_MANAGER=local/Ubuntu-server:@/tmp/.ICE-unix/2658,unix/Ubuntu-server:/tmp/.ICE-unix/2658

gnome-session-binary[2658]: DEBUG(+): emitting SessionIsActive
gnome-session-binary[2658]: DEBUG(+): fill: *** Getting session 'gnome-flashback-metacity'
gnome-session-binary[2658]: DEBUG(+): fill: *** Looking if /home/dev/.config/gnome-session/sessions/gnome-flashback-metacity.session is a valid session file
gnome-session-binary[2658]: DEBUG(+): Cannot use session '/home/dev/.config/gnome-session/sessions/gnome-flashback-metacity.session':

Im quite new to linux and ubuntu, and working with my ubuntu box headless via a windows laptop

Can anyone help?

Cheers

Solution

Follow these steps:

1. Install gnome-session-flashback:

    sudo apt install gnome-session-flashback
   

2. Add this to ~/.vnc/xstartup:

    #!/bin/sh
    autocutsel -fork
    xrdb $HOME/.Xresources
    xsetroot -solid grey
    export XKL_XMODMAP_DISABLE=1
    export XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP="GNOME-Flashback:Unity"
    export XDG_MENU_PREFIX="gnome-flashback-"
    unset DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS
    gnome-session --session=gnome-flashback-metacity --disable-acceleration-check --debug &
   

Comments

[tedder42]

What does this even mean? Where were you when you said "log in directly" .. on the headless machine's head? Via SSH?

[Fountain]

sorry yes thats what I had to do plug a monitor keyboard mouse into the box. log into session flashback. log out. then it worked fine via vnc

[Ingo Karkat]

Thanks. I had this problem with Ubuntu 16.04 and Gnome classic. The xstartup simply tried to launch /etc/X11/Xsession, and this resulted in the grey-only screen in VNC. I had to add everything from your answer starting with the export XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP="GNOME-Flashback:Unity" line, and then it worked flawlessly.

[user2279952]

This also worked for me! I had to install autocutsel, but after I did and added these lines to my ~/.vnc/xstartup, I was able to log into with my VNC client to the remote host without issue.

[Wingpad]

This is hands down the most painless xstartup script I've found yet. Thank you kindly.