How do I get headless VNC working?

gfunkdave

1/5/24, 8:13 PM

I'm using a headless Ubuntu Desktop 22.04.1 LTS. I think it was around the time I installed the .1 update that VNC stopped working. It worked forever before that.

I'm using the built-in gnome-remote-desktop that you activate in the settings. It is set to allow VNC with a password. I used to have a dummy VGA adapter connected but when it stopped working I switched to a dummy HDMI adapter, which didn't help.

The behavior I'm experiencing varies on the platform I'm using. On a Windows desktop with VNCViewer or TightVNC Viewer, when I connect I see my Ubuntu desktop for a fraction of a second and then the error: "Reconnecting to VNC Server...Protocol Error: bad rectangle: 5376x0 at 0,5418 exceeds 1920x1080 at 0,0". If I use the VNCViewer app on iOS, it connects but I just see a mouse arrow on an empty black screen.

I should also be able to use RDP, right? If I try that, I get the error: "An authentication error has occurred. The token supplied to the function is invalid."

Also, it appears that somehow the gnome-remote-desktop process is only listening on TCP6 and I don't know why.

david@zoidberg:$ sudo netstat -anp | grep 5900
[sudo] password for david:
tcp6       0      0 :::5900                 :::*                    LISTEN      1473/gnome-remote-d

Thanks for any help.

1388

1 + 0

vnc

gnome

22.04

Score:2

Ubuntu

John

2/18/24, 10:08 PM

I experienced this same issue. In my case, this issue cleared up when I changed the the display quality to medium on the connection properties -> options screen on the VNC client viewer.

+ 2

gfunkdave

2/19/24, 2:03 AM

Ye gods, you’re right! Worked for me too. Thanks!!

bhall

3/14/24, 2:20 AM

Oh my! Thanks, John! I spent hours trying to figure this out, but it was so simple, and not even anything that is documented. This is a gem!

Elon Musk

I sit in a Tesla and translated this thread with Ai:

EN: How do I get headless VNC working?

Post an answer

Most people don’t grasp that asking a lot of questions unlocks learning and improves interpersonal bonding. In Alison’s studies, for example, though people could accurately recall how many questions had been asked in their conversations, they didn’t intuit the link between questions and liking. Across four studies, in which participants were engaged in conversations themselves or read transcripts of others’ conversations, people tended not to realize that question asking would influence—or had influenced—the level of amity between the conversationalists.