VNC
Background
VNC stands for Virtual Network Computing. It allows you to access your graphical desktop on a Linux server from your Windows or Mac computer. When you create a VNC "session", it lives until the server is rebooted, or until you explicitly kill it.
Requirements
- An account on a Linux server that supports VNC
- An SSH client
- A VNC viewer client
Creating/Accessing a VNC session
- Log in to the server with your SSH client. You should get a command prompt.
- Type "get_vnc".
- Hit Enter.
- If you already have a VNC session, you will see something like this:
Here is your current vnc session: big_server:6
In this example, your VNC session number on "big_server" would be 6. Make a note of the actual number. - If you don't already have a VNC session, you will see something like this:
New 'big_server:6 (some_user)' desktop is big_server:6 Starting applications specified in /home/some_user/.vnc/xstartup Log file is /home/some_user/.vnc/big_server:6.log
which would mean that VNC session number 6 was just created for you on the server. Make a note of the actual number.
- If you already have a VNC session, you will see something like this:
- Now use your VNC viewer to open a connection to your VNC session on server. If all goes well, you should get a window containing your Linux desktop.
Closing a VNC session
Restarting your VNC session might be necessary if system-wide environment variables have been changed.
- Log in to the server with your SSH client. You should get a command prompt.
- Type "
vncserver -kill :6
", where 6 should be replaced by your actual VNC session number. If all goes well, you should see something like "Killing Xvnc process ID 10909
" without any error messages afterward.
Checking on VNC sessions
This is helpful if you think you might have multiple VNC sessions on the server.
- Log in to the server with your SSH client. You should get a command prompt.
- Type "
vnc_report
". This will list all active VNC session numbers and their users. For example:[some_user@big_server some_user]$ vnc_report 1 alfred Oct10 2 ben Oct10 3 chad Oct11 4 david Oct12 5 eddie Oct24 6 some_user 16:18