starting vnc at boot

Seawolf1 · 01-30-2007, 09:06 AM

I have vnc working only when I login as root. The file xstartup is located in the /root/.vnc directory. I have changed the /etc/re.local script with a call to run the xstartup, but it still does not start at boot. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

kilgoretrout · 01-30-2007, 09:23 AM

I believe X has to be up and running before you can start VNC. That's why your rc.local edit did not work; X starts after rc.local runs. Please post the distro you are using and the DE(kde, gnome, etc). The way X is started varies from distro to distro and different DEs have different built in mechanisms for autostarting apps when they are started.

Seawolf1 · 01-30-2007, 09:59 AM

I'm running Redhat kernel 2.6.9-42.0.3.ELsmp

kilgoretrout · 01-30-2007, 11:08 AM

Looks more complicated than I initially thought. However, I found this for starting vnc on boot in CentOS which is a direct knockoff of RHEL and fedora:

http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum...fm/492488.html

http://www.g-loaded.eu/2005/11/10/co...ver-in-fedora/

The fedora howto looks especially good and should get you going. You will want to get rid of the xstartup edit in rc.local and reboot as this can apparently screw things up.

Seawolf1 · 01-30-2007, 01:16 PM

Prior to your reply, I found my rc.local to point to /etc/vnc/xstartup. Seeing I did not wish to edit this file for fear of causing other problems, I created the /vnc directory and copied in the xstartup file. Lo and behold, now the system will not boot. It stops at HAL daemon and hangs. The only idea I have it to boot to the cd and fix. For some odd reason, I don't think this was the root cause.

kilgoretrout · 01-30-2007, 10:52 PM

I am having some difficulty following what you are trying to say. It is not clear from your post exactly what you did but it is clear you can no longer boot up. I would suggest getting a livecd and using that to reverse whatever you did to cause the problem. A nice one that's easy to use and not such a big download is slax:

http://www.slax.org/

There are many others, and they are generally easier to use than the install cd's rescue mode.

gilead · 01-31-2007, 12:54 AM

You don't need X running on the server running VNC. Each user should run vncpasswd and should then customise their ~/.vnc/xstartup file. Here's mine:

Code:

$ cat .vnc/xstartup
#!/bin/sh

xrdb $HOME/.Xresources
xsetroot -solid grey
xterm -geometry 110x24+10+10 -ls -title "$VNCDESKTOP Desktop" &
/usr/X11R6/bin/fluxbox &

To start the VNC server at boot, create a script in the directory where your other startup scripts live and call it from /etc/rc.d/init.d/local (or whatever Redhat calls the local startup script). For example (modify for your script's location):

Code:

if [ -x /etc/rc.d/rc.vncserver ]; then
  . /etc/rc.d/rc.vncserver start
fi

The /etc/rc.d/rc.vncserver script I use to start the VNC server is:

Code:

#!/bin/sh
#
# description: Starts and stops vncserver.

unset VNCSERVERARGS
VNCSERVERS="1:steve 2:oracle"
VNCSERVERARGS[1]="-geometry 1280x960"
VNCSERVERARGS[2]="-geometry 1280x960"

start() {
  echo -n $"Starting VNC server: "
  ulimit -S -c 0 >/dev/null 2>&1

  if [ ! -d /tmp/.X11-unix ]
  then
    mkdir -m 1777 /tmp/.X11-unix || :
  fi
  for display in ${VNCSERVERS}
  do
    echo -n "${display} "
    unset BASH_ENV ENV
    DISP="${display%%:*}"
    export USER="${display##*:}"
    export VNCUSERARGS="${VNCSERVERARGS[${DISP}]}"
    su - ${USER} -c "cd ~${USER} && [ -f .vnc/passwd ] && vncserver :${DISP} ${VNCUSERARGS}"
  done
}

stop() {
  echo -n $"Shutting down VNC server: "
  for display in ${VNCSERVERS}
  do
    echo -n "${display} "
    unset BASH_ENV ENV
    export USER="${display##*:}"
    su ${USER} -c "vncserver -kill :${display%%:*}" >/dev/null 2>&1
  done
  echo "Done."
}

# See how we were called.
case "$1" in
  start)
    start
    ;;
  stop)
    stop
    ;;
  restart|reload)
    stop
    sleep 3
    start
    ;;
  *)
    echo $"Usage: $0 {start|stop|restart}"
    exit 1
esac

Hope that helps...

Seawolf1 · 01-31-2007, 04:38 AM

Thank you very much. In working with the server, there was a problem at the hardware level and I lost the boot drive. After correcting this at the scsi level, the server is having difficulty finding the boot partition, so I'm at the point of replacing the drive in question and reloading.

I will use your recommendations to load vnc. I greatly appreciate all of your replies for sure.