I've just recently started using OpenSuse 10.2. Seems really nice, but one thing has been causing me nothing but grief. I've run google searches and searched this and other forums and found others having the same problem, but nothing really comes right out and addresses the issue.

Its a fresh install of 10.2, and I followed the directions for remote administration located at http://en.opensuse.org/YaST_Remote_Administration, but when I point vnc at my server I get a window with a gray/white background. I can't see anything else at all, and after a couple mins the vnc window closes.

Xvnc is running on the server:
4291 pts/0 S 0:00 Xvnc :2 -desktop X -httpd /usr/share/vnc/classes -auth /root/.xauthYM1SpJ -geometry 1276x1000 -depth 16 -pixelformat rgb565 -rfbwait 120000 -rfbauth /root/.vnc/passwd -rfbport 5902 -fp /usr/share/fonts/misc:unscaled,/usr/share/fonts/local,/usr/share/fonts/75dpi:unscaled,/usr/share/fonts/100dpi:unscaled,/usr/share/fonts/Type1,/usr/share/fonts/URW,/usr/share/fonts/Speedo,/usr/share/fonts/truetype,/usr/share/fonts/uni,/usr/share/fonts/CID


Some posts I've read reference .vnc/xstartup, which was not created initially. I made one from an example posted by someone else

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

xrdb $HOME/.Xresources
xsetroot -solid grey
xterm -geometry 110x24+10+10 -ls -title "$VNCDESKTOP Desktop" &
#wmaker &

then killed X and restarted it, but still get the same gray background when I connect via VNC. Incidentally I'm using RealVNC.

Anyone have any ideas what else I should be doing here?

Remove everything after the first line from the ~/.vnc/xstartup you've made and read this FAQ to see how you can set up vnc with kde or gnome. If you prefer another wm just use the appropriate command to start your preferred wm.

Regards

Its been a very long day, so I want to make sure I've got this clearly. My xstartup should look like this:

#!/bin/sh
startkde &


When I kill/restart vncserver I still get the gray mottled background. Killing X and restarting that doesn't help either. I'm feeling positively dense at the moment.

It should work and there is no need to restat the xserver. Restarting vncserver is enough.
Perhaps you have to use the whole path to the startkde script, i.e. the output of the command:
You can also use your browser to see if it works. Just point it to: http://hostname:5802

Okay, I've obviously done something wrong. But I'll be darned if I can find it. I've reloaded the server fresh today, this time choosing to install Gnome as my GUI instead of KDE. I've done nothing else to the server at this point. Again, I've enabled remote administration through the firewall, and updated xstartup. Still get the same gray mottled background.

Strike that, I forgot to set enable=true in /opt/gnome/share/gdm/defaults.conf. So I've got it to work in Gnome. But I really dislike Gnome and would love to switch back to KDE. Anyone think of anything I could possibly have missed?

I don't know if you have this sorted yet. See this thread (post #11) for an example of how your xstartup should look to use kde: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...d.php?t=577634