Cannot get vnc service to run on Fedora 25 x86_64 machine

Doug Hutcheson · 03-05-2017, 09:17 PM

I have two F25 laptops and wish to control the desktop of one from the other, so vnc is the obvious solution.

Using systemctl to start the service sees it fail:

Code:

[doug@KETCHUP ~]$ systemctl restart vncserver@:0.service
Job for vncserver@:0.service failed because the control process exited with error code.
See "systemctl status vncserver@:0.service" and "journalctl -xe" for details.


[doug@KETCHUP ~]$ systemctl status vncserver@:0.service
● vncserver@:0.service - Remote desktop service (VNC)
   Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/vncserver@.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)
   Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Mon 2017-03-06 12:58:35 AEST; 14s ago
  Process: 7450 ExecStart=/usr/bin/vncserver %i (code=exited, status=255)
  Process: 7439 ExecStartPre=/usr/bin/vncserver -kill %i (code=exited, status=255)
 Main PID: 4392 (code=exited, status=255)

Mar 06 12:58:32 KETCHUP vncserver[7450]: WARNING: The first attempt to start Xvnc failed, possibly because the font
Mar 06 12:58:33 KETCHUP vncserver[7450]: catalog is not properly configured.  Attempting to determine an appropriate
Mar 06 12:58:33 KETCHUP vncserver[7450]: font path for this system and restart Xvnc using that font path ...
Mar 06 12:58:35 KETCHUP vncserver[7450]: Could not start Xvnc.
Mar 06 12:58:35 KETCHUP vncserver[7450]: _XSERVTransSocketUNIXCreateListener: ...SocketCreateListener() failed
[doug@KETCHUP ~]$

The message about the font path is new today, so I have obviously affected the setup somehow, but I don't know how.

I have been trying to get this working for several days without success, so any help would be greatly appreciated.

tofino_surfer · 03-06-2017, 03:38 PM

The obvious question is are you actually running X11 with Xorg or are you running Wayland which is now the default for F25 ?

To find out type

$ loginctl show-session 1 -p Type

Doug Hutcheson · 03-07-2017, 12:18 AM

tofino_surfer, thanks for replying.

I am running 'Gnome on Xorg' according to my login session choices.

I am a long-time Gnome user and have brought my wife up to speed on it, so I don't really want to change to anything with a greatly different look and feel if I can avoid it. Do I really have to switch to an X11 desktop just to get vnc working? The last time I looked at X11 it was awful. Perhaps I am misunderstanding something?

Incidentally, your suggestion failed on my system:

Code:

[doug@KETCHUP ~]$ loginctl show-session 1 -p Type
Failed to get session: No session '1' known

Cheers,
Doug

tofino_surfer · 03-07-2017, 09:25 AM

Quote:

The last time I looked at X11 it was awful. Perhaps I am misunderstanding something?

Yes you are. Xorg is an X-Windows or X11 implementation. When I said X11 I meant it as short form for the X-Windows system. The X-Window system still uses the X11 protocol.

From Wikipedia:

Quote:

X.Org Server is the free and open source implementation of the display server for the X Window System stewarded by the X.Org Foundation.

The X Window System (X11, or shortened to simply X) is a windowing system for bitmap displays, common on UNIX-like computer operating systems.

$ loginctl show-session 1 -p Type
Failed to get session: No session '1' known

The session number could be 2 or even higher in some cases. If one user is logged in it is usually 1.

First type loginctl to see your session number. Then use this number. A more general command is:

$ loginctl show-session $(loginctl | grep $USER | awk '{print $1}') -p Type
Type=x11

Doug G · 03-07-2017, 03:47 PM

Try launching the vnc server from a command line, perhaps you'll see some more meaningful error message(s)

Doug Hutcheson · 03-08-2017, 12:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tofino_surfer

Yes you are. Xorg is an X-Windows or X11 implementation.

So 'Gnome on Xorg' means Gnome is running on X11 (rather than Wayland) and this supports vnc?

Quote:

Originally Posted by tofino_surfer

The session number could be 2 or even higher in some cases. If one user is logged in it is usually 1.

First type loginctl to see your session number. Then use this number. A more general command is:

$ loginctl show-session $(loginctl | grep $USER | awk '{print $1}') -p Type
Type=x11

Thanks for the tip. My session was 2 - tty.

I was eventually able to connect to the local host - KETCHUP:1 after running the X11VNCserver and using Tigervnc as the client.

I then ran X11VNCserver on my wife's machine and tried connecting from mine using Tigervnc. The connection worked up to a point, but the Tigervnc window was solid black and my mouse movements were not appearing on her screen.

Obviously I am close to solving it, but so far no cigar.

Thanks for your help and advice. "8-)