VNC showing plain X w/ no desktop when vncserver started by non-root user
 

I am running Fedora Core 1. Trying to get VNCServer up and running so I can VNC into my machine at home from work and work in my non-root user desktop that I normally get when I log on.

When I run VNCServer as Root I can VNC fine onto my desktop and all of the icons are there (can run Ximian, Moz, Opera, etc), but when I start up VNC server from my non-root user account I get the plain-old vanilla X desktop with no icons or graphics. Just the plain background and a big, fat "X" as a pointer. What am I doing wrong? I specify depth, resolution, etc on startup, but I want to be able to access my user desktop and all of the apps I have configured for that desktop. Any help is appreciated.


Thanks,
JB00

are you sure you aren't getting twm? have you tried clicking the mouse? if you get a menu it probably is twm.... if so, then edit ~/.vnc/xstartup with your favorite text editor (pico, vi, emacs etc..) and change the line
twm & to the desktop environ (or window mager) you want, for instance for kde put startkde
for gnome put gnome-session

I get no response or menu's from a left or a right click. It seems that it isn't loading Gnome when I run the VNC server from my user account, but when I kick off the VNC Server from root then the Gnome desktop for root works. I looked at the xstartup file for root and my username and they are identical. I will try editing my xstartup with 'gnome-session' and see how that works. Thank you Frieza :)

Hey Frieza,

Here is the only line in my xstartup

exec /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc

What is the correct syntax to specify Gnome?

exec /usr/bin/gnome-session ?

I had the same problem. Here's what I did to fix it...

- run vncserver from console to start the vnc server. enter a password, etc if asked and if the X display number is shown then remember it.

- kill vncserver by typing "vncserver -kill :N" where N is the X display number. run "ps -ef" to insure that
Xvnc is not running - if it is then kill it.

- the first time that you run vncserver a directory w/files is created in your home directory:
~/.vnc.

- In the ~/.vnc/xstartup file, add a line to start your windows manager in the background. I use
kde so my line is:
/opt/kde/bin/startkde &

Works great for me. I use vncserver more often than X forwarding now. If security is a concern then
ssh port forwarding works well with vnc.

sweet, thanks bro. Long live OSS and their communities!

exec /usr/bin/gnome-session &

Thats what worked for me ! Thats the only line I have in my xstartup file.

Thank god I found this thread, the problem was driving me crazy.