VNC server in Jessie (using a systemd service)

[xanthor]

VNC server in Jessie (using a systemd service)

Hello,

I couldn't find anywhere how to create a vnc server (using TightVNC) service for systemd, which replaces old System V init starting with Debian / Raspbian 8 (Jessie). So here's how I managed to do that.

1. Install Tight VNC server:

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get install tightvncserver

2. Start it manually (for example by running

Code: Select all

vncserver :1

) and enter new VNC password.
3. Create a new file /etc/systemd/system/vncserver@.service with the following contents:

Code: Select all

[Unit]
Description=Remote desktop service (VNC)
After=syslog.target network.target

[Service]
Type=forking
User=pi
PAMName=login
PIDFile=/home/pi/.vnc/%H:%i.pid
ExecStartPre=-/usr/bin/vncserver -kill :%i > /dev/null 2>&1
ExecStart=/usr/bin/vncserver -depth 24 -geometry 1280x800 :%i
ExecStop=/usr/bin/vncserver -kill :%i

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

4. (Optional) Replace the parameters in the unit file, if you want to.
5. Run

Code: Select all

sudo systemctl daemon-reload && sudo systemctl enable vncserver@1.service

6. Reboot.

I also changed

Code: Select all

xsetroot -solid grey

to

Code: Select all

xsetroot -solid grey -cursor_name left_ptr

in my .vnc/xstartup file (in my home directory), since there was a cross (X) displayed instead of a normal mouse cursor icon after connecting to the VNC server.

That's all. Have fun.

[diederik]

I don't use vnc myself, but still ... nice contribution

[Bosse_B]

GREAT job xantor!
I have been looking for this solution for about a week now since I first tried Jessie.
A couple of questions regarding this:
1) The file to create
Is it named:

Code: Select all

/etc/systemd/system/vncserver@.service

Name includes @ and a period?

2) The vnc display number
I have noticed that one cannot use display :0 on Jessie so I expected the display number :1 to appear in the file.
But what I see is:

Code: Select all

ExecStart=/usr/bin/vncserver -depth 24 -geometry 1280x800 :%i

How does that work? From where does %i get its value???

I use the following inside the vncboot script that works on Wheezy but has no effect whatsoever in Jessie:

Code: Select all

  su - pi -c "/usr/bin/vncserver :1 -geometry 1400x1000 -depth 24 -dpi 96"

3) VNC user account
I am very concerned that the VNC server runs as user pi, because I had to scrap a whole installation and start over when the original tutorial I followed did everything as root and therefore I could not use the VNC window for anything sensible.
So will these lines ensure that the service vncserver runs as user pi?

Code: Select all

[Service]
Type=forking
User=pi
PAMName=login
PIDFile=/home/pi/.vnc/%H:%i.pid

4) How to start the service without reboot?
Is it not possible to start the service without a reboot?
Or did you mean to reboot in order to check that it actually works on reboot?

5) Removing the service?
If all goes astray, how can I remove the service so I can run the tightvncserver manually instead?

All of this of course is due to the shift to systemd as the boot manager....

6) Comment regarding the cursor
In TightVNC client on Windows there is a "Connection options" setting to disable the cursor from the Pi and use the normal Windows cursor instead. It might not be what you want, though, because then the cursor does not change to indicate possibility to stretch the current window in the display for instance. But the ugly cross is at least gone.
Now I tested your suggestion and it works really well!
I had to change the VNC client settings to:
Mouse cursor: Let remote server deal with cursor
Local cursor shape: Do not show

Thanks for your post!

[xanthor]

First, I must say I'm definitely not a systemd expert, so I recommend googling for more information (at least the basic systemctl commands like list-unit-files, daemon-reload, enable, disable, start, stop, restart and status, which are basically self-explanatory anyway). But I'll try to answer your questions as best I can:

1. Yes, it's a "template unit".

2. It's a template unit, so %i is replaced with whatever text I use after the @ character in commands like

Code: Select all

sudo systemctl enable vncserver@1.service

So if you use vncserver@1.service in your commands, all instances of %i are replaced with 1 when the unit file is processed.

I don't know whether su even works in systemd services...

3. If you want to run it as a different user, first start vncserver manually as that user and enter the password (to make sure it can find the password when run as a systemd service), then change the User and PIDFile parameters in the unit file.

Just remember that tightvncserver creates new desktop (just for remote use), it doesn't use the desktop you see when you connect your Pi to a screen directly. For that you must use something like x11vnc.

4. It was simpler for me to write and to make sure everything works as it should. But if you just start the service with

Code: Select all

sudo systemctl start vncserver@1.service

it should work too.

5. You can either disable it:

Code: Select all

sudo systemctl disable vncserver@1.service

or remove it completely:

Code: Select all

sudo systemctl remove vncserver@1.service

(maybe you can/should remove 1 from the name when removing, I'm not sure about that).

6. I'll probably keep using the remote cursor + local "dot" cursor.

Have a nice day!

[Bosse_B]

Thanks for your explanation!
It works for me too.
Now I will put this into my documentation file for future reference.

[KDMcM]

Worked for me after this approach failed. (For a start, no-one mentions that it assumes you;re running the Pi without the GUI.)

Many thanks.

[avalloneandrea]

The script works great, but I always get an annoying error popup which says "No Session for PID". How can I get rid of it?

EDIT: never mind, I forgot the pamname=login, now it works!

[prich]

Hi,

Thanks for this posting xanthor, I basically now have this system working. There is however one problem. My Raspberry Pi has two users (pi and aaron). I maintain the machine as pi and my grandson uses it as aaron. This scheme appears to lock use to pi - is this correct? If so, can it be altered to cover 2 (or more) users.

Any assistance in this regard will be greatly appreciated.

Peter

[AndyD]

Hi,

Thanks for this posting xanthor, I basically now have this system working. There is however one problem. My Raspberry Pi has two users (pi and aaron). I maintain the machine as pi and my grandson uses it as aaron. This scheme appears to lock use to pi - is this correct? If so, can it be altered to cover 2 (or more) users.

Any assistance in this regard will be greatly appreciated.

Peter

Hi,

I think what you really want is the VNC Desktop to display the LightDM greeter, which will ask for username and password. I haven't done this myself, but I found a blog post Remote Desktop using VNC from 2013, that explains how to get lightdm to start VNC. If that works you won't need (or want) to start the vnc server as a service.

[tony359]

Thanks for this!!

Appreciated!
It's also probably going to help me setting up NTP under systemd!

[CleoQc]

Just wanted to add my "thank you" too!

I don't think I could have managed without this!

[just_some_guy]

Thank you for this, it worked exactly as described.

I am illiterate in linux, to the point where I did not know how to make a file in the directory.

If anyone else this new happens by here is how I accomplished it:

For step: "3. Create a new file /etc/systemd/system/vncserver@.service with the following contents: " navigate to the directory 'system'

Code: Select all

cd /etc/systemd/system

and then open a text editor - I chose nano, which is included and already installed

Code: Select all

sudo nano vncserver@.service

then you can cut and paste the text into the editor.

'Ctrl-X' gets you out of edit mode, and it asks if you want to save. 'Y'. At the bottom of the nano window it will ask you for the file name to save, but with the above command, the name 'vncserver@.service' will already be filled in for you. Hit 'Enter' and you are done. You can check for it with a 'dir' command.

Editing for the cursor is about the same, from the home directory

Code: Select all

sudo nano .vnc/xstartup

will open the file, make the change shown, which is adding ' -cursor_name left_ptr' to the line that says 'xsetroot -solid grey'
' Ctrl-X' to exit edit mode, 'Y' to save, check to make sure the file being saved is ".vnc/xstartup" 'Enter' to exit nano, and you are done

[bris_pi_guy]

Thank you for this post.

I am running the tightvnc server in ubuntu mate from https://ubuntu-mate.org/raspberry-pi/

If I use your systemd unit to start tightvnc, log in from a tightvnc client and then run mate terminal, it starts with the /bin/sh shell. I think this has something to do with systemd using exec() to start the tightvnc server.

If I start the tightvnc server from the command line in a /bin/bash shell, log in from a tightvnc client and then run mate terminal, it starts with the /bin/bash shell.

Can the tightvnc systemd unit be modified such that mate terminal starts with the /bin/bash shell?

[pleriche]

This works fine for me - thanks xanthor.

Just one little niggle: when I start LXterminal the current directory is / rather than /home/pi. I've compared /etc/profile, /etc/basr.bashrc, .profile, .bashrc and .vnc/xstartup with a Wheezy system which starts LXterminal in $HOME and can see no significant differences. Can anyone suggest what the problem is please and howto fix it?

Regards - Philip

[Dylan144GT]

Thank you xanthor, this worked very well for my!

I was having problems with the method described on Adafruit where an error would pop up every time I logged in. Your method has solved this! Much appreciated!

Thanks,

Dylan

[bris_pi_guy]

This seems to have done what I wanted. In /etc/systemd/system/vncserver@.service

replace

Code: Select all

ExecStart=/usr/bin/vncserver -depth 24 -geometry 1280x800 :%i
ExecStop=/usr/bin/vncserver -kill :%i

with

Code: Select all

ExecStart=/usr/bin/sudo /usr/bin/vncserver -depth 24 -geometry 1280x800 :%i
ExecStop=/usr/bin/sudo /usr/bin/vncserver -kill :%i

[kwaknet02]

i cannot click on any applications on VNC viewer.. i followed all the instructions above .. im using retropie img .installed with jessie.. can anybody help me with this problem.. thanks in advance..

[kwaknet02]

i cannot click on any applications on VNC viewer.. i followed all the instructions above .. im using retropie img .installed with jessie.. can anybody help me with this problem.. thanks in advance..

nevermind. i've solved it already.. i just removed the log, pid, passwd at /home/pi/.vnc.. now it works perfectly

[Diegored]

Thank you, it works perfectly.

By the way, for mac you can use: cmd+K vnc://pi.local:5901 as a client.

Regards,
D

[aparadox]

Thank you for this tutorial, worked great first time and makes my life easier!

[pleriche]

Having come back to this a good few months later I find that the answer is very simple: in .vnc/xsession insert:

Code: Select all

cd $HOME

anywhere before the last line. I don't know why this is necessary on Jessie but not on Wheezy.

This works fine for me - thanks xanthor.

Just one little niggle: when I start LXterminal the current directory is / rather than /home/pi. I've compared /etc/profile, /etc/basr.bashrc, .profile, .bashrc and .vnc/xstartup with a Wheezy system which starts LXterminal in $HOME and can see no significant differences. Can anyone suggest what the problem is please and howto fix it?

Regards - Philip

[edroberts1943]

I may have overlooked the solution to getting vnc to work, but here what works for me.
1. ssh to the raspberry and log on.
2. enter the command: vncserver :1 (there is a space between "er" and ":1".

3. On your remote computer, connect to your raspberry ip address appended with :1; for example,
192.168.1.163:1

You should connect and have a remote gui to your raspberry.

[pi-anazazi]

Hi!

Have used this method frequently on Raspian and openSuse Tumbleweed, but this time (Tumbleweed for arm7 dated 10-JUN-2017, kernel 4.11.8-2) when activating the systemd I get the following error message

Code: Select all

# sudo systemctl enable vncserver@1.service
The unit files have no installation config (WantedBy, RequiredBy, Also, Alias
settings in the [Install] section, and DefaultInstance for template units).
This means they are not meant to be enabled using systemctl.
Possible reasons for having this kind of units are:
1) A unit may be statically enabled by being symlinked from another unit's
   .wants/ or .requires/ directory.
2) A unit's purpose may be to act as a helper for some other unit which has
   a requirement dependency on it.
3) A unit may be started when needed via activation (socket, path, timer,
   D-Bus, udev, scripted systemctl call, ...).
4) In case of template units, the unit is meant to be enabled with some
   instance name specified.

Any ideas what to do about this?

[pi-anazazi]

PS:

nano /etc/systemd/system/vncserver@.service gives:

Code: Select all

[Unit]
Description=Remote desktop service (VNC)
After=syslog.target network.target

[Service]
Type=forking
User=USERNAME
PAMName=login
PIDFile=/home/USERNAME/.vnc/%H:%i.pid
ExecStartPre=-/usr/bin/vncserver -kill :%i > /dev/null 2>&1
ExecStart=/usr/bin/vncserver -depth 24 -geometry 1280x800 :%i

[pi-anazazi]

...found this here:

https://unix.stackexchange.com/question ... on-pc-boot

and now the script looks like:

Code: Select all

    [Install]
    WantedBy=multi-user.target
    
    [Unit]
    Description=Remote desktop service (VNC)
    After=syslog.target network.target

    [Service]
    Type=forking
    User=pi
    PAMName=login
    PIDFile=/home/pi/.vnc/%H:%i.pid
    ExecStartPre=-/usr/bin/vncserver -kill :%i > /dev/null 2>&1
    ExecStart=/usr/bin/vncserver -depth 24 -geometry 1280x800 :%i
    ExecStop=/usr/bin/vncserver -kill :%i

    [Install]
    WantedBy=multi-user.target

...after enabling (as described above) VNCserver is started on boot!

Problem solved