Trying to get VNC to work on Pi 5/Bookworm

[technogeekca]

Does anyone have instructions on how to install either TightVNC or TigerVNC Server on both Bookworm and Ubuntu Desktop for a Pi 5 that actually work. I must say that working with OS's like Bookworm and Ubuntu on the Pi 5 has frustrated me to the point of almost taking a hammer to the damn thing. After hundreds of fruitless searches to try and get either one to work at all and then startup as a service has me tearing out my hair, especially when I end up corrupting the OS and need to reinstall it.

List of problems, won't connect, gives me the wrong display and refuses to change, service never starts upon reboot, RealVNC has to be restarted .in raspi-config/Interfaces after every restart but at least I can connect to it after that, cannot connect to RealVNC with other viewers even after following instructions on how to change that. RealVNC trial has run out and I don't know if that's why it's not working.

Thanks in advance

[technogeekca]

I forgot to mention that I also need file transfers to work which seems to have eluded me with everything but realvnc.

[neilgl]

Link to free VNC plan https://www.realvnc.com/en/connect/plan/lite/ - limited to 3 devices
And VNC viewer works for several devices on the local LAN not just 3

Bookworm on a Pi5 using the pre-installed VNC server works fine for me, it automatically starts at boot. Just enable it using sudo raspi-config.
Ubuntu - don't know

FIle transfers - I use ftp or scp.

[technogeekca]

If only that worked. I have not been able to get RealVNC to start up automatically on Bookworm when booting or rebooting. I have to go into raspi-config and enable VNC every time. I've even done 3 or 4 clean reinstalls with no luck. I had it working on a previous install but I corrupted that one trying to get something else to work. Maybe it has something to do with the three free activations, I don't know.

I truly don't understand how anyone can get anything to work on these OS's with all the stupid changes that there are from different versions and just plain misinformation.

[technogeekca]

Below is an example of a really good article that does get TigerVNC to work but no mention is made about setting up the service so that it's active upon reboot. I've found several articles like this that forget to add this info and all the other searches I've found for turning on the service have not worked. Could someone point me in the right direction to get this working.

https://picockpit.com/raspberry-pi/tige ... okworm-os/

Thanks

[bls]

If you're willing/able to switch to X11, this will work: https://github.com/gitbls/RPiVNCHowTo

[neilgl]

If we install stock Bookworm 64-bit with desktop, enable VNC server using raspi-config, then VNC Viewer on a PC works OK with no issues.
We can also use the excellent rpi-connect.

The "changes that there are from different versions" is normal, with the regular updates of Debian upon which Raspberry Pi OS is based (so is Ubuntu); like what we went through from Windows XP to Vista to Windows 7 to Windows 10 to Windows 11...

[technogeekca]

This is for work and only for local network access and I'm willing to use anything at this point. I want to use RealVNC but my 14 day trial is over and PC installs say that I don't have a subscription. I assumed that it won't even work locally anymore because the PC I tried installing it onto after the 14 days is inaccessible through RealVNC Viewer.

Now as far as the Pi goes, I can't get RealVNC to auto start on my latest Bookworm installs and I have no clue why, is that also because of my ended trial, I don't know. All I do know is how frustrating this is.

[technogeekca]

Here's the game plan.

I have a PC that needs to Remote Desktop into four to six other PC's and two Pi's currently and that's it.

Getting everything to work with one viewer is going to kill me at this rate and if for some reason I could get Veyon to work with all of this that would be amazing.

[pfharlock]

It's at least possible that the recent switch to wayland may be screwing up some of the older guides/instructions out there... I'm positive that some of the existing vnc solutions haven't made the jump to wayland yet.

something that may help is to switch the pi back to using x11. This may allow some of these older solutions to work the way you would expect...

Wish I could be more helpful, but I don't often set this feature up, so I'm a little out of touch regarding this capability.

Good luck.

[technogeekca]

Thank you, I have switched to x11 on every install because of what I read about Wayland issues and also because I can do file transfers with x11 and not Wayland.

Thanks

[technogeekca]

If you're willing/able to switch to X11, this will work: https://github.com/gitbls/RPiVNCHowTo

This is a phenomenal article but as per usual it doesn't work. Why because commands cannot be found. The sudo edit-lightdm-config gives me a command not found error. This is the kind of thing that constantly keeps coming up over and over and over again and really is the main reason for things not working and my now endless frustration.

[neilgl]

What happened when you tried rpi-connect on the Pi running Bookworm, and accessed it via a browser on the PC?
https://www.raspberrypi.com/documentati ... nnect.html

Note my RealVNC plan expired some time ago so I use the free Lite plan now, on the same PC - no issues

[bls]

If you're willing/able to switch to X11, this will work: https://github.com/gitbls/RPiVNCHowTo

This is a phenomenal article but as per usual it doesn't work. Why because commands cannot be found. The sudo edit-lightdm-config gives me a command not found error. This is the kind of thing that constantly keeps coming up over and over and over again and really is the main reason for things not working and my now endless frustration.

Sorry you had a problem with it. Unfortunately, you didn't state whether the problem was that it couldn't find edit-lightdm-config or if some command inside that script failed. Since the script only performs one "sed" command, I have to ask: did you download edit-lightdm-config from the github?

I'm happy to help you give it a go if you can pocket your frustration long enough, but from what you've written, that seems a bit doubtful.

[technogeekca]

That's it, I officially give up. I'm going to find something else other than a Raspberry Pi. These things are useless. Tried Pi Connect and it's so slow that I can't monitor what's happening on the Pi's. If one is unable to get TigerVNC or TightVNC to auto start, display the same display as the Pi is connected to, and so on after a week of trial and error then what use is this. My boss is ready to dump everything Pi that we have.

THIS IS BEYOND STUPID AND RIDICULOUS AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST USELESS, USELESS, USELESS, USELESS, USELESS, USELESS, USELESS, USELESS.

All I want is 4 to be able to VNC into 4 to 6 PC's and two Pi's at this point in time and this has ended up being the worst computer experience I've ever had. It doesn't work and likely will never work on these pieces of garbage.

[technogeekca]

Sorry you had a problem with it. Unfortunately, you didn't state whether the problem was that it couldn't find edit-lightdm-config or if some command inside that script failed. Since the script only performs one "sed" command, I have to ask: did you download edit-lightdm-config from the github?

I'm happy to help you give it a go if you can pocket your frustration long enough, but from what you've written, that seems a bit doubtful.

I get a "command not found" error.

[technogeekca]

The only reason I'm using Pi's is because the programmer who setup our two automation systems used Pi's. He is currently unavailable because of health related issues and I'm trying to fill in as much as possible but at this rate I'm not going to make it past 63.

I don't understand enough about terminal to uninstall and fix things so it always ends up being full OS reinstalls for me and the fact that I can't find a way to get this to work is ridiculous. I'm a Mac guy but at least with Mac and PC one can just install something and it generally works without 2000 internet searches. How stupid and useless all of this is.

[bls]

Sorry you had a problem with it. Unfortunately, you didn't state whether the problem was that it couldn't find edit-lightdm-config or if some command inside that script failed. Since the script only performs one "sed" command, I have to ask: did you download edit-lightdm-config from the github?

I'm happy to help you give it a go if you can pocket your frustration long enough, but from what you've written, that seems a bit doubtful.

I get a "command not found" error.

You didn't answer my question: did you download edit-lightdm-config from the github?

But, it doesn't matter, bc you are obviously highly worked up about this. Since I'm doing this as a volunteer, I'm loath to help someone who is as worked up about this as you appear to be.

If you cool down sufficiently to provide complete answers without ranting, I'm still willing to work with you but it doesn't seem that you'll get there.

Best wishes for success in whatever direction you go!

[neilgl]

Good rant but lots of people get it working with no bother…

[technogeekca]

[/quote]
You didn't answer my question: did you download edit-lightdm-config from the github?

But, it doesn't matter, bc you are obviously highly worked up about this. Since I'm doing this as a volunteer, I'm loath to help someone who is as worked up about this as you appear to be.

If you cool down sufficiently to provide complete answers without ranting, I'm still willing to work with you but it doesn't seem that you'll get there.

Best wishes for success in whatever direction you go!
[/quote]

Okay sorry, I guess not. I followed the instructions in order and I thought that had been installed. I'd be happy to just get TigerVNC installed, auto starting and displaying the desktop from the connected HDMI Monitor even if it's just under x11. If file transfer doesn't work I can work around that.

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get install tigervnc-standalone-server xfonts-scalable xfonts-100dpi xfonts-75dpi --no-install-recommends
sudo edit-lightdm-config
sudo make-systemd-xvnc
sudo reboot

[technogeekca]

Good rant but lots of people get it working with no bother…

Obviously, but I'm just completely useless in terminal. I'm trying but it's just something I don't get.

[bls]

Obviously, but I'm just completely useless in terminal. I'm trying but it's just something I don't get.

This WILL work on Bookworm, but I'm not willing to undertake working with you on this for Ubuntu. Not to mention that Ubuntu is different enough from Debian Bookworm that this may not actually work there any more, and I don't have time to test it at the moment.

If you want to try it on Bookworm, on the Bookworm system:

• Switch to X11 using raspi-config | Advanced Options | Wayland and then reboot
• Download the two scripts. Do this in a browser by navigating to each of the files (edit-lightdm-config and make-systemd-xvnc), and clicking on the "Download Raw File" button/icon.
• After they're downloaded, change the protection on them to 755

  Code: Select all

  for f in edit-lightdm-config make-systemd-xvnc ; do chmod 755 $f ; done
  

Then follow the directions on the github. If you run into any problems, please provide complete terminal output, including the command you typed and the response.

[technogeekca]

I got your command to work after moving to cd /home/<myuser>/downloads and then adding .txt twice onto the command below.

Code: Select all

for f in edit-lightdm-config.txt make-systemd-xvnc.txt ; do chmod 755 $f ; done

Now

Code: Select all

sudo edit-lightdm-config and sudo make-systemd-xvnc

still give me a "command not found" error so do I need to place them somewhere before these commands will work.

Thanks

[bls]

I got your command to work after moving to cd /home/<myuser>/downloads and then adding .txt twice onto the command below.

Code: Select all

for f in edit-lightdm-config.txt make-systemd-xvnc.txt ; do chmod 755 $f ; done

Now

Code: Select all

sudo edit-lightdm-config and sudo make-systemd-xvnc

still give me a "command not found" error so do I need to place them somewhere before these commands will work.

Thanks

They should not be named something.txt. Rename them using the mv command to remove the ".txt".

If you are really having this level of problems and seemingly unwilling to puzzle simple things like this out on your own, then I am going to rescind my offer to help you.

[technogeekca]

Okay cool. I get it. Have a good one.

Now how am I supposed to know that there shouldn't be .txt on these files when that's how they downloaded after clicking on "download as raw" to get them. I've downloaded and unzipped the whole repository as well and those files don't have .txt on them but sudo edit-lightdm-config still gives me a "command not found" error. This is why I'm so frustrated. Nothing works and it's always thought that the unwritten is known.