(Solved) vnc4server on Ubuntu 11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot)

Im posting this because I spent a lot of time trying multiple things to get vnc4server up and going on the Ubuntu 11.1 system. Most people suggest using x11vnc, which does work out of the box but does not support multiple users.

vnc4server is great, and up and running finally!

Here are the steps:

• Install vnc4server

  • sudo apt-get install vnc4server

• Install gdm

  • sudo apt-get install gdm
    sudo apt-get install gnome-panel

    • When asked to choose the default session manager, choose lightdm

• When you launch vnc4server for the first time, you will be asked to set a password and a /home/<user>/.vnc/xstartup will be created for you.
• We need to change the contents of xstartup to get things working properly.

• Contents should look like this:

#!/bin/sh
# Uncomment the following two lines for normal desktop:
unset SESSION_MANAGER
unset DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS
#exec /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc
#. /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc
gnome-session  --session=gnome-classic &
[ -x /etc/vnc/xstartup ] && exec /etc/vnc/xstartup
[ -r $HOME/.Xresources ] && xrdb $HOME/.Xresources
xsetroot -solid grey
vncconfig -iconic &
#x-terminal-emulator -geometry 80x24+10+10 -ls -title "$VNCDESKTOP Desktop" &
#x-window-manager &

What’s changed and is important is this:

• unset SESSION_MANAGER : Gets rid of any errors like “Coud not acquire name on session bus “
• /usr/share/gnome-session/sessions will have a bunch of .session files. You may use any of these  in your xstartup file.  For example:
  • gnome-session –session=gnome-classic & gives your classic gnome
  • gnome-session –session=ubuntu-2d & gives you Unity
  • gnome-session –session=ubuntu & does not work!
  • gnome-session & will not work because the default session is “ubuntu”

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