Install and configure VNC Server in Fedora 20

Please follow the below mentioned steps to install VNC server in a Fedora 20 box.

Step 1 :  

Install the Tiger VNC server package

[root@fedora20test ~]#  yum -y install tigervnc-server

This will install the VNC server. Now we need to configure this.

Step 2 :

Now we need to copy the VNC server configuration file if you need to setup port-offset for VNC server. By default VNC server uses port 5900, so port-offset means we can run the service on a sub-port of the default port 5900. Say for example port 10, so actually VNC server will accessible on port 5910. When using the port-offset we can connect to the VNC server by just specifying the IP address:sub-port format. Eg:- 10.30.0.78:10

[root@fedora20test ~]#  cp /lib/systemd/system/vncserver@.service /etc/systemd/system/vncserver@:10.service

Step 3:

Now edit the copied file and make changes as mentioned below.

The copied file will look the following.

[root@fedora20test ~]# vi /etc/systemd/system/vncserver@\:10.service

[Unit]
Description=Remote desktop service (VNC)
After=syslog.target network.target
[Service]
Type=forking
# Clean any existing files in /tmp/.X11-unix environment
ExecStartPre=/bin/sh -c '/usr/bin/vncserver -kill %i > /dev/null 2>&1 || :'
ExecStart=/sbin/runuser -l  -c "/usr/bin/vncserver %i"
PIDFile=/home//.vnc/%H%i.pid
ExecStop=/bin/sh -c '/usr/bin/vncserver -kill %i > /dev/null 2>&1 || :'
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Replace all <USER> with the username that should be used in your environment.

I have used a user named “qatest”, so in my example this user is running the VNC server. So my file will look the below one. Please choose your user and change accordingly.

[Unit]
Description=Remote desktop service (VNC)
After=syslog.target network.target
[Service]
Type=forking
# Clean any existing files in /tmp/.X11-unix environment
ExecStartPre=/bin/sh -c '/usr/bin/vncserver -kill %i > /dev/null 2>&1 || :'
ExecStart=/sbin/runuser -l qatest -c "/usr/bin/vncserver %i"
PIDFile=/home/qatest/.vnc/%H%i.pid
ExecStop=/bin/sh -c '/usr/bin/vncserver -kill %i > /dev/null 2>&1 || :'
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Step 4:

Now add exclusion in the firewall for the VNC connections to your server.

[root@fedora20test ~]#  firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=public --add-service vnc-server

This will permanently add exclusion in the firewall for the VNC service.

Step 5:

Now setup  a password for the VNC user.

So login as the particular user and do as below.

[qatest@fedora20test ~]$ vncpasswd
Password :
Verify :

Now you will be asked to enter the password twice, please do so. After this a new directory (.vnc) will be created under the home directory of the vnc user with a  passwd file in it.

[root@fedora20test ~]# ls -l /home/qatest/.vnc/
-rw-------. 1 qatest qatest     8 Feb 20 17:55 passwd

Step 6 :

Now reload the systemctl daemon and start the VNC service.

[root@fedora20test ~]#  systemctl daemon-reload
[root@fedora20test ~]#  systemctl enable vncserver@:10.service
[root@fedora20test ~]#  systemctl start vncserver@:10.service

This will create an xstartup under the .vnc directory of the specific user account.

[root@fedora20test ~]# ls -l /home/qatest/.vnc/
-rw-------. 1 qatest qatest     8 Feb 20 17:55 passwd
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 qatest qatest   355 Feb 20 17:11 xstartup

Step 7 :

IF you need to set the resolution for the VNC desktop, please edit “/etc/sysconfig/vncservers”

[root@fedora20test ~]#  vi /etc/sysconfig/vncservers

After editing please restart the VNC service.

Step 8:

Now connect from a Windows machine using the VNC client, say for example I have used TightVNC.

If everything goes right, you will get a password prompt as below.

That’s all, Done!!!…