System Engineering: How to Setup VNC Server (Linux Remote Desktop Access) on CentOS/RHEL and Fedora

VNC ( Virtual Network Computing ) Servers enables remote desktop access for Linux systems similar to MSTSC in windows. Generally Linux administrators doesn’t prefer to use windows access, But some times we required to have access remote desktop of Linux. In that case we need to install vnc server on our Linux system. This tutorial will help you to Setup VNC Server and configure remote access for users on CentOS, RHEL and Fedora Users.

Step 1: Install Required Packages

Most of Linux servers doesn’t have desktop installed on their system. So make sure you have installed else use following command to install it.

For CentOS/RHEL 6:
# yum groupinstall "Desktop"

For CentOS/RHEL 5:
# yum groupinstall "GNOME Desktop Environment"

Now install few required packages for vnc-server

# yum install pixman pixman-devel libXfont

Step 2: Install VNC Server

After installing required packages, lets install vnc-server in your system. vnc-server is available under default yum repositories.

# yum install vnc-server

On CentOS/RHEL 6, you will see that tigervnc-server package will be installed.

Step 3: Create User for VNC

Lets’ create few users for connecting through vnc. You can also use existing system users by connecting through vnc, In that case we only need to set vncpasswd for that account.

# useradd user1
# passwd user1

# useradd user2
# passwd user2

Now set the vnc password for all accounts need to connect through vnc.

# su - user1
$ vncpasswd
$ exit

# su - user2
$ vncpasswd
$ exit

Step 4: Configure VNC Server for Users

Now edit /etc/sysconfig/vncservers configuration file and add the following to the end of the file.

VNCSERVERS="1:user1 2:user2"
VNCSERVERARGS[1]="-geometry 800x600"
VNCSERVERARGS[2]="-geometry 1024x768"

Where VNCSERVERS is the list of users need to connect, VNCSERVERARGS defined the screen size. Like user1 have a 800×600 screen, and user2 have 1024×768 screen size on his client.

Now start vnc-server service using following command and check the output

# service vncserver start

Starting VNC server: 1:user1 xauth:  creating new authority file /home/user1/.Xauthority

New 'svr1.tecadmin.net:1 (user1)' desktop is svr1.tecadmin.net:1

Creating default startup script /home/user1/.vnc/xstartup
Starting applications specified in /home/user1/.vnc/xstartup
Log file is /home/user1/.vnc/svr1.tecadmin.net:1.log

2:user2 xauth:  creating new authority file /home/user2/.Xauthority

New 'svr1.tecadmin.net:2 (user2)' desktop is svr1.tecadmin.net:2

Creating default startup script /home/user2/.vnc/xstartup
Starting applications specified in /home/user2/.vnc/xstartup
Log file is /home/user2/.vnc/svr1.tecadmin.net:2.log

As per above output, you can see that user1 desktop is available on :1 and user2 desktop is available on :2. We will use :1 to connect to user1 and :2 to connect to user2.

Step 5: Connect VNC Server using VNC Viewer

To access from remote Linux system use following command.

# vncviewer 192.168.1.11:1

To access remote desktop on vnc-server from windows system, you must have vnc-viewer installed on your system. There are various vnc viewer available to use. Download any one and install on your system, for example:

TightVNC: http://www.tightvnc.com/download.php
RealVNC: https://www.realvnc.com/download/vnc/
TigerVNC: http://sourceforge.net/projects/tigervnc/files/tigervnc/

After installing vnc viewer connect to your system, In below example we are connected to user1 (:1).