By using tunnels you don’t need to open up any extra ports in the firewall. It is not necessary to use a tunnel to connect to your display, but it’s definitely more secure. The next time you restart the server your VNC desktop is ready to be used. Add this line before the exit 0 line (if such exists in the file). To automate this execution, open /etc/rc.local by typing sudo vim /etc/rc.d and add su USER -c '/usr/bin/vncserver -geometry 1440x900' where USER is replaced with the username you want to run the process, probably your own username. This command needs to be run every time you restart the server. Type vncserver -geometry 1440x900 to start a desktop with 1440×900 as screen resolution.

We can now start the vncserver again, this time with the correct settings.

To save your changes, first press ESC to exit Insert mode and then type :wq to Write and Quit (or simply :q! if you want to Quit without saving changes). # x-terminal-emulator -geometry 80x24+10+10 -ls -title '$VNCDESKTOP Desktop' & # x-window-manager &

Open the user specific vnc settings file by typing:Ĭopy Code # !/bin/sh # Uncomment the following two lines for normal desktop:.

Therefore we kill the newly created vnc desktop by typing vncserver -kill :1 But we need to tweak them a little for the vncserver to run a proper Ubuntu desktop.

Starting the vncserver, as we just did, creates all the necessary settings we need.

You’ll then be prompted twice for the password you want to use to access the VNC display.

Type the command vncserver as the user you want to run it as.

Once again you’ll be prompted to enter Y to approve the installation. Run sudo apt-get install vnc4server to install a VNC server for displaying the desktop over the network.

The desktop is now ready to be used but we still have no place to display it since no monitor is connected to the VM.

You’ll be asked to confirm with a Y that you want to continue the installation. If you’re not happy with that there are many other ones you can use. It’s a large chunk of files being installed taking quite some of the VM’s resources. This will install the default desktop environment for ubuntu.

Now run sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop.

Connect to your VM using Putty and, in the command prompt, run sudo apt-get update to make sure your package lists are all up to date.

This post describes how to setup a graphical user interface and connect to it through an encrypted tunnel.

The first post described how to setup an Ubuntu VM in Azure and connect through SSH. This is the second post in the series on how to install and configure an Ubuntu VM running in the Azure Cloud.

Startx vnc through ssh