Hi,

Can anybody help me get vncserver running? It just times out when I try to connect from the client. I'm running Ubuntu 5.1.

I've installed tightvncserver. When I type "vncserver" to start it. I get:

xauth: (argv):1:  bad display name "none:1" in "add" command

New 'X' desktop is none:1

Starting applications specified in /root/.vnc/xstartup
Log file is /root/.vnc/none:1.log

Attempts to connect with VNC Viewer with li-78.members.linode.com:1 lead to the connection timing out.

My xstartupfile is

#!/bin/sh
xrdb $HOME/.Xresources
xsetroot -solid grey
x-terminal-emulator -geometry 80x24+10+10 -ls -title "$VNCDESKTOP Desktop" &
x-window-manager &

After starting vncserver I see the following processes running

 2600 pts/0    00:00:00 bash
 3059 pts/0    00:00:00 Xtightvnc
 3066 pts/0    00:00:00 x-terminal-emul
 3067 pts/0    00:00:00 x-window-manage
 3074 pts/0    00:00:00 ps

This is purely a guess, but my impression is that you don't have your hostname set. Try entering the following at a root shell before firing up vncserver (but don't run vncserver as root!):

hostname li-78.members.linode.com

If that fixes the problem, edit your /etc/hostname file and put in that hostname, so that it will be automatically set when rebooting.

FWIW, I keep my VNC port firewalled from the outside world, and always connect via an SSH tunnel:

ssh -L 5901:127.0.0.1:5901 my-host-name

and then, from another xterm on the local box:

vncviewer localhost:1

_________________
Bus error (passengers dumped)