TeamViewer only runs when GUI has been started

Question

I have a working TeamViewer that I can successfully connect to after I started the GUI of TeamViewer. Unfortunately though, I cannot connect to my computer when the GUI of TeamViewer is not started. All documentation that can be found out there suggests that running the TeamViewer daemon teamviewerd is enough to be able to remotely connect to a machine, but it does not seem like that is the case for me.

Without TeamViewer GUI (just teamviewerd)

Output of teamviewer status:

 TeamViewer                           11.0.57095  (DEB) 

 teamviewerd status                   ● teamviewerd.service - TeamViewer remote control daemon
   Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/teamviewerd.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: active (running) since Sa 2016-04-30 17:01:55 CEST; 11min ago
  Process: 15518 ExecStart=/opt/teamviewer/tv_bin/teamviewerd -d (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
 Main PID: 15521 (teamviewerd)
   CGroup: /system.slice/teamviewerd.service
           └─15521 /opt/teamviewer/tv_bin/teamviewerd -d

Apr 30 17:01:54 rvaio systemd[1]: Starting TeamViewer remote control daemon...
Apr 30 17:01:55 rvaio systemd[1]: teamviewerd.service: PID file /var/run/teamviewerd.pid not readable (yet?) after start: No such file or directory
Apr 30 17:01:55 rvaio systemd[1]: Started TeamViewer remote control daemon. 

 TeamViewer ID:                        123456789

Output of sudo netstat -ntap | grep teamviewer:

tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:5938            0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN      1447/teamviewerd
tcp        0      0 127.0.0.1:5940          0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN      1447/teamviewerd
tcp6       0      0 :::5938                 :::*                    LISTEN      1447/teamviewerd

With TeamViewer GUI started

Output of teamviewer status:

 TeamViewer                           11.0.57095  (DEB) 

 teamviewerd status                   ● teamviewerd.service - TeamViewer remote control daemon
   Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/teamviewerd.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: active (running) since Sa 2016-04-30 17:01:55 CEST; 18min ago
  Process: 15518 ExecStart=/opt/teamviewer/tv_bin/teamviewerd -d (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
 Main PID: 15521 (teamviewerd)
   CGroup: /system.slice/teamviewerd.service
           └─15521 /opt/teamviewer/tv_bin/teamviewerd -d

Apr 30 17:01:54 rvaio systemd[1]: Starting TeamViewer remote control daemon...
Apr 30 17:01:55 rvaio systemd[1]: teamviewerd.service: PID file /var/run/teamviewerd.pid not readable (yet?) after start: No such file or directory
Apr 30 17:01:55 rvaio systemd[1]: Started TeamViewer remote control daemon. 

 TeamViewer ID:                        123456789

Output of sudo netstat -ntap | grep teamviewer:

tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:5938            0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN      15521/teamviewerd
tcp        0      0 127.0.0.1:5940          0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN      15521/teamviewerd
tcp        0      0 127.0.0.1:5940          127.0.0.1:48475         ESTABLISHED 15521/teamviewerd
tcp6       0      0 :::5938                 :::*                    LISTEN      15521/teamviewerd
tcp6       0      0 2003:72:2d76:2701:46132 2a01:488:2001:1c01:5938 ESTABLISHED 15521/teamviewerd

As you can see, having the GUI launched causes two connections to become established, unlike with just the daemon.

Answer 1

I have this issue too and found that it may be with the program itself. My solution was to use a program available in Ubuntu called gDevilspie.

You will have to set up two rules in the program to hide the main window and contact list.

Here is how I set up TeamViewer

here are the settings I used:

For TeamViewer:

application_name equals Computers & Contacts 
window_name      equals Computers & Contacts 

the screen shot shows the actions for that window

For TeamViewer2:

application_name equals TeamViewer 
window_name      equals TeamViewer 

The actions I used for this rule are: close

This for the way my TeamViewer is setup .. this will close the main window and leave it sitting in my tray running.

Now even though it is in the tray running ... If I want to view it I cannot click on the icon and choose Show TeamViewer or it will just open and close again. I have to stop gDevilspie to open / view the program .. just keep that in mind

Answer 2

Expanding on what @JohnOrion posted, I have a solution which is more reliable. Instead of always killing TeamViewer's windows, it just closes the two windows at program startup and then stops closing them in the future. Here is what you need to do:

1. Install devilspie and procmail.

   sudo apt-get install devilspie procmail
   

2. Write this into ~/.devilspie/TeamViewer.ds:

   (if
       (or
           (and
               (is (application_name) "TeamViewer")
               (is (window_name) "TeamViewer")
           )
           (and
               (is (application_name) "Computers & Contacts")
               (is (window_name) "Computers & Contacts")
           )
       )
       (begin
           (close)
           (spawn_async "~/bin/teamviewer/tvwindow")
       )
   )
   

3. Create a directory where you want to locate some scripts. I chose ~/bin/teamviewer, but you can choose whatever you like. If you change this directory, make sure you also change it in the script in step 2.

   mkdir -p ~/bin/teamviewer
   

4. Write these contents to ~/bin/teamviewer/tvwindow (again, change the directory if you want):

   #!/usr/bin/env bash
   
   source "$( cd "$( dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}" )" && pwd )/vars"
   
   lockfile teamviewerstartup.lock
   
   # read remaining windows
   REMAINING_WINDOWS=$(cat "$REMAINING_WINDOWS_FILE")
   REMAINING_WINDOWS_NOW=$(($REMAINING_WINDOWS - 1))
   
   if [ $REMAINING_WINDOWS_NOW -eq 0 ]; then
       # TeamViewer has started up completely, kill devilspie
       kill $(cat "$DEVILSPIE_PID_FILE")
       # Also remove temporary files
       rm -f "$DEVILSPIE_PID_FILE"
       rm -f "$REMAINING_WINDOWS_FILE"
   else
       # One or more windows to go, write the decremented value to the file
       echo -n "$REMAINING_WINDOWS_NOW" > "$REMAINING_WINDOWS_FILE"
   fi
   
   rm -f teamviewerstartup.lock
   

5. Write these contents to ~/bin/teamviewer/tvminimizedstart (again, change the directory if you want):

   #!/usr/bin/env bash
   
   source "$( cd "$( dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}" )" && pwd )/vars"
   
   nohup devilspie > /dev/null 2>&1 &
   DEVILSPIE_PID=$!
   
   lockfile teamviewerstartup.lock
   
   # Write PID of devilspie process
   echo -n "$DEVILSPIE_PID" > "$DEVILSPIE_PID_FILE"
   # Set remaining to be closed windows to 2
   echo -n "2" > "$REMAINING_WINDOWS_FILE"
   
   rm -f teamviewerstartup.lock
   
   nohup teamviewer >/dev/null 2>&1 &
   

6. Write these contents to ~/bin/teamviewer/vars (again, change the directory if you want):

   #!/usr/bin/env bash
   
   DEVILSPIE_PID_FILE="$HOME/bin/teamviewer/devilspiepid"
   REMAINING_WINDOWS_FILE="$HOME/bin/teamviewer/remaining-windows"
   

7. Make them executable.

   chmod +x ~/bin/teamviewer/tvwindow ~/bin/teamviewer/tvminimizedstart ~/bin/teamviewer/vars
   

To use this solution, run the tvminimizedstart script:

~/bin/teamviewer/tvminimizedstart