Editing ~/.vnc/xstartup to launch Xfce on VNC server

Question

I have been following this linode tutorial

Except that I want to use Xfce instead of Unity.

On the last line of the ~/.vnc/xstartup file is says to add:

gnome-session &

What should I put for Xfce?

Answer 1

Normally to start the Xfce session from the console, you should put:

xfce4-session

More here, but I'm not sure about using this with VNC. Remember that first you have to install Xfce, in first step from Your link (Installing a Desktop and VNC on your Linode) change:

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop

to:

sudo apt-get install xfce4

Answer 2

After installing tightvnserver and xfce4 (apt-get on ubi) run "vncserver" once to create ~/.vnc/xstartup file. move it, and create a new xstartup file and put this in it.

#!/bin/bash
xrdb $HOME/.Xresources
startxfce4 &

• Save it (:wq! in vi, ctrl +x in nano)

• kill the running one (should be :1 - cmd = vncserver -kill :1) and the restart it ..

• when you connect with vnc client (:1 = 5901, :2, 5902, etc) you should have xfce4 startup (dont forget xfce4-goodies package)

There's a nice write-up at DigitalOcean website here.