vncserver grey screen ubuntu 16.04 LTS

Question

Greeting. I am on ubuntu 16.04 LTS. It is an amazon EC2 instance I got grey screen upon installing and starting the vncserver I try many suggestion regarding this issue but still cant get it work.... Thanks for the help

My logfile:

Xvnc Free Edition 4.1.1 - built Feb 25 2015 23:02:21
Copyright (C) 2002-2005 RealVNC Ltd.
See http://www.realvnc.com for information on VNC.
Underlying X server release 40300000, The XFree86 Project, Inc
Tue Jul 19 03:03:37 2016
 vncext:      VNC extension running!
 vncext:      Listening for VNC connections on port 5901
 vncext:      created VNC server for screen 0
error opening security policy file /etc/X11/xserver/SecurityPolicy
Could not init font path element /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Type1/, removing from list!
Could not init font path element /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Speedo/, removing from list!
Could not init font path element /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc/, removing from list!
Could not init font path element /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/, removing from list!
Could not init font path element /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi/, removing from list!
Could not init font path element /usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi/, removing from list!
Could not init font path element /usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi/, removing from list!
Tue Jul 19 03:03:44 2016
 Connections: accepted: 0.0.0.0::61550
 SConnection: Client needs protocol version 3.8
 SConnection: Client requests security type VncAuth(2)
Tue Jul 19 03:03:50 2016
 VNCSConnST:  Server default pixel format depth 16 (16bpp) little-endian rgb565
Tue Jul 19 03:03:51 2016
 VNCSConnST:  Client pixel format depth 8 (8bpp) colour-map

my xstartup

#!/bin/sh
# Uncomment the following two lines for normal desktop:
 unset SESSION_MANAGER
 exec /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc
[ -x /etc/vnc/xstartup ] && exec /etc/vnc/xstartup
[ -r $HOME/.Xresources ] && xrdb $HOME/.Xresources
xsetroot -solid grey
vncconfig -iconic &
x-terminal-emulator -geometry 80x24+10+10 -ls -title "$VNCDESKTOP Desktop" &
gnome-session &

Answer 1

I had the same issue after upgrading from 12.04 via 14.04 to 16.04. The essential tip that helped me was to install gnome-panel. Ref: http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/ubuntu-linux/209177-vnc-grey-screen-hi-res.html

sudo apt-get install gnome-panel

Answer 2

Not mentioned in any of the answers at the time of writing: it is also worth noting that the xstartup file needs to be executable:

chmod +x ~/.vnc/xstartup

If not, the grey screen issue continues to occur regardless of the contents of the file.

Answer 3

I finally got this working from vnc4server by "apt-get install xfce4", and found a working xtartup here (the rest of the tutorial was irrelevant for my needs, e.g. "apt-get install xfce4-*" was unneccessary): http://www.itzgeek.com/how-tos/linux/ubuntu-how-tos/how-to-install-vnc-on-ubuntu-16-04.html

#!/bin/sh
[ -r $HOME/.Xresources ] && xrdb $HOME/.Xresources
startxfce4 &

I've more or less concluded getting gnome to work in vnc is a non-starter.

Answer 4

For anyone experiencing this problem on Xubuntu 16.04 LTS, I got my tightvncserver working by editing ~/.vnc/xstartup to this:

#!/bin/sh

xrdb $HOME/.Xresources
xsetroot -solid grey
#x-terminal-emulator -geometry 80x24+10+10 -ls -title "$VNCDESKTOP Desktop" &
#x-window-manager &
# Fix to make GNOME work
#export XKL_XMODMAP_DISABLE=1
#/etc/X11/Xsession
# fix to make xfce work:
startxfce4 &

The first two commented-out lines were already commented out presumably by the packager. I commented out the two lines following "fix to make GNOME work", and added the last two lines, so it can be shortened to just

#!/bin/sh

xrdb $HOME/.Xresources
xsetroot -solid grey
# fix to make xfce work:
startxfce4 &

Again, this applies specifically to Xubuntu, not Ubuntu with Unity or Gnome.

Answer 5

Just had the a similar problem and found a solution which I have not seen in any articles I read over the past few days trying to sort this out.

In addition to @Waqas answer I had to make sure I own all files in my home folder. Clearly this is about some specific files but I did'nt have time to check this out

sudo chown user:user /home/user

Just thought it might help somebody.

Answer 6

I had the same issue on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (64bit). I updated ~/.vnc/xstartup file to look like below, worked successfully for me.

# Uncomment the following two lines for normal desktop:
# unset SESSION_MANAGER
# exec /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc

[ -x /etc/vnc/xstartup ] && exec /etc/vnc/xstartup
[ -r $HOME/.Xresources ] && xrdb $HOME/.Xresources
xsetroot -solid grey
vncconfig -iconic &
x-terminal-emulator -geometry 80x24+10+10 -ls -title "$VNCDESKTOP Desktop" &
x-window-manager &

gnome-panel &
gnome-settings-daemon &
metacity &
nautilus &

Reference: https://www.linode.com/docs/applications/remote-desktop/install-vnc-on-ubuntu-16-04