VNC Server Installation on CentOS

1 Introduction

This document describes how to install the VNC service on a Centos 5 with X Server.

2 Installation of the VNC Package

yum install vnc-server

3 Configure Persistent Desktop Sessions

Make an entry in /etc/sysconfig/vncservers for each user account you want to give VNC access, e.g.

VNCSERVERS="1:root 2:sysadmin"
VNCSERVERARGS[1]="-geometry 1024x768"
VNCSERVERARGS[2]="-geometry 1024x768"

4 Set VNC Passwords

Run switch user for each account and set the VNC password

su - <username>
vncpasswd
exit

5 Configure Service Startup

chkconfig vncserver on
service vncserver start

6 Configure Windows Manager

By default the twm Windows Manager is used in a VNC session. To start the default Windows Manager uncomment these two lines in $HOME/.vnc/xstartup

unset SESSION_MANAGER
exec /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc

Restart the VNC Service

service vncserver restart

7 Testing

Run the VNC Viewer, e.g. on a Windows PC and connect to the server. Append the display number to the hostname separated by a colon. E.g. in this sample config

192.168.1.100:2

connects on display :2 as user sysadmin.