TightVNC Server on NavQ Companion Computer

[Landon_Haugh]

In order to run a TightVNC server on NavQ, you'll need to install an X11 window manager since the Demo image does not include one by default. IceWM is a lightweight window manager that works well with TightVNC.

To install tightvncserver, IceWM, and the necessary software, you can run the following command:

$ sudo apt install tightvncserver xinit icewm

To start a the vnc server, just run:

$ tightvncserver

It will ask you to enter a password for tightvnc. Type in a password and it will start a VNC server with IceWM. You can use TightVNC Viewer on Windows (Download TightVNC) to connect. Once you open TightVNC Viewer on your windows machine, you will need to type in the IP address of your NavQ followed by the display opened by tightvncserver.

Example:

My NavQ IP is 192.168.0.47 and tightvncserver started IceWM on display :1. I would put the following into TightVNC Viewer:

192.168.0.47:1

Press enter and it should ask you for the password you created for tightvncserver. Put the password in and you should be connected! Here's a screenshot of the setup:

Screenshot 

This currently isn't the best solution for VNC, but it is a basic implementation at the moment. I will be working on getting more features enabled for this (such as viewing the camera in VNC using Gstreamer).

[sounak]

Thanks for the guide. If anyone is wondering how to install Xfce as their desktop environment. Here are the steps. Have fun!

First kill the already running vncserver using the following commands:

$ vncserver -kill :1

Now install xfce4 and xfce4-goodies :

$ sudo apt install xfce4 xfce4-goodies

Choose default (=N) for all the prompts that appear. It takes a while (around 6-7 minutes for me) based on your internet connection speed. Once everything is installed properly I configured the VNC server startup files to choose Xfce as the desktop environment by modifying the xstartup file. Before modifying make sure to backup the current file.

$ mv ~/.vnc/xstartup ~/.vnc/xstartup.bak

Now create a new xstartup file and open it in your text editor:

$ vi ~/.vnc/xstartup

Commands in this file are executed automatically whenever you start or restart the VNC server. We need VNC to start our desktop environment if it’s not already started. Add these commands to the file:

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

To ensure that the VNC server will be able to use this new startup file properly, we’ll need to make it executable.

$ sudo chmod +x ~/.vnc/xstartup

Now startup the vncserver:

$ vncserver

Connect with proper credentials from the windows client. For me the vncserver was hoste on port 5901 so I used imx8mmnavq::5091 to connect. Use your password that you created while installing tightVNC and voila! You have a shiny new NavQ Linux Desktop.

[crisdeodates]

landonh12 & sounak, Awesome...

Now users can have either icewn or xfce.

Adding a small point, on a fresh NavQ (updated with apt upgrade), icewm takes 740 MB and xfce takes 1401 MB of additional disk space.