VNC Xterm fails to display prompt

Posted October 1, 2014

I have installed vnc on my droplet and I can connect via tightVNC. However, I cannot see the prompt in my terminal. If I type “ls” or any other command I know something is running because I see the scrollbar change. And occasionally I see some text come on the screen. But it’s almost if I’m looking at a small subsection in the center of the terminal.

Also, my desktop is completely blank. Any icons might be on the outside and not visible.

I’m running Ubuntu 14.04. I installed

apt-get install gnome-core xfce4 firefox apt-get install vnc4server

as root.

Tqn

Adam Robertson • October 1, 2014

You might need to edit your ~/.vnc/xstartup file. The default never works for me with 14.04 (it used to in 12.04)

Here is mine that works fine. Using Gnome-panel:

#!/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-window-manager  &
dbus-launch nautilus &
gnome-panel &
gnome-terminal &
gnome-settings-daemon &

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Tqn • October 1, 2014

It worked! Thanks!