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Can't login to HDA via webVNC

Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2009 6:59 pm
by ajaxmike
webVNC was working a month ago but now it isn't. I uninstalled and reinstalled but that didn't help. Via webmin, I verified that vncserver was running. runlevel=5.

The server is normally headless, so I had to pull it off the network and connect it my TV to verify Remote Desktop preferences:

Checked:
Allow other users to view your desktop
Allow other users to control your desktop

Users can view your desktop using this command:
vinagre localhost.localdomain:0

Require user to enter this password checked
Reset password.

Confirmed that "Ask you for confirmation was NOT checked"

Checked /etc/sysconfig/vncservers:
VNCSERVERS="1:Michael"
VNCSERVERARGS[1]="-geometry 1250x1000 -depth 16"

# VNCSERVERARGS[2]="-geometry 800x600 -nolisten tcp -nohttpd -localhost"

The Amahi wiki references: /var/hda/web-apps/webvnc/html/html/index.html, but that file doesn't exist. Appears to be a typo with one extra /html in the path, as I have /var/hda/web-apps/webvnc/html/index.html. Contents of that file is:

<HTML>
<TITLE>
Amahi VNC Desktop Viewer
</TITLE>
<APPLET CODE=VncViewer.class CODEBASE=classes/ WIDTH=800 HEIGHT=632>
<param name=PORT value=5900>
<param name="Open New Window" value="yes">
</APPLET>
<BR>
<A href="http://www.tightvnc.com/">TightVNC site</A>
</HTML>

In the troubleshooting section of the Amahi wiki it says: "you must have a desktop session open on your HDA to be able to open a WebVNC session." Could this be the problem? Does that mean I have to be logged into the HDA locally in order to have a remote session? If so, how do I get a remote graphic session on a headless server?

Re: Can't login to HDA via webVNC

Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2009 10:37 pm
by cpg
sorry to hear about that. yeah, it's a bit chicken and egg.

try regular vnc first with a (non-browser based) client.

thanks for catching the typo!
i corrected it (you can edit the wiki too, btw).

Re: Can't login to HDA via webVNC

Posted: Fri Jul 24, 2009 6:26 am
by ajaxmike
I installed the Tight VNC Viewer on the client and it worked perfectly, so the problem is the Amahi webVNC package doesn't support headless servers. Any chance that the Amahi package be modified to support headless servers? If not, I'll add a note to the wiki.

Re: Can't login to HDA via webVNC

Posted: Fri Jul 24, 2009 6:34 am
by bsk
Im sure there is a way to change all those settings by command line, but for the end-user that would not be the best way as it would need root access and the command line (ie terminal) scares some people. Maybe, if we get root access on installs we could integrate it into the install script, and bam your all good on install.