VNC server setup for Fedora, Debian, Ubuntu and Linux Mint

Two Bash scripts that turn a Linux machine into a VNC server with a full desktop, step by step:

• vnc-setup installs TigerVNC (the maintained fork of TightVNC, with the same Tight encoding) and an X11 desktop, and runs a virtual desktop for one user as the systemd service vncserver@:N (tigervncserver@:N on Debian, Ubuntu and Mint).
• vnc-desktop switches which desktop that VNC server starts, then restarts it cleanly.

Requirements

• A supported distribution: Fedora, Debian, Ubuntu or Linux Mint (see Compatibility)
• sudo rights (the script re-runs itself with sudo when needed)

Compatibility

Distribution	TigerVNC	Service	Settings	Status
Fedora 45	1.16	vncserver@:N	~/.config/tigervnc	original platform
Fedora 44	1.16	vncserver@:N	~/.config/tigervnc	tested
Ubuntu 26.10	1.15	tigervncserver@:N	~/.config/tigervnc	tested
Ubuntu 26.04 LTS	1.15	tigervncserver@:N	~/.config/tigervnc	same packages as 26.10
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS	1.13	tigervncserver@:N	~/.vnc	tested
Debian 13 (trixie)	1.15	tigervncserver@:N	~/.config/tigervnc	tested
Debian 12 (bookworm)	1.12	tigervncserver@:N	~/.vnc	tested
Linux Mint 22.x	1.13	tigervncserver@:N	~/.vnc	via its base, Ubuntu 24.04
LMDE 7	1.15	tigervncserver@:N	~/.config/tigervnc	via its base, Debian 13

The scripts recognise the distribution by ID and ID_LIKE in /etc/os-release, so other releases of these families are accepted too, but they are untested. TigerVNC before 1.14 reads its settings from ~/.vnc instead of ~/.config/tigervnc; the scripts pick the folder from the installed version.

What differs between the families

	Fedora	Debian, Ubuntu, Mint
VNC packages	tigervnc-x11-server, tigervnc-selinux	tigervnc-standalone-server, tigervnc-tools
Service	vncserver@:N	tigervncserver@:N
Password tool	vncpasswd	tigervncpasswd
Firewall	firewalld	ufw, when it is enabled
SSH server	sshd	ssh, or ssh.socket on Ubuntu
User D-Bus	dbus-broker	dbus-daemon (or dbus-broker if installed)

How it was tested

• Each release marked tested ran in a systemd container: a first vnc-setup -y run, a VNC password, a second run, then a check that Xvnc, xfce4-session and xfwm4 were running with the expected config.
• vnc-setup was re-run three times and vnc-desktop switched three times on every release; the desktop came back each time.
• On Ubuntu 26.10, ufw opened the VNC port (IPv4 and IPv6) for network access, and a tunnel-only run closed it again. The SSH server was enabled on every release.
• KDE Plasma, Cinnamon and GNOME Flashback were checked by resolving their package sets on each Debian-family release, not run end to end.

Setup

git clone https://github.com/dschaefer79/tightvnc_server_setup.git
cd tightvnc_server_setup
./vnc-setup        # asks each question, with defaults in [brackets]
./vnc-setup -y     # takes every default without asking

Run it from your own account: it uses the user behind sudo as the default VNC user. It walks through these steps:

1. User: which account gets the VNC desktop (not root).

2. TigerVNC: installs tigervnc-x11-server and tigervnc-selinux on Fedora, tigervnc-standalone-server and tigervnc-tools elsewhere.

3. Desktop: Xfce (the default, and the best fit for VNC), KDE Plasma on X11, Cinnamon, or GNOME Flashback. It installs the one you pick if needed:

   Desktop	Fedora	Debian, Ubuntu, Mint
   Xfce	@xfce-desktop	xfce4
   KDE Plasma (X11)	plasma-workspace-x11	plasma-desktop (+ plasma-session-x11 on Ubuntu 26.04 and later)
   Cinnamon	@cinnamon-desktop	cinnamon-core
   GNOME Flashback	gnome-flashback	gnome-session-flashback

4. Display number: display :N listens on TCP port 5900+N (:1 is port 5901). It is recorded in /etc/tigervnc/vncserver.users.

5. VNC password: separate from the login password; only the first 8 characters count. On a first run this must be typed in, so -y stops here.

6. Screen size and access:

   • SSH tunnel only (recommended): the server listens on localhost only and SSH encrypts the connection. The script enables the SSH server if it is not running (sshd on Fedora, ssh or ssh.socket elsewhere).
   • Directly from the network: opens the port in firewalld or ufw, whichever is running. TigerVNC encrypts with TLS, but not every viewer supports it.

7. Start: enables vncserver@:N at boot and starts it.

8. vnc-desktop: optionally installs it to /usr/local/bin.

At the end it prints how to connect.

Running vnc-setup again is safe: it offers the user's existing display and keeps the password unless you ask to change it, so you can use it to change the desktop, screen size or access mode.

Connecting

With the SSH tunnel (display :1 shown):

ssh -L 5901:localhost:5901 you@server
vncviewer localhost:1

On Windows, PuTTY can make the same tunnel under Connection > SSH > Tunnels (source port 5901, destination localhost:5901).

With direct access, point the viewer at server:1.

Switching the desktop

vnc-desktop                                # pick from a menu
vnc-desktop xfce|cinnamon|kde|gnome [-y]   # switch and restart (-y: don't ask)
vnc-desktop --status                       # show the current desktop

It updates session= in the TigerVNC config (see Compatibility) and restarts the VNC server, first stopping the systemd user services KDE and GNOME leave behind so they don't take over the next desktop.

Limitations

• GNOME Shell cannot run under VNC (it no longer has an X11 session), so gnome starts GNOME Flashback instead.
• KDE Plasma runs its X11 session: plasmax11 with Plasma 6, plasma with Plasma 5 (Debian 12, Ubuntu 24.04, Mint 22).
• One GNOME or KDE session per user: while VNC runs GNOME or KDE for a user, that user cannot log in to GNOME or KDE on the console, and vice versa. Xfce and Cinnamon have no such limit.

Troubleshooting

systemctl status vncserver@:1          # is it running?
journalctl -u vncserver@:1             # why it failed
sudo systemctl restart vncserver@:1    # apply config changes

On Debian, Ubuntu and Mint the service is tigervncserver@:1.

Settings such as session, geometry and localhost live in ~/.config/tigervnc/config (~/.vnc/config with TigerVNC before 1.14).

License

Copyright (C) 2026 Dominique Schaefer. Licensed under the GNU General Public License, version 3 or (at your option) any later version. See LICENSE.