Freak Enterprises

Now I have my Gnome desktop running on my sever I’d like to be able to access it without using the vmware console. I installed vnc4server using synaptic. Under my user I type vncserver and then connect to the server using the vnc client from my Windows desktop. By default I get a plain grey X window and a basic xterm window.

To set up a better desktop, edit the file ~/.vnc/xstartup and uncomment the first two lines, as follows:

#!/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 $HOME/.Xresources
#xsetroot -solid grey
#vncconfig -iconic &
#xterm -geometry 80x24+10+10 -ls -title "$VNCDESKTOP Desktop" &
#twm &

Thanks to a bug in the vnc4server version that is currently being distributed with 704 “Feisty Fawn”, you need to do two more things

1) sudo chmod +x /etx/X11/xinit/xinitrc

2) edit the vncserver script and add the “-extension XFIXES” line, as follows :

$cmd .= " -rfbauth $vncUserDir/passwd”;
$cmd .= ” -rfbport $vncPort”;
$cmd .= ” -pn”;
$cmd .= ” -extension XFIXES”;

# Add font path and color database stuff here, e.g.:
#

See here and in particular here for more info on this bug.

To Start the vnc server just type:

$ vncserver

Assuming it started a session on :1, you can kill that session with

$ vncserver -kill :1

To update the local list of packages, enter in a Terminal:

sudo apt-get update

To install all available updates:

sudo apt-get upgrade

To see if package including the words blah is already installed:

dpkg -l '*blah*'

To install a package:

sudo apt-get install package

To remove a package:

sudo apt-get remove package

To list other apt commands and options:

apt-get help

Also try Aptitude for more interactive package management tool
sudo aptitude

Installing VMWare image of Ubuntu Server 7.04 “Feisty Fawn” from Chrysaor.info

To reconfigure the console keyboard to GB layout :
$sudo dpkg-reconfigure console-setup

To restart Apache2:
$sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart