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I am trying to get VNC working on an Ubuntu 20.04.1 LTS system, running MATE on Xorg, so that I can provide tech support to my aged mother (who uses the system at her home).

Is there any Linux VNC viewer which will speak to Xorg (using its apparently hard-coded security type 18)? Or, alternatively, is there any way to get Xorg to accept VNC connections with some different security type, or without security altogether?

My plan has been to SSH to my mother's computer (from my own Ubuntu 20.04.1 LTS system), then run something on her computer that will send the display back to me and allow me to share her physical screen, keyboard, and mouse and take over if needed.

Long ago -- I think her computer was running Ubuntu 14.04 at the time -- I could do this by running something like "vncviewer localhost" in my SSH session on her computer. However, this stopped working a couple years ago when I rebuilt her system with Ubuntu 18.04. I gave up at the time, but I'm revising the issue now that she's running 20.04.

I've tried several possible solutions; I've currently installed "tigervnc-viewer" and "tigervnc-xorg-extension". When I try running the command "vncviewer localhost", however (note that "vncviewer" is the TigerVNC Viewer here), I get a pop-up window saying "No matching security types".

I should mention that I know the X server is successfully forwarding windows back from my mom's computer to mine, because (as I said) I'm getting an error popping up on my computer, in a window which says it's coming from her computer.

I've found a bunch of material via web searches which talk about a "security type 18", which is apparently the only security protocol supported by the currently available X servers, but which none of the current VNC clients support. I tried various things in an attempt to disable security altogether, but without any success.

Please note that I need to remotely access the real, physical X display of my mother's computer (launching a window with a separate session in a virtual display will do me no good). Also, I need to run the MATE desktop shell (or possibly Cinnamon, but definitely not Gnome Desktop or Unity), because my dear, elderly mother is accustomed to her screen's current look and feel and will simply not be able to handle any non-trivial changes.

Any suggestions?

Rich Wales
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  • Does this answer your question? https://askubuntu.com/questions/1251900/what-is-the-easy-minimal-way-to-remotelyover-the-internet-connect-a-ubuntu-20/1251905#1251905 – raj Nov 12 '20 at 22:10
  • try Teamviewer. You wont even have to open ports in the router. – Jean-Marie Nov 12 '20 at 22:34
  • You could use RealVNC. Yes, it costs money, but it works, and you get regular updates, with no firewall settings to worry about. – Matthew Rohrich Nov 12 '20 at 22:50
  • @user535733: I do know I need remote capabilities, because my mother has a tendency to do something that completely messes up her display (such as accidentally clicking a column heading in Thunderbird, which changes the sort order of messages), and then she is completely lost, has no idea what she did, and no idea how to undo it. – Rich Wales Nov 13 '20 at 02:00
  • @raj: I tried Vino, but Remmina won't connect (times out). Not sure why. You do understand, though, do you not?, that I need to connect to the remote computer's physical display -- launching a brand new virtual session (such as what RDP does) will not work here, I have got to have visibility and control of the physical display. – Rich Wales Nov 13 '20 at 02:02
  • @Jean-Marie: I suppose Teamviewer could be a possibility, but I'm worried that the steps which my mother would need to do at her end may be too complicated and confusing for her. (Seriously.) – Rich Wales Nov 13 '20 at 02:05
  • @MatthewRohrich: I'll have to look into RealVNC. Thanks for this suggestion. – Rich Wales Nov 13 '20 at 02:08
  • @RichWales As for timeouts - did you try from outside or from the same network? If from outside, is the port forwarding configured on the router? Is there no firewall on the OS itself? Is Vino started? I understand that you need to connect to physical display, that's exactly why I suggest Vino - opposed to other VNC servers, it provides exactly that. Vino is "the" remote desktop sharing solution that was once built into the older versions of Ubuntu by default. I use it between my 3 Ubuntu instances (10.04 - built in, MATE 18.04 and 20.04) and it works OK. – raj Nov 13 '20 at 10:47
  • @raj: I'm connecting OK via Vino now. Previously, since I was SSH'ing to my mom's computer and trying "vncviewer localhost", I didn't need (or want) any firewall rule. But when I tried Vino and ran Remmina from my own computer, it didn't work because there wasn't any firewall rule. I added a rule just now, allowing inbound on port 5900 from my own computer (on the same LAN via a VPN), and it works now. So it looks like Vino will let me do what I need. – Rich Wales Nov 13 '20 at 17:59

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