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I have installed Ubuntu Desktop 18.04 on my parents computer but want to be able to administrate it from the outside (install updates, fix issues etc). I need to view the main desktop (:0), not create a new one. Shell access it not enough.

The first thing I tried was using TeamViewer. Sadly, TeamViewer is completely broken on Linux and it regularly crashes the window manager, no matter if I use X11 or Wayland in the "gdm3/custom.conf". This also freezes almost all other processes so the only way to fix this is to reboot the machine. Other users have reported the same issues to the TeamViewer support, but they don't care.

Next thing I tried was using VNC. So I installed a VNC Server on the machine and have it start on startup on display 0 with X11 enabled / Wayland disabled. This also didn't seem to work, because I couldn't share the Display:0 for some reason.

( https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-install-and-configure-vnc-on-ubuntu-18-04 )

x11vnc doesn't work because it cannot be started before a user has logged in.

Next thing I tried was the built in "Desktop Sharing" function of Ubuntu. Sadly, this VNC server seems to only be started once a user is logged in. And even though I have disabled the password and enabled auto login in the system settings and "AutomaticLoginEnable=true" "AutomaticLogin=username" in the "gdm3/custom.conf", sometimes Ubuntu just ignores these settings and sits at the login screen waiting for a user to click on their username to login.

Since I don't want anybody else to be able to access this I am using a simple VPN (ZeroTier) with a static IP address so that only I can connect to the computer.

It seems like there is no reliable way to have Ubuntu login automatically every time? Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, makes no sense to me. Rebooting the system seems to make the auto login work, shutting it down and starting it then seems to make it sit at the user selection screen.

So what are the options left, what am I missing?

Is it really this difficult/impossible to make Ubuntu Desktop accessible from the outside?

bmvanity8723
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    "Sadly, TeamViewer is completely broken on Linux" Please provide errors or anything to go on. =My= teamviewer works 100% perfect. "x11vnc doesn't work because it cannot be started before a user has logged in." Yes it does as long as the Wayland display manager is disabled But agree that it is a lousy experience even when setup correctly ;) – Rinzwind Jan 24 '21 at 09:19
  • "remmina" is the default remote access tool. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remmina Use https://snapcraft.io/remmina as a reference, – Rinzwind Jan 24 '21 at 09:21
  • Last one: please try to focus on either getting Teamviewer or X11VNC working by posting errors or notification we can help fix. "So what are the options left, what am I missing?" is an open ended question so not a good fit on AU. "Is it really this difficult/impossible to make Ubuntu Desktop accessible from the outside?" is a yes/no answer ;) This TV how to works: https://linuxhint.com/install_teamviewer_ubuntu-3/ – Rinzwind Jan 24 '21 at 09:36
  • @Rinzwind Wayland display manager IS disabled in the "gdm3/custom.conf" and yet, x11vnc does not start before login. Teamviewer did not show any errors and the logfiles were clean. The system got stuck in an empty screen with only the Teamviewer icon showing in the top right and "Activities" written in the top left. In this state the system doesn't react to anything except CTRL ALT DELETE to logout or simply poweroff. And like I said, I'm not the only one with this issue. There are plenty of forum posts about this and the support doesn't care. I even installed an old version of TV, to no avail – bmvanity8723 Jan 24 '21 at 10:38
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    Does this answer your question? How to start the teamviewer service before login? – Raffa Jan 24 '21 at 12:09

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