Home » forums » Debian Help Forums: Users Helping Users » X Window System

VNC Server

Tags:

I don't have a monitor attached to my Debian 3.1 box so I use SSH to get in. I also tried last year to successfully setup VNC so I could have a graphical interface to the remote computer.

For some reason the system broke and I don't know how to fix it.

When I try to start vncserver the log file says:

could not open default font 'fixed'

Can someone walk me through the steps to correct this?

Thank you,
Duane

Bookmark/Search this post with:
  • Delicious
  • Digg
  • StumbleUpon
  • Propeller
  • Reddit
  • Magnoliacom
  • Newsvine
  • Furl
  • Google
  • Yahoo
  • Technorati
0
‹ Sections Files in X11 xorg.conf X 'X'iting? ›

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.

could not open default font 'fixed'

Submitted by agentm on Fri, 2007-03-30 16:10.

Hello Duane,

I am not familiar with VNC-server,
but I think your problem is not related to VNC-server,
but most likely you did some intermediately upgrading and
the path to your default font was changed or something similar.

You should find something out there regarding that error.

Otherwise I would try to reinstall vnc-server and see if that fixes it,
or at least gives a you more detailed error-msg.

A question: you are trying to get a connection to a windows machine, right?

agentm

May the energy I will invest in Debian Linux for the upcoming decade not be wasted in the same way like the energy I put into M$-OS of the last decade.

I prefer Debian Linux over any M$-OS because it lacks a registry! =(8-D)

»

VNC Server

Submitted by pinniped on Sat, 2007-03-31 16:57.

Did you install the 'common' X files, X client, and fonts on your headless box? You need an X client on your remote machine to respond to the X server (or emulator) of your VNC.

Hmm... does the client need fonts? I'm not sure now - it is not the client that does the rendering. Anyway, fonts are an entirely separate thing - you can do without installing fonts on any UNIX machine provided there is a font server somewhere else which it can connect to. If you are not accessing via a *NIX machine, perhaps your VNC client has to be told where to find the fonts?

How is your VNC set up - does it encapsulate X (so you have client on remote and server on your local machine) or does it do something silly like encrypt screenshots and send them (in which case both X client and server must be on the remote).

Oh, which VNC package are you using - or are you just doing an 'X forward over SSH' ?

»

Config

Submitted by drinehart on Mon, 2007-04-02 11:13.

I have the vnc4server (vnc4server) installed along with the common files (vnc4-common).

I believe I have an X client but not sure. How can I tell?

Regarding the fonts, I tried to install them (e.g. xfonts-75dpi and xfonts-100dpi) but received the following message:

warning: /usr/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi does not exist or is not a directory

++

I am trying to connect to the Debian box over the LAN from a Windows XP machine using RealVNC for Windows.

It is my understanding I am using the X Windows system on the Debian box but just attaching to it through the RealVNC. Again, this was working until late last year.

I am using as a template an instructive blog from some Brit on the web that previously worked. I will attach a pdf of the instructions if I can.

Duane

»

Instructions

Submitted by drinehart on Mon, 2007-04-02 11:15.

I couldn't attach the file so I'll just post it. Please tell me where I'm going wrong.

Duane

+++

2.14 X Windows System
I got bored one afternoon and thought I'd install the X windows system to allow me to start up graphical apps using VNC.
Note that the actual capability to run X graphically on the computer isn't added--just the ability to have a graphical
environment using VNC.
Firstly, the packages are needed:
apt-get install xutils xbase-clients
apt-get install xfonts-base x-fonts-scalable xfonts-75dpi xfonts-100dpi
apt-get install vncserver
This will install the standard X utils, fonts and the VNC server. I am going to install the blackbox window manager
because it's light (I only have a p2-233), easy to use (ish) and doesn't take up much hdd space.
apt-get install blackbox bbtime bbdate qiv
This will install blackbox and necessary components as well as qiv which lets you have images as your wallpaper
(depending on the theme, I noticed).
Get the VNC windows client from their homepage, and create some directories on the linux box:
mkdir ~/.blackbox
mkdir ~/.vnc
The first one stores blackbox themes and profiles and stuff, the second one stores all things to do with VNC. We need to
create an xstartip file in the .vnc file. This is not unlike a standard .xinitrc or other such file that is loaded when a X runs, it
just runs when the VNC first starts instead. In this file we are going to want to tell VNC to start up blackbox, and set us a
nice default background.
nano ~/.vnc/xstartup
inside the file put:
#!/bin/sh
xrdb $HOME/.Xresources
xterm -geometry 80x24+10+10 -ls -title "$VNCDESKTOP Desktop" &
blackbox
The final thing to do is modify the config file for VNC to set it up to have a better colour depth, set the default resolution as
well as setting up the fonts.
nano /etc/vnc.conf
for the "Font Path" variable have:
$fontPath = "";
$fontPath .= "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc/,";
$fontPath .= "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/:unscaled,";
$fontPath .= "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi/:unscaled,";
$fontPath .= "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Type1/,";
$fontPath .= "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Speedo/,";
$fontPath .= "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/,";
$fontPath .= "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi/,";
# $fontPath .= "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/freefont/,";
# $fontPath .= "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/sharefont/";
# I don't know what the default is, though.
set $geometry to whatever resolution you want to have. I chose 800x600:
$geometry = "800x600";
set $depth to the colour depth. I couldn't get blackbox to work with 32 depth, so keep it at 24.
$depth = "24";
Now, run a vncserver session and try and connect to it. It will prompt for a password the first time :)
rob@sodium:~/.vnc$ vncserver
You will require a password to access your desktops.
Password:
Verify:
New 'X' desktop is sodium:2
Starting applications specified in /etc/X11/Xsession
Log file is /home/rob/.vnc/sodium:2.log
Try and connect to this from windows Hopefully it will work :) Should look something like this image! You now have

»
Syndicate content