Installing vncserver with systemd unit on Fedora 28
Sep 26, 2018
Installing a VNC server should be a simple task but it comes with a few curveballs.
Setup
Install TigerVNC server
$ sudo dnf install tigervnc-server
Log in to VNC manually such that it creates password and .vnc files
$ vncserver :1
You will require a password to access your desktops.
Password:
Verify:
Would you like to enter a view-only password (y/n)? n
New 'storm:1 (<USER>)' desktop is storm:1
Creating default startup script /home/<USER>/.vnc/xstartup
Creating default config /home/<USER>/.vnc/config
Starting applications specified in /home/<USER>/.vnc/xstartup
Log file is /home/<USER>/.vnc/storm:1.log
Now use a VNC viewer to access desktop, ie. Remmina on display :1
and finally kill the temporary VNC server
$ vncserver -kill :1
Killing Xvnc process ID 20915
Systemd Unit
Copy from systemd unit template
$ sudo /lib/systemd/system/vncserver@.service /etc/systemd/system/
Edit unit to customize for user. Replace ‘<USER>’ by the user logging into VNC
$ sudo vi /etc/systemd/system/vncserver@.service
I had an issue where the VNC server would die after about a minute of running, apparently due to some SELinux permissions on .vnc directory. The message was:
Sep 26 21:40:39 storm systemd[1]: vncserver@:1.service: Failed with result 'timeout'.
Sep 26 21:40:39 storm systemd[1]: Failed to start Remote desktop service (VNC).
-- Subject: Unit vncserver@:1.service has failed
These SELinux related commands helped the situation:
$ chcon -t xserver_exec_t /home/<USER>/.vnc
$ sudo semanage fcontext -a -t xserver_exec_t "/home/<USER>/.vnc(/.*)?"
Now we can start the systemd unit
$ sudo systemctl start vncserver@:1.service
And to make it start on each subsequent system boot
$ sudo systemctl enable vncserver@:1.service
