How to install XFCE with VNC along with web server

General Discussion & Chat
1

Hello,

Let me introduce myself as new AlmaLinux fans.
Previously I used Debian and CentOS.

I have a webserver with a control panel to manage everything.

Is it possible to have the webserver running with VNC + XFCE too?

Before, when I’m on CentOS, I can have the webserver running fine with a XFCE desktop and VNC.

I have tried countless guides on the Google but none of them are working.

Any guide will be appreciated.

Thank you.

2

“A webserver” is something that shares content via HTTP/HTTPS, isn’t it? Clients access the content with browser, curl, etc.

A “control panel” is just some HTTP/HTTPS content that the webserver shares? The twist being that those “web pages” let you change the state of the server.

Red Hat did include Cockpit in RHEL 8 and hence AlmaLinux has it too. That is a HTTP/HTTPS-based “control panel”.

The XFCE is a GUI desktop that runs on X11 (and Wayland?). It is totally separate and independent from any “web business”. VNC, freenx, X11 tunneling, RDP, etc allow accessing desktop session remotely. There are differences in security and effciency of those protocols.

Yes, you should be able to run both X11/Wayland and Apache simultaneously and setup would be practically identical to what CentOS Linux 8 would have. However, I don’t know the details.

Disclaimer: I do all management via ssh, command-line. No remote desktops nor “web appliances”, if possible.

3

Hi. Yes, you can install vncserver (tigervnc-server package) and configure it to run any desktop of your choice - Gnome or XFCE or something else

4

Hi,

Thank you for your explanation and comment.

Fortunately, I know the difference between them.

Like I said before, I have tried every guide on the internet but none of them is working.

XRDP is working great luckily, but the session can not be started using RDP Client on Android mobile phone.

So I need a better solution.

I want everything is served from one VPS.

5

Hi,

Do you know any guide to achieve that?

I’ve tried with either RealVNC or TigerVNC nit no luck here.

By the way, previously I tried to do the same using Centos 7.

6

As said, I manage via command line. (Plenty with Ansible currently.) I don’t install desktop content on servers. Yes, command line on a phone is probably more cumbersome than some GUI, but I haven’t been forced into that situation. (Although, when I went to buy my first “smart phone”, I had but one obligatory feature in mind: “must have ssh client”.)

7

Hi. If you already configured vncserver as described in /usr/share/doc/tigervnc/HOWTO.md, just install xfce suite

dnf --enablerepo=epel group -y install "Xfce" "base-x"

after it change the line in your ~/.vnc/xstartup

line “exec /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc” must be replaced with “exec /usr/bin/xfce4-session”

Then just restart vncserver process and you will have xfce4 desktop in your vnc session.

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8

Hello,

So I need to install VNC first then Xfce?

I will try it first qnd let you know about this.

9

The order of installation does not matter. You just need to have them both installed before you can use them.

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10

Hello,

Your suggestion is working great.

Finally I can sleep well.

Thanks.

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