Suggestions for VNC to run headless system

[Steve Kaeppler]

All-

I want to run a Rasberry pi 4B 8 GB that has some sort of ubuntu or
Rasbian OS to run my IC718 remotely. I found a nice website
explaining most of the major steps:
https://technotes.seastrom.com/2022/03/08/digirig-pi-older-icom.html.
I also want to probably put some SDR on this computer and run the ka9q
radio as well. Basically make this general purpose and place it at a
field site I have access to. I have internet access and can set up
ssh.

It would be ideal if I could run a VNC and remote desktop. The
instructions here suggest realVNC, but I read a few reddit posts which
said that is going behind a paywall. Additionally, I have always had
some trouble trying to get VNCs working and somehow I have had them
conflict with the gnome desktop environment with the solution being a
total reinstall of the OS (usually ubuntu).

I wanted to ask if anyone has any recommendations on good VNC software
or general suggestions? The other thing I found this morning was a
software called Nomachine which might also be a solution.

Thanks in advance for any advice. This post might be useful for others too...

73,
Steve
AD0AE
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--------------------------------------------------------------------
Steve Kaeppler
steve.k...@gmail.com
cell: 262-707-0932
Amateur Radio Call: AD0AE/6

[Ethan Miller K8GU]

Steve,

The xvncserver package in Debian-based (to include Ubuntu) works
pretty well. For a more secure connection, you want to tunnel it over
SSH. I believe it is based on TightVNC. I use it to remote control
my K3. I've worked a few new grids on 6m from the pool or the office
with an old iPad running the Jump app, which supports ssh-tunneled
VNC.

73,

--Ethan, K8GU.

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[Eric J]

Consider the beta of Raspberry Pi Connect.

https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/raspberry-pi-connect/

VNC is a good tool, but it does have some issues, some security-wise, some because the world is moving past XWindows.

There are notable issues with getting VNC servers to work with Linux distros that are heavily weighted toward Wayland (versus X11).

RaspberryPi OS is still X11, but it is also a Debian derivative and once Debian goes Wayland "for reals" and not looking back... RPiOS will have to do it too.

Distros will work out the VNC issues, of course, by then, but until then, it's a bit of a headache and I've tried RPi Connect and have not looked back. It does require the 64Bit RPi-OS, so if it's presently installed with the 32Bit version you will have to reinstall, but I have gotten it working on RPi 5's, 4's and Zero 2W's with nearly zero effort (although on the 2W's you only get a terminal console, not a desktop [I mean, afterall... it is a tiny resource constrained device that cost $15, really what more do you expect from it. :) ] )

Which, incidentally, for the bigger brothers to the 2W, you get a choice of Desktop or terminal to connect to... so you get the best of both worlds.

The other benefit, VNC may require you punch holes in firewalls or open/map ports at NAT/PAT gateway's. Since RPi-Connect is an agent, it reaches out to the cloud, it appears, over https-rpc, and you never have to "look" for the IP, the instance is always available in the RPi-Connect console attached to your account, so no fiddling with DynDNS (or service like that) or any other technical... er... pains...

It ain't the speediest thing, but I suspect that is because of the Pi's themselves, the more memory you have and the more you overclock it, the more likely the faster the response time. I definitely recommend a Pi with more memory, I wouldn't overlock one without a chunky heat sink with a powered fan though.

- Eric

On Fri, Aug 9, 2024 at 8:12 AM Steve Kaeppler <steve.k...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Dave Hinerman]

Steve,

You can still use RealVNC for free for personal use. (They call it their Lite plan.) It's limited to 5 remote devices but that shouldn't be an issue for what you're describing.

There are other VNC products like TightVNC and TigerVNC. I've used TightVNC in the past and it works pretty well.

The advantage to RealVNC is that it shares the computer's _console_ (i.e. the session using the computer's display, keyboard, and mouse) while other VNCs create a virtual session that isn't what's running on the console. Sharing the console was important for the Grape 1 systems because their OS had fldigi and associated software start on the console at boot.

For what you're doing a virtual session should be fine unless you need access to something that started at boot.

Dave WD8CIV

[Tavi B]

Hi all,

I use X2Go and is work well with my RPi III B. I use it also on PCs with Ubuntu for RX-888 MKII receivers. But you need to install LXDE to have enough speed on newer versions. On old versions of Ubuntu I can use XFCE without issues. It will open a new login.

For direct access on the actual running desktop I use Anydesk.

One issue has gave me some headaches because the remote PCs went in suspend mode and I cannot restart them from distance because I forgot to activate Wake on LAN.

73

Octavian Blagoi

www.astro.ro

[Jay Morreale]

Hi Steve,

I've configured my Raspberry Pi 4B to run Raspberry Pi OS (12) Bookworm and with the RTL-SDR and ADALM PLUTO SDR modules. I'm using Gqrx with WSJT-X and FLdigi. Gqrx works with the these SDR modules and integrates well with WSJT-X. Getting Gqrx to work with FLdigi has been a challenge. I was able to decode PSK31 a few times, but an having trouble figuring how to get FLdigi to control Gqrx. I've also have GNU Radio companion working with the RTL-SDR and have flowgraphs that demodulated repeaters, FM radio, and Wx radio stations. GNU Radio works with the PLUTO SDR but the audio is choppy and I think this may be due sample rate being to high for the USB connection to the Raspberry Pi, but this is still a work in progress. All these programs install and run better on Bookworm than Bullseye and I've started updated my Pis to Bookworm

The SDRs are connected to the Raspberry Pi 4B via a nine port USB 3.0 + 1 charging port Hub. The USB hub provides power to the SDRs due to the power limitations of the USB ports of the Raspberry Pi 4B. The charging port is used to power the PLUTO SDR which needs more than 1 A. A USB 3.0 port is limited to 0.9 A. The charging port will supply 2.4 A.

Bookworm uses the Wayland windowing system and WayVNC. I use the TigerVNC viewer for headless operation. It works really well and does not have license restriction like RealVNC. It took a little trial and error to setup, however (vayvnc configuration files need to be in /etc/wayvnc and use fixed paths). Copy and paste from the clipboard works between the viewer and the remote server. With Bullseye, I used TightVNC server on the PI and TightVNC and UltraVNC viewers, and these configuration did not support copy and paste. WayVNC and TigerVNC viewer work better than TightVNC server and TightVNC/UltraVNC viewers.

[Steve Kaeppler]

Hi All-

I wanted to give a little update. First off, thank you all for your
comments, this was very helpful. I downloaded the most recent 64 bit
version of the rasberry pi OS, bookworm or whatever. It turned out
that the best way forward or at least most seemless has been to use
wayvnc and realvnc viewer. I tried to get the Tightvnc working, but
when I tried to log in, I kept getting a gray screen. I think it has
something to do with X and getting that configured correctly. I
couldn't easily find a solution to that problem(looking at
stackoverflow or reddit didn't produce an obvious answer or seemed
like people just solved it without saying how). I also tried
Tigervnc, which worked well with the wayvnc, but the screen was like
in the lower left hand corner of my screen. Realvnc viewer seems to
work pretty nicely and play nicely.

Anyway in 14 days, maybe Realvnc will ask for money, but if the viewer
is free for use, this might be a good way to go. Wayvnc was also
super easy to configure.

Thanks again and 73,
Steve
AD0AE

If anyone

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