June 15, 201412 yr Hey guys. I swear I've tried on my own but for the life of me I can't get setup so that I can use VNC and XFCE (or whatever) with my ArchVM. My intent is to be able to connect remotely to my ArchVM from my win7 PC and use GUI based apps like Handbrake, and sometimes Transmission (gui has more functionality than webUI) The trick, I think, is that I'm running Arch headless (not passing through a vid card) and I can't seem to get X to start. It tells me there is "no device" (well duh) when I try to start X. So then I looked for info on how to get X running headless ... no joy so far. I've installed xfce4, xorg, tigervnc, x11vnc, and xvfb (I think that is all so far) in my attempts. I've added a few different monitor configs based on webpages I found but none seemed to work. Fortunately I did this all in a test instance of Arch and not my production VM. So can someone help me out here. How do I create a GUI environment (like XFCE of whatever it suitable) for running things like HandbrakeGUI,. that I can access via VNC ... all on a headless instance of Arch. Thanks, Alex
June 15, 201412 yr Author OK I'll look into that, but I gotta be honest, my failure so far means just trying something new likely won't help. I need a bit more help than that Unless they have a really good how-to write up that is
June 16, 201412 yr I have exactly what you are attempting to achieve - archvm running headless with xfce4 and tigervnc server, using it to run jdownloader. Essentially I followed the guide in the arch linux wiki. I have it set up to use a virtual server on port 5901. I set this up some time ago and can no longer remember whether there were any serious pitfalls. When autostarting via systemd, do read, and follow, the instructions at the top of /usr/lib/systemd/system/vncserver.service. If you can describe what you have done, and where you are currently failing, I may be able to help you out a little bit more.
June 16, 201412 yr Author [sigh] yeah that is where i started, tried to follow it. I used pacman to install xfce4, xorg, and tigervnc. I have VNC running, I assume, based on the fact that I can log into it from my PC. But the screen is black. So then I dug in to figure out and realized xfce / X weren't running. When I try to run startxfce4 I get this: [root@IronicsArchVM_v4 ~]# startxfce4 /usr/bin/startxfce4: Starting X server X.Org X Server 1.15.1 Release Date: 2014-04-13 X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0 Build Operating System: Linux 3.14.0-4-ARCH x86_64 Current Operating System: Linux IronicsArchVM_v4 3.14.6-1-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT Sun Jun 8 10:08:38 CEST 2014 x86_64 Kernel command line: root=UUID=93ec2c22-36c1-487c-a888-adde602a16fe ro Build Date: 14 April 2014 08:39:09AM Current version of pixman: 0.32.4 Before reporting problems, check http://wiki.x.org to make sure that you have the latest version. Markers: (--) probed, (**) from config file, (==) default setting, (++) from command line, (!!) notice, (II) informational, (WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown. (==) Log file: "/var/log/Xorg.0.log", Time: Mon Jun 16 03:13:12 2014 (==) Using config file: "/etc/X11/xorg.conf" (==) Using config directory: "/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d" (==) Using system config directory "/usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d" Initializing built-in extension Generic Event Extension Initializing built-in extension SHAPE Initializing built-in extension MIT-SHM Initializing built-in extension XInputExtension Initializing built-in extension XTEST Initializing built-in extension BIG-REQUESTS Initializing built-in extension SYNC Initializing built-in extension XKEYBOARD Initializing built-in extension XC-MISC Initializing built-in extension SECURITY Initializing built-in extension XINERAMA Initializing built-in extension XFIXES Initializing built-in extension RENDER Initializing built-in extension RANDR Initializing built-in extension COMPOSITE Initializing built-in extension DAMAGE Initializing built-in extension MIT-SCREEN-SAVER Initializing built-in extension DOUBLE-BUFFER Initializing built-in extension RECORD Initializing built-in extension DPMS Initializing built-in extension Present Initializing built-in extension DRI3 Initializing built-in extension X-Resource Initializing built-in extension XVideo Initializing built-in extension XVideo-MotionCompensation Initializing built-in extension XFree86-VidModeExtension Initializing built-in extension XFree86-DGA Initializing built-in extension XFree86-DRI Initializing built-in extension DRI2 Loading extension GLX (EE) Fatal server error: (EE) no screens found(EE) (EE) Please consult the The X.Org Foundation support at http://wiki.x.org for help. (EE) Please also check the log file at "/var/log/Xorg.0.log" for additional information. (EE) (EE) Server terminated with error (1). Closing log file. I get the same thing trying startx. My problem "appears" to be clearly an issue of X not starting because it isn't finding a display. I followed this http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1832456 and this https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Headless_With_X and probably another. None made any difference. Sorry if that isn't enough. I tried a lot of things, updated a few config files, etc. but all to deal with what seems like the same problem from the start, X isn't starting because it can't find an appropriate device and I can't seem to stop it.
June 16, 201412 yr My problem "appears" to be clearly an issue of X not starting because it isn't finding a display. I followed this http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1832456 and this https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Headless_With_X and probably another. None made any difference. Sorry if that isn't enough. I tried a lot of things, updated a few config files, etc. but all to deal with what seems like the same problem from the start, X isn't starting because it can't find an appropriate device and I can't seem to stop it. Okay, I'll have a closer look at my configuration a little later. However, I don't recall having to access either of those additional resources to which you refer. I do remember someone in these forums reporting that he was having trouble with X needing a physical display. I believe that he had attempted to start with installing X, then vnc. I did it the other way, using the wiki page that I already referenced, installing vnc, then X.
June 16, 201412 yr Author Hmmm ok well if you don't mind giving it a look, and I'll fire up a fresh unmolested VM to try it again. I am pretty sure I just started with vnc and only got fancy as I ran into trouble. But I'll try again. Thanks. Sent from my XT1060 using Tapatalk
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