Creating Additional Desktops

New desktop environments are created using the vncserver utility. If vncserver is not already installed, it may be installed from a terminal window as follows:

sudo apt-get install vnc4server

Once the VNC server package is installed, the next step is to assign a password to protect the desktops. This can be achieved using the vncpasswd tool. Run this tool from the command-line prompt in a terminal window and enter the password of your choice.

The desktop we have used so far in this chapter is desktop :0. New desktops must be assigned different numbers. For example to launch desktop :1 run the following command from a terminal window command-line prompt:

vncserver :1

This will start a new desktop in the background ready for a remote user to connect to. To connect to the desktop follow the steps for connecting to desktop :0 outlined above but this time use port 5901 instead of port 5900 (you will similarly use port 5902 for desktop :2 and so on).

When the desktop appears you will notice that it doesn't look much like the standard desktop:

The problem here is that we need to configure the VNC session to launch the correct desktop. To do this shutdown the VNC desktop session as follows:

vncserver -kill :1

Next go to your home folder and edit the $HOME/.vnc/xstartup file. This will look similar to the following file:

#!/bin/sh

# Uncomment the following two lines for normal desktop:
# unset SESSION_MANAGER
# exec /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc

[ -x /etc/vnc/xstartup ] && exec /etc/vnc/xstartup
[ -r $HOME/.Xresources ] && xrdb $HOME/.Xresources
xsetroot -solid grey
vncconfig -iconic &
xterm -geometry 80x24+10+10 -ls -title "$VNCDESKTOP Desktop" &
twm &

To configure this startup script to launch the standard desktop (known as the GNOME desktop) change the twm& line so that the file reads:

#!/bin/sh

# Uncomment the following two lines for normal desktop:
# unset SESSION_MANAGER
# exec /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc

#[ -x /etc/vnc/xstartup ] && exec /etc/vnc/xstartup
#[ -r $HOME/.Xresources ] && xrdb $HOME/.Xresources
#xsetroot -solid grey
#vncconfig -iconic &
#xterm -geometry 80x24+10+10 -ls -title "$VNCDESKTOP Desktop" &

unset SESSION_MANAGER
sh /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc

Restart the vncserver:

vncserver :1

Finally, reconnect from the remote system. The full desktop should now appear in the vncviewer or vinagre window.