VNC working again on Ubuntu 7.04
Well, I finally got VNC working again after it lost its mind during the 7.04 upgrade, although with a different binary. Still not sure what’s up with tightvnc, but at this point I guess I don’t care to solve the root cause. Based on this Ubuntu bug report thread, I tried the RealVNC server build, called vnc4server. A simple sudo apt-get install vnc4server and tweaks to my start/stop scripts, and I was in business again. Whew!
Even better, I got some added functionality that is really helpful! The vnc4server package includes a ‘vnc4config’ app that, while running, allows clipboard data to be passed back and forth between the host and client. It works, and it’s nifty. I was trying to figure out how to start that up in my xstartup (it ends with “exec gnome-session” so lots of luck there) but it turns out the gnome session itself, can help. You can specify startup programs at System -> Preferences -> Sessions. Seems reasonable. It’ll probably start up when I’m at console as well, but should be harmless, I’d expect (will test that next time I actually need to use the console.)