How to setup RealVNC on Ubuntu Mate

If you have remote devices and requires their desktop. You can use VNC to get it.

Here i will describe one way to work with VNC on an Ubuntu Mate Desktop

Install

As an basic requirement mate desktop is required. If not yet done, you can use

# Ubuntu <= 14.04
sudo apt-get install mate-desktop-environment-core
# UBuntu > 14.04
sudo apt-get install ubuntu-mate-core

for a minimal installation.

For VNC:

sudo apt-get install vnc4server

Configure

Now we have to setup the vncserver. First of all, lets set a password.

vncpasswd

You will be queried for a password with at least 6 signs.

Next, we have start a vnc session to get the configuration files generated, and kill it.

vncserver
vncserver -kill :1

The vncserver will generate a startup file at $HOME/.vnc/xstartup. Open this file with an editor of your choice and append next command to last command:

exec /usr/bin/mate-session &

Here you can see my whole config 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 $HOME/.Xresources
xsetroot -solid grey
vncconfig -iconic &
x-terminal-emulator -geometry 80x24+10+10 -ls -title "$VNCDESKTOP Desktop" &
x-window-manager &
exec /usr/bin/mate-session &