[NBLUG/talk] Problems with X and VNC

[Andrew]

Note: This is a re-posting of a message I sent through my regular
email account about 7 hours ago. That one seems to have
disappeared. I've noticed that SoftHome.net can be a bit dodgy at
times, so don't be surprised if the original appears in the
not-too-distant future. Sorry.

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I'm having some problems setting up vncserver. Well, actually,
setting up X to work with vncserver. The machine which will be
running the server is a Debian Woody box with XFree86 3.3.6 and
WindowMaker + Gnome. When I run "startx" from the command line, X
starts up just fine, so my X setup seems to be OK. I've been
running it this way for a year. A few days ago I installed the
vncserver package and, after wrangling with a font problem for a
short while, got the server running. The problem shows up when I
connect to the server with vncviewer. All I get is plain X and
nothing more. Just the standard grey background and the ugly "X"
cursor. Nothing else... not even an Xterm. So with no pretty
icons to click on and no terminal to type into, I'm dead in the
water. Nothing else can happen in that window.

I'm guessing the problem lies in how vncserver processes the X
startup files. I've been looking through whatever files I can
find that seem to control the startup of X, but since I'm only
vaguely familiar with the process, I haven't gotten very far.
Normally, I'd tinker with this myself a bit longer before asking
on the list, but I'm heading out of town on Wednesday and I'd
like to get it running before then. Can anyone give me a nudge in
the right direction?

Thanks.

A.

apt-get moo