Stuck at login screen with VNC viewer

[OccamsRazor]

Hi folks, I'm new to the world of Raspberry Pi. It has been a bit of a struggle so far!

My 3B pi is connected to my wireless network. I can use ssh to log in via terminal (on Mac) and can access raspi-config no problems. But when I use VNC Viewer to try and look at the GUI, I get stuck at the login screen.

I am inputting the correct username (pi) and password (...), the same as I use to access the device in terminal. But after inputting these, the screen goes black for 2-3 seconds, then shows the login screen again. If I input an incorrect password I get an "incorrect password" message.

There are a couple of threads relating to this that are a few years old, and I get lost by some of the terminology used! I really am new to this, and thought it would be much easier...can anybody help?

Thank you in advance.

[FTrevorGowen]

What O.S. are you running on your P3B and which VNC software on both the Pi & Mac? If you don't specify anything different Raspbian (Buster) & RealVNC will be assumed.
Trev.

[OccamsRazor]

Thanks Trev, I used the Raspbian Buster Lite on the pi and RealVNC on my Mac. I haven't done anything about VNC software on the pi other than enabling it to be used via raspi-config, is this where I could be going wrong?

[klricks]

Thanks Trev, I used the Raspbian Buster Lite on the pi and RealVNC on my Mac. I haven't done anything about VNC software on the pi other than enabling it to be used via raspi-config, is this where I could be going wrong?

The Lite version does not have a desktop GUI installed so VNC won't work.
You need to either install a desktop or use one of the full desktop versions of Raspbian.

[FTrevorGowen]

Thanks Trev, I used the Raspbian Buster Lite on the pi and RealVNC on my Mac. I haven't done anything about VNC software on the pi other than enabling it to be used via raspi-config, is this where I could be going wrong?

The Lite version does not have a desktop GUI installed so VNC won't work.
You need to either install a desktop or use one of the full desktop versions of Raspbian.

As I don't use Raspbian Lite I can't check this (w/o writing a new uSDHC card) but, given that I often boot "headless" to the command-line w/o the desktop running I can use RealVNC's virtual mode** (requires a remote login to launch it) which, AIUI, doesn't need the "desktop GUI ..." but I could be wrong.
Trev.
** https://www.cpmspectrepi.uk/raspberry_p ... uster.html

[klricks]

Thanks Trev, I used the Raspbian Buster Lite on the pi and RealVNC on my Mac. I haven't done anything about VNC software on the pi other than enabling it to be used via raspi-config, is this where I could be going wrong?

The Lite version does not have a desktop GUI installed so VNC won't work.
You need to either install a desktop or use one of the full desktop versions of Raspbian.

As I don't use Raspbian Lite I can't check this (w/o writing a new uSDHC card) but, given that I often boot "headless" to the command-line w/o the desktop running I can use RealVNC's virtual mode** (requires a remote login to launch it) which, AIUI, doesn't need the "desktop GUI ..." but I could be wrong.
Trev.
** https://www.cpmspectrepi.uk/raspberry_p ... uster.html

RealVNC Virtual mode (vncserver) works from a desktop GUI installation when set to boot to CLI or Desktop.... either way.
RealVNC Service mode requires boot to desktop enabled and running.

Both virtual mode and service mode will not work from a default Lite installation.