Raspberry Pi Forums

I have an RPi3 with Raspbian Stretch that I have worked on via the command line (SSH using PuTTY).
Now I want to use PiClone to make a backup of the system before I leave it in place, but I have no HDMI enabled monitor and PiClone is a GUI utility as far as I understand it...
So I thought of using VNC instead, but I don't know if one can enable it using the command line only?
Since it is Linux my guess is that it is possible, but how?

I believe that in Raspbian Pixel VNC was enabled by default but I don't know on this Stretch version. In any case my VNC viewer cannot connect to it so I guess it is non-active.
If it is not possible to enable using PuTTY there is a hen-and-egg problem here,,,

Find VNC in interface menu:

Although I've not used/tried it, IIRC, there is a "command-line" version of "Pi-clone" (rpi-clone or similar?). Also, in principle, when connected via SSH (PuTTY) with x-forwarding enabled (and an X-windows compatible desktop on the remote machine) any "X-gui program" should display and be usable on the remote machine. (I've used such an approach for many years with other Unix/Linux boxes long before the Pi, and have continued to do so with my "headless" Pi's).
Trev.

klricks wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 07, 2017 5:53 pm

Find VNC in interface menu:

Code: Select all

sudo raspi-config

Thanks, raspi-config did the trick, but now I have a very small screen to work inside...
If I measure correctly it is only 655x380 pixels...
Can the screen size on VNC be adjusted?

Bosse_B wrote:

klricks wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 07, 2017 5:53 pm

Find VNC in interface menu:

Code: Select all

sudo raspi-config

Thanks, raspi-config did the trick, but now I have a very small screen to work inside...
If I measure correctly it is only 655x380 pixels...
Can the screen size on VNC be adjusted?

It's likely that the VNC server (by default) is using a "physical" display size/resolution defined in config.txt or a "composite video" default due to there being no HDMI connection. What does tvservice -s report? It's possible to launch a VNC mode that does not "clone" the "connected" (or presumed connected) display settings, IIRC, that's one of the VNC options (but don't recall the full details, sorry**).
Trev.
** Edit: Some more info. here: https://www.realvnc.com/en/connect/docs ... y-pi-setup (Virtual Mode)

Bosse_B wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 07, 2017 6:07 pm

klricks wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 07, 2017 5:53 pm

Find VNC in interface menu:

Code: Select all

sudo raspi-config

Thanks, raspi-config did the trick, but now I have a very small screen to work inside...
If I measure correctly it is only 655x380 pixels...
Can the screen size on VNC be adjusted?

Also use sudo raspi-config to set a forced screen resolution of your choice.

klricks wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 07, 2017 6:42 pm

Also use sudo raspi-config to set a forced screen resolution of your choice.

Right, I googled for some advice and found this solution so I could set it to a comfortable size!
Only "problem" was that I had to reboot afterwards. So before that I had to adjust the persistent iptables rules I had changed after the last boot so that the faulty firewall would not hit back in again....
Now working though.
Thanks for your help!

Sorry to get back to this thread, but the reason I wanted to access the Pi desktop was that I read somewhere that Stretch includes a disk cloning utility that runs off the GUI screen. I think it is called PiClone, but now I cannot find this on any of he GUI menus and when I google Pi Clone I get to all kinds of unrelated old postings, not dealing with this new utility.

Can someone here please help me finding it?
Or should I open a new thread for this?

Bosse_B wrote: Sorry to get back to this thread, but the reason I wanted to access the Pi desktop was that I read somewhere that Stretch includes a disk cloning utility that runs off the GUI screen. I think it is called PiClone, but now I cannot find this on any of he GUI menus and when I google Pi Clone I get to all kinds of unrelated old postings, not dealing with this new utility.

Can someone here please help me finding it?
Or should I open a new thread for this?

The "GUI version" is (still) referred to as "SD Card Copier" in the menu system IIRC**.
Trev.
** I only have an old Jessie screenshot in my webpages: http://www.cpmspectrepi.uk/raspberry_pi ... Screenshot
and it might (now) be in a different menu area.

Indeed it is!
And I found a blog outlining the usage too:
Latest updates to Raspbian
SD Card Copier is the 3rd item down from the top.

The pure cli version would be:

I suppose the following code using a symbolic link, with 'ln -s', is easier to understand.

I think this is a very old conversation.
I started it in Nov 2017 and since then RPi4 and Raspbian Buster are out....