TightVNC startup on boot not working

[deavmi]

Hello, I have recetly been having problems gettoing a tightvnc server to start on boot using this page over here (http://elinux.org/RPi_VNC_Server) . I have created the file in /etc/init.d , then chmodded it. Then I tried the first command "update-rc.d /etc/init.d/vncboot defaults" which didn't work so I tried the other alternative one, "update-rc.d vncboot defaults" then it printed this out,

"update-rc.d: using dependency based boot sequencing
insserv: warning: script 'mathkernel' missing LSB tags and overrides" and I rebooted my Pi and tried connecting to it via VNCViewer and it gave me an error, I think it said connection refused so obviously the server didn't start.

[AndyD]

insserv: warning: script 'mathkernel' missing LSB tags and overrides"

This is a warning to do with the Mathematica init.d entry. It is just a warning that the file is missing the LSB header. It won't have anything to do with TightVNC not running.

[deavmi]

But for some reason I think the VNC server never starts on boot. On their page it has the word "root" should I replace that with my user name, that being"pi"

[AndyD]

Further down that page it talks about Getting VNC Server to Work on a Specific User

[deavmi]

I think I might have found the error. The vncboot file was saved as vncboot.save and not just vncboot - UPDATE: Sorry about this post, i by mistake was on a different machine lookign at a different script file.

[deavmi]

Okay I think it's still not working. I will check out the link you have posted.

[alanwbaker]

I'm experiencing the same issue as deavmi. I ran the same two update-rc.d commands he mentioned with the same results.

vncserver did not start at boot time, so I put a couple of echo statements in the vncboot script and found that it is just not being executed then. But once the Pi is up and running, I can run sudo /etc/init.d/vncboot and the server works perfectly. I'm fine with running it as root.

Can you give me clue?

[DougieLawson]

What's in the LSB header. You need to be sure the network is active before trying to start VNC.
# Required-Start: networking

Try sudo update-rc.d vncserver 99 to get it to run later in the boot process.

What options are you setting:
OPTIONS=" -depth ${DEPTH} -geometry ${GEOMETRY} :${DISPLAY}"

The $DISPLAY variable after the colon defines which virtual display you're using and by implication which port
:1 == 5901, :2 == 5902 etc.

Have you got it writing a log file?
Has everything been chmod'ed with chmod +x?
/etc/init.d/scripts always run with root.root as owner & group (unless you do something special) so anything like password files will be assumed to be in the /root directory.

NOTE: it's a massive security hole to run VNC as root.

[alanwbaker]

Thanks for your reply, Dougie. I'm using the init.d script from http://elinux.org/RPi_VNC_Server#Run_at_boot. As you suggested I ran

Code: Select all

sudo update-rc.d vncboot start 99 2 3 4 5 . stop 19 0 1 6 .

which returned

update-rc.d: using dependency based boot sequencing
insserv: warning: current start runlevel(s) (3 4 5) of script `vncboot' overrides LSB defaults (2 3 4 5).
insserv: warning: script 'mathkernel' missing LSB tags and overrides

Once the pi is up I can run

Code: Select all

sudo /etc/init.d/vncboot start

from the command line and it works fine with a solid connection and proper logging. I changed the geometry to

Code: Select all

/usr/bin/vncserver :0 -geometry 800x600 -depth 24

which works fine on the client monitor.

Adding networking to its Required-Start was a good idea but it didn't help my case. To confirm that the script is not executed at boot time I added the following line to the script:

Code: Select all

echo In /etc/init.d/vncboot >>/tmp/vncboot.log

And indeed it is not being executed at boot time, so something in the LSB environment is still hosed.

Thanks in advance for any further ideas.

[alanwbaker]

I did not find out why /etc/init.d/vncboot would not run at boot time, but here's a workaround. To start it at boot time add the following line to /etc/rc.local:

sudo service vncboot start