How to properly configure xstartup file for TightVNC with Ubuntu VPS GNOME environment

Question

I\'d like to access my Ubuntu 16.10 VPS (Contabo) with using a GNOME environment with VNC, however I am still facing some issues that I couldn\'t solve so far. To install and co

Answer 1

Your vnc log file tells you about problem. You need to install few packages:
sudo apt-get install metacity gnome-panel

UPDATE 1:

You need only x-window-manager or metacity. Both provides window manager and you need only one. From screenshot I see only two problems - grey screen and missing indicators.

To fix missing indicators install one more package:
sudo apt-get install indicator-applet-complete

To fix grey screen you need --force-desktop commandline option. And if you don't want default nautilus window you can add --no-default-window:
nautilus --force-desktop & or nautilus --force-desktop --no-default-window

Also GNOME Flashback (Metacity) session in Ubuntu 16.10 use unity-settings-daemon not gnome-settings-daemon. Don't forget to install it if you decide to change that.

To get better working desktop you also need to exports:

export XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP="GNOME-Flashback:GNOME"
export XDG_MENU_PREFIX="gnome-flashback-"

If you decided to use unity-settings-daemon then XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP should be GNOME-Flashback:Unity.

In both cases you also need gnome-flashback. Install it and make sure it also started. Depending on settings daemon you might need to adjust / change GSettings. Defaults are configurated for unity-settings-daemon.

UPDATE 2:

I would probably let gnome-session to start session:

#!/bin/sh

xrdb $HOME/.Xresources
xsetroot -solid grey

export XKL_XMODMAP_DISABLE=1
export XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP="GNOME-Flashback:Unity"
export XDG_MENU_PREFIX="gnome-flashback-"

gnome-session --session=gnome-flashback-metacity --disable-acceleration-check &

And to install required packages just do sudo apt-get install gnome-session-flashback

UPDATE 3:

Looks like nautilus does not show desktop icons and background, because desktop icons are disabled.

You can enable it with gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background show-desktop-icons true or by installing ubuntu-settings.