VNC on Ubuntu 22.10

Starting a VNC Server

Install the server package;

sudo apt install tigervnc-standalone-server

Edit the ‘.vnc/xstartup’ file, making sure that it is executable;

#!/bin/sh
unset SESSION_MANAGER
unset DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS
/usr/bin/startxfce4
[ -x /etc/vnc/xstartup ] && exec /etc/vnc/xstartup
[ -r $HOME/.Xresources ] && xrdb $HOME/.Xresources
x-window-manager &

Start the VNC server;

vncserver -localhost no

Attaching a VNC Client

Install the client package;

sudo apt install tigervnc-viewer

Start the client;

xtigervncviewer -SecurityTypes VncAuth,TLSVnc <server>:1

‘:1’ indicates that the client should connect to the first virtual desktop, in case there are multiple instances of the VNC server running.

Workaround

There are permission issues around Snap packages which prevent applications loaded as Snaps from creating GUI resources. The easiest workaround, for now, is the install the .deb version of the affected application.

Installing Firefox as a .deb Package on Ubuntu

Remove the Firefox Snap package.

sudo snap remove firefox

Remove the placeholder Debian package.

sudo apt remove firefox

Add the Mozilla Team PPA.

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:mozillateam/ppa

The above command may hang on networks with IPv6 enabled. If it does, edit ‘/etc/gai.conf’ and uncomment this line, in order to prefer IPv4 connections;

#precedence ::ffff:0:0/96  100

Instruct apt to prefer the PPA over the Snap package. Edit ‘/etc/apt/preferences.d/mozilla’;

Package: firefox*
Pin: release o=LP-PPA-mozillateam
Pin-Priority: 501

Run ‘sudo apt update’, then ‘sudo apt install firefox’.

Fixing “Authentication is required to create a color managed device”

Create the file /etc/polkit-1/localauthority/50-local.d/45-allow-colord.pkla with the following content;

[Allow Colord all Users]
Identity=unix-user:*
Action=org.freedesktop.color-manager.create-device;org.freedesktop.color-manager.create-profile;org.freedesktop.color-manager.delete-device;org.freedesktop.color-manager.delete-profile;org.freedesktop.color-manager.modify-device;org.freedesktop.color-manager.modify-profile
ResultAny=no
ResultInactive=no
ResultActive=yes