For your xstartup file in ~/.vnc (the “.vnc” folder in
your home directory), you need the following:
—————————–
#!/bin/sh

# Uncomment the following two lines for normal desktop:
# unset SESSION_MANAGER
# exec /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc

[ -x /etc/vnc/xstartup ] && exec /etc/vnc/xstartup
[ -r $HOME/.Xresources ] && xrdb $HOME/.Xresources
xsetroot -solid grey
vncconfig -iconic &
xterm -geometry 80×24+10+10 -ls -title “$VNCDESKTOP Desktop” &
gnome-session &
# twm &
————————

instead of uncommenting the lines as the script suggests, you change the window manager to gnome-session

make sure restart vnc4server

The line which got Gnome working was “gnome-session &”

========================================

Now for all the steps involved (works in Karmic Koala Alpha 2, Ubuntu 9.10, kernel 2.6.30-10)

1. Install ssh server, ssh client, VNC viewer, VNC server, and xinetd

sudo apt-get install openssh-server openssh-client vnc4server xinetd  vncviewer

2. Setup the ssh password for your login

ssh-keygen

3. Test out the ssh server by typing in

ssh localhost  or ssh your_login@your_ip_address

4. Then create a vnc password

sudo vncpasswd ~/.vncpasswd

5. Edit the xstartup file in ~/.vnc directory

For your xstartup file in ~/.vnc (the “.vnc” folder in
your home directory), you need the following:
—————————–
#!/bin/sh

# Uncomment the following two lines for normal desktop:
# unset SESSION_MANAGER
# exec /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc

[ -x /etc/vnc/xstartup ] && exec /etc/vnc/xstartup
[ -r $HOME/.Xresources ] && xrdb $HOME/.Xresources
xsetroot -solid grey
vncconfig -iconic &
xterm -geometry 80×24+10+10 -ls -title “$VNCDESKTOP Desktop” &
gnome-session &
# twm &
————————

instead of uncommenting the lines as the script suggests, you change the window manager to gnome-session

6. Create a VNC desktop

vnc4server :1 -geometry 1024×768

7. Then to tunnel into your VNC desktop, first create a SSH tunnel by logging into SSH with the comand:

ssh -L 5901:your_ip_address:5901 your_username@your_ipaddress

8. Finally, load up your VNC desktop

vncviewer localhost:1

And now you are ready to use connect to your machine remotely and use administer the computer remotely.

P.S: If you are using a firewall (hardware or software, you need to get enable port forwarding and unblock ports 22 and 5900-5999 on the Ubuntu machine to allow SSH and VNC to be accessed.

If you are a sudoer, open up the terminal and type in:

sudo -u gdm gconftool-2 –set /desktop/gnome/sound/event_sounds –type bool false

The next time you logout, or restart the computer, the sound won’t be played again.

****

Update: The above methods doesn’t work for everyone. There have been a couple of other methods that have been known to work.

To actually disable the “login ready” sound you need to edit your /etc/gdm/custom.conf file.

sudo gedit /etc/gdm/custom.conf

Under the [greeter] section add the line:

SoundOnLogin=false

Another method that has worked for some is the removal of ubuntu-sounds package. This will remove all the event sounds as well, but your media should work just fine.

sudo apt-get remove ubuntu-sounds

These are some of the methods that have worked for several people. YMMV – unfortunately.

Karmic has been functional on my machines since Alpha 3 – so no surprises await me as of today. But I would be posting some observations and neat tricks that one can use with Karmic Koala and Ubuntu Linux in general.

The first trick is to use a torrent for downloading the .iso image instead of downloading it directly from some mirror. The advantage of doing that is that you get much faster download rates when using P2P networks for downloading the .iso image, this is especially true for a week since the release, since the mirrors literally crawl to a halt from all the traffic following the release.

Karmic Koala (Ubuntu 9.10): Header used during release

The listing of all the torrents for Ubuntu 9.10 codenamed Karmic Koala can be found at:

Karmic Koala (Ubuntu 9.10) : List of releases on bit torrent

If you come across some performance issues, you can always take your questions to Ubuntu Forums, where you can search if someone has already resolved that issue, and if not, post a query.

While 2.6.31-1 marks a bigger shift in kernel structure from 2.6.30-10, the older one seemed to have started working correctly after having brought about the first Green Screen of Death while booting with Ubuntu Linux. There were a few kernel upgrades to the older one which overcame the issues, I guess in grub.

Grub Options for 2.6.31-1

Ubuntu boots up until the stage where X starts

And then it drops to terminal

...with a screen pop-up showing failed X loading notification

Today’s upgrade to 2.6.31-1 was able to go past the grub stage and when the loading was complete, the display failed to load X. There was also some nvidia drivier update which might have destabilized the X, but apparently the X seems to be working correctly when I choose the older kernel at grub. So there must be some sort of a compatibility issue with the new nvidia update and the latest kernel.

This being the Alpha release, many packages are updated daily. It’s quite likely that a kernel patch would soon be out to make it play well with the nvidia driver. But so far, the easiest way to get X loaded is to boot using the older kernel, 2.6.30-10.

Just this morning, there were a bunch of updates listed in the update manager. Among the things that were in line for the upgrade was a brand new kernel, 2.6.30-10. The updating process itself went pretty well. Then when it was time to restart, I picked the newly updated kernel from the Grub expecting nothing unusual.

Booting options after updating to kernel 2.6.30-10

After selecting Kernel 2.6.30-10, all I got was a green screen and the computer refused to do anything past that point. The only alternative was to restart and boot with the 2.6.30-9 kernel which I am currently using to make this post.

Ubuntu Karmic Koala (Kernel 2.6.30-10): Green Screen Of Death

It not something one sees that often with Linux distros. I saw it today!

P.S.: The newer kernel 2.6.30-10 has been fixed. It boots and functions normally now.