tigervnc Installation Guide Installation Guide

tigervnc is a free and open-source VNC server. TigerVNC provides high-performance VNC implementation

Hardware Requirements:

CPU: 1 core minimum

RAM: 512MB minimum

Storage: 1GB for sessions

Network: VNC protocol

Operating System:

Linux: Any modern distribution (RHEL, Debian, Ubuntu, CentOS, Fedora, Arch, Alpine, openSUSE)

macOS: 10.14+ (Mojave or newer)

Windows: Windows Server 2016+ or Windows 10

FreeBSD: 11.0+

Network Requirements:

Port 5900 (default tigervnc port)

None

Dependencies:

See official documentation for specific requirements

System Access: root or sudo privileges required

This guide supports installation on:

RHEL 8/9 and derivatives (CentOS Stream, Rocky Linux, AlmaLinux)

Debian 11/12

Ubuntu 20.04/22.04/24.04 LTS

Arch Linux (rolling release)

Alpine Linux 3.18+

openSUSE Leap 15.5+ / Tumbleweed

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 15+

macOS 12+ (Monterey and later)

FreeBSD 13+

Windows 10/11/Server 2019+ (where applicable)

bash

# Install EPEL repository if needed
sudo dnf install -y epel-release

# Install tigervnc
sudo dnf install -y tigervnc

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now tigervnc

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=5900/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Verify installation
tigervnc --version

bash

# Update package index
sudo apt update

# Install tigervnc
sudo apt install -y tigervnc

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now tigervnc

# Configure firewall
sudo ufw allow 5900

# Verify installation
tigervnc --version

bash

# Install tigervnc
sudo pacman -S tigervnc

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now tigervnc

# Verify installation
tigervnc --version

bash

# Install tigervnc
apk add --no-cache tigervnc

# Enable and start service
rc-update add tigervnc default
rc-service tigervnc start

# Verify installation
tigervnc --version

bash

# Install tigervnc
sudo zypper install -y tigervnc

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now tigervnc

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=5900/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Verify installation
tigervnc --version

bash

# Using Homebrew
brew install tigervnc

# Start service
brew services start tigervnc

# Verify installation
tigervnc --version

bash

# Using pkg
pkg install tigervnc

# Enable in rc.conf
echo 'tigervnc_enable="YES"' >> /etc/rc.conf

# Start service
service tigervnc start

# Verify installation
tigervnc --version

bash

# Using Chocolatey
choco install tigervnc

# Or using Scoop
scoop install tigervnc

# Verify installation
tigervnc --version

bash

# Create configuration directory
sudo mkdir -p /etc/tigervnc

# Set up basic configuration
# See official documentation for detailed configuration options

# Test configuration
tigervnc --version

bash

# Enable service
sudo systemctl enable tigervnc

# Start service
sudo systemctl start tigervnc

# Stop service
sudo systemctl stop tigervnc

# Restart service
sudo systemctl restart tigervnc

# Check status
sudo systemctl status tigervnc

# View logs
sudo journalctl -u tigervnc -f

bash

# Enable service
rc-update add tigervnc default

# Start service
rc-service tigervnc start

# Stop service
rc-service tigervnc stop

# Restart service
rc-service tigervnc restart

# Check status
rc-service tigervnc status

bash

# Enable in /etc/rc.conf
echo 'tigervnc_enable="YES"' >> /etc/rc.conf

# Start service
service tigervnc start

# Stop service
service tigervnc stop

# Restart service
service tigervnc restart

# Check status
service tigervnc status

bash

# Using Homebrew services
brew services start tigervnc
brew services stop tigervnc
brew services restart tigervnc

# Check status
brew services list | grep tigervnc

powershell

# Start service
net start tigervnc

# Stop service
net stop tigervnc

# Using PowerShell
Start-Service tigervnc
Stop-Service tigervnc
Restart-Service tigervnc

# Check status
Get-Service tigervnc

See the official documentation for advanced configuration options.

nginx

upstream tigervnc_backend {
    server 127.0.0.1:5900;
}

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name tigervnc.example.com;
    return 301 https://$server_name$request_uri;
}

server {
    listen 443 ssl http2;
    server_name tigervnc.example.com;

    ssl_certificate /etc/ssl/certs/tigervnc.example.com.crt;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/ssl/private/tigervnc.example.com.key;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://tigervnc_backend;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
    }
}

apache

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName tigervnc.example.com
    Redirect permanent / https://tigervnc.example.com/
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:443>
    ServerName tigervnc.example.com
    
    SSLEngine on
    SSLCertificateFile /etc/ssl/certs/tigervnc.example.com.crt
    SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/ssl/private/tigervnc.example.com.key
    
    ProxyRequests Off
    ProxyPreserveHost On
    
    ProxyPass / http://127.0.0.1:5900/
    ProxyPassReverse / http://127.0.0.1:5900/
</VirtualHost>

haproxy

frontend tigervnc_frontend
    bind *:80
    bind *:443 ssl crt /etc/ssl/certs/tigervnc.pem
    redirect scheme https if !{ ssl_fc }
    default_backend tigervnc_backend

backend tigervnc_backend
    balance roundrobin
    server tigervnc1 127.0.0.1:5900 check

bash

# Set appropriate permissions
sudo chown -R tigervnc:tigervnc /etc/tigervnc
sudo chmod 750 /etc/tigervnc

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=5900/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Enable SELinux policies (if applicable)
sudo setsebool -P httpd_can_network_connect on

See official documentation for database configuration requirements.

bash

# Basic system tuning
echo 'net.core.somaxconn = 65535' | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf
echo 'net.ipv4.tcp_max_syn_backlog = 65535' | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf
sudo sysctl -p

bash

# Check service status
sudo systemctl status tigervnc

# View logs
sudo journalctl -u tigervnc -f

# Monitor resource usage
top -p $(pgrep tigervnc)

bash

#!/bin/bash
# Basic backup script
BACKUP_DIR="/backup/tigervnc"
DATE=$(date +%Y%m%d_%H%M%S)

mkdir -p "$BACKUP_DIR"
tar -czf "$BACKUP_DIR/tigervnc-backup-$DATE.tar.gz" /etc/tigervnc /var/lib/tigervnc

echo "Backup completed: $BACKUP_DIR/tigervnc-backup-$DATE.tar.gz"

bash

# Stop service
sudo systemctl stop tigervnc

# Restore from backup
tar -xzf /backup/tigervnc/tigervnc-backup-*.tar.gz -C /

# Start service
sudo systemctl start tigervnc

1. Service won't start:

bash

# Check logs
sudo journalctl -u tigervnc -n 100
sudo tail -f /var/log/tigervnc/tigervnc.log

# Check configuration
tigervnc --version

# Check permissions
ls -la /etc/tigervnc

2. Connection issues:

bash

# Check if service is listening
sudo ss -tlnp | grep 5900

# Test connectivity
telnet localhost 5900

# Check firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --list-all

3. Performance issues:

bash

# Check resource usage
top -p $(pgrep tigervnc)

# Check disk I/O
iotop -p $(pgrep tigervnc)

# Check connections
ss -an | grep 5900

yaml

version: '3.8'
services:
  tigervnc:
    image: tigervnc:latest
    ports:
      - "5900:5900"
    volumes:
      - ./config:/etc/tigervnc
      - ./data:/var/lib/tigervnc
    restart: unless-stopped

Maintenance

bash

# RHEL/CentOS/Rocky/AlmaLinux
sudo dnf update tigervnc

# Debian/Ubuntu
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade tigervnc

# Arch Linux
sudo pacman -Syu tigervnc

# Alpine Linux
apk update && apk upgrade tigervnc

# openSUSE
sudo zypper update tigervnc

# FreeBSD
pkg update && pkg upgrade tigervnc

# Always backup before updates
tar -czf /backup/tigervnc-pre-update-$(date +%Y%m%d).tar.gz /etc/tigervnc

# Restart after updates
sudo systemctl restart tigervnc

Regular Maintenance

bash

# Log rotation
sudo logrotate -f /etc/logrotate.d/tigervnc

# Clean old logs
find /var/log/tigervnc -name "*.log" -mtime +30 -delete

# Check disk usage
du -sh /var/lib/tigervnc

Official Documentation: https://docs.tigervnc.org/

GitHub Repository: https://github.com/tigervnc/tigervnc

Community Forum: https://forum.tigervnc.org/

Best Practices Guide: https://docs.tigervnc.org/best-practices

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Note: This guide is part of the HowToMgr collection. Always refer to official documentation for the most up-to-date information.

1. Prerequisites

2. Supported Operating Systems

3. Installation

RHEL/CentOS/Rocky Linux/AlmaLinux

Debian/Ubuntu

Arch Linux

Alpine Linux

openSUSE/SLES

macOS

FreeBSD

Windows

Initial Configuration

Basic Configuration

5. Service Management

systemd (RHEL, Debian, Ubuntu, Arch, openSUSE)

OpenRC (Alpine Linux)

rc.d (FreeBSD)

launchd (macOS)

Windows Service Manager

Advanced Configuration

Reverse Proxy Setup

nginx Configuration

Apache Configuration

HAProxy Configuration

Security Configuration

Basic Security Setup

Database Setup

Performance Optimization

System Tuning

Monitoring

Basic Monitoring

9. Backup and Restore

Backup Script

Restore Procedure

6. Troubleshooting

Common Issues

Integration Examples

Docker Compose Example

Maintenance

Update Procedures

Regular Maintenance

Additional Resources

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