RPi4B with Buster - VNC not working....

[Bosse_B]

I have installed and upgraded the Raspbian Buster on my new RPi4B 4GB box. It is all up to date.
The installation was done headless because I have no monitor for the RPi4, so I have access only vua PuTTY and want to use the desktop via VNC.

So in raspi-config I have enabled VNC too.

But when I try to connect using Real-VNC I get to a login screen where I enter my login credentials (pi and the changed pi password).
Then after a while there is a screen saying "Cannot currently show the desktop"..

What is the cause for this and what can I do to fix it?

[Bosse_B]

I have currently set my RPi4 to boot to the CLI rather than the GUI in raspi-config (B1).
Is this what is preventing the VNC connection showing the desktop?

I would have believed that the VNC desktop should be created when the user connects via VNC and not sitting there all the time with no user...

[pcmanbob]

If the GUI is not running then there is nothing for VNC to show that's why you are getting the "Cannot currently show the desktop" message ,

I believe you can set VNC to show a virtual desktop if the GUI is not running, but as I have never tried it I can't offer any set-up advice.

[klricks]

I have currently set my RPi4 to boot to the CLI rather than the GUI in raspi-config (B1).
Is this what is preventing the VNC connection showing the desktop?

I would have believed that the VNC desktop should be created when the user connects via VNC and not sitting there all the time with no user...

1 - With Buster you must set a specific screen resolution in sudo raspi-config (Not default monitor).
2 - If booting to the CLI then you can't use RealVNC in service mode. Use virtual mode instead.

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vncserver

Then connect with IP_address:1 as shown in the startup message.
(It is not necessary to enable VNC in raspi-config when using virtual mode).

[Bosse_B]

I changed the raspi-config boot option to boot into the GUI but require login.
I also modified the /etc/rc.local file by adding this at the end before exit:

#Start RealVNC in virtual mode with resolution 1400x900 px
vncserver -randr=1400x900

(I noted that this was present in my RPi3B unit where VNC works already.)

After a reboot I am now able to connect VNC!
Problem solved!

Notice that I am not able to run the RPi4 with a monitor since:
a) The PC monitor where I am now does not have HDMI
b) And I don't own a micro-HDMI cable anyway.

[Bosse_B]

I also modified the /etc/rc.local file by adding this at the end before exit:

#Start RealVNC in virtual mode with resolution 1400x900 px
vncserver -randr=1400x900

Unfortunately this was only half a solution....
The screen created by the rc.local command is inaccessible because it is owned by root and the pi login is not accepted.
So no vncserver command inside /etc/rc.local!!!

Instead I use cron to handle this, see below.
I need to adapt the VNC window to my actual PC desktop (1920x1080) such that the VNC window uses about 1400x900 pixels.
This way I can work decently inside the Pi for development and still have access easily to my Windows desktop.
For some reason this discussion wandered into my other RPi4 thread...
But I will recap the solution here:

1) Do not enable VNC in raspi-config! If already done then go back and change to NOT enabled.

2) From the PuTTY CLI logged in as pi edit the cron table:

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$ crontab -e

Put the following into it (set the screen geometry as you want):

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@reboot sleep 60 && /usr/bin/vncserver -randr=1400x900

This will start vncserver 60 seconds after reboot with the size of the virtual desktop set.
Reboot the RPi to check

3) In RealVNC you create a connection where the address is <hostname or IP address>:1
Like myrpi4machine:1

You should now be able to log in via VNC and see a desktop sized as per your wish in the crontab command.

[klricks]

I also modified the /etc/rc.local file by adding this at the end before exit:

#Start RealVNC in virtual mode with resolution 1400x900 px
vncserver -randr=1400x900

Unfortunately this was only half a solution....
The screen created by the rc.local command is inaccessible because it is owned by root and the pi login is not accepted.
So no vncserver command inside /etc/rc.local!!!
....
..

You can start vncserver as user pi from /etc/rc.local like this:

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sudo -u pi vncserver -randr=1400x900

[Bosse_B]

You can start vncserver as user pi from /etc/rc.local like this:

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sudo -u pi vncserver -randr=1400x900

Thanks,
I did not know that you could set the user when starting something from rc.local.
Now back to using this rather than cron and it works just fine!