At work I have an Ubuntu machine which is always up and running. Therefore I want to connect to it from everywhere. The idea is to have some sort of remote desktop / desktop sharing tool.
NoMachine stopped working for me a couple of years ago. And I admit I never tried the newest version since then.
xrdp does work, but I never got the keyboard mapping right.
Today I tried vncserver, and wondered why the installation description(s) let you create a separate user. Now I know:
I called vncserver with my regular account. Besides not being able to connect from the remote client, I was not able to login to the Ubuntu desktop natively any more! After a long despair time, and with the help of my colleagues (Ctrl-Alt-F1 for console login…), I found the root cause in the logs: My ~/.Xauthority file was owned by root, and my regular user had no rights to change it during login.
My advice to you is: create a separate user if you really feel you should try out vncserver.
So finally I gave X2Go a go, and this worked! The Windows client often crashes when you manage your sessions, but once all is set up it works as desired.
Please be aware: Your remote mileage may vary …
