The following window manager configurations have been tested either by us or by the TurboVNC community using the TurboVNC 2.1.2 X server. If you know of any issues that are not described here, please submit a bug report. If you have information about other WM configurations, please contact us.
O/S | Window Manager | How to Enable | Notes |
Debian 9.0 "Stretch" | MATE 1.16.x | export TVNC_WM=mate-session | Must enable MATE in the prescribed manner in order to avoid this issue |
Fedora 24 | GNOME 3.20.x | | Must enable 3D window manager support or use Mesa (10.0.5 known to work. Later versions encounter this issue)
See complete list of known GNOME 3 issues and workarounds here |
| KDE 5.7.x | export TVNC_WM=startkde | Must enable 3D window manager support with VirtualGL 2.5 or later (Mesa causes plasmashell to crash, for unknown reasons) |
| MATE 1.12.x | > sudo dnf group install mate-desktop-environment > export TVNC_WM=mate-session | No known issues |
Fedora 25 | GNOME 3.22.x | | Must enable 3D window manager support
See complete list of known GNOME 3 issues and workarounds here |
| MATE 1.18.x | > sudo dnf group install mate-desktop-environment > export TVNC_WM=mate-session | No known issues |
Fedora 26 | GNOME 3.24.x | | Must enable 3D window manager support
See complete list of known GNOME 3 issues and workarounds here |
| MATE 1.18.x | > sudo dnf group install mate-desktop-environment > export TVNC_WM=mate-session | No known issues |
FreeBSD 8.4 | GNOME 2.32.x | Install with FreeBSD Ports | No known issues |
FreeBSD 10.3 | MATE 1.12.x | Install with FreeBSD Ports
export TVNC_WM=mate-session | No known issues |
Kubuntu 16.04 | KDE Plasma 5.5.x | | Must enable 3D window manager support with VirtualGL 2.5 or later (Mesa causes plasmashell to crash, for unknown reasons) |
Linux Mint 17.2 | MATE 1.10.x | | No known issues |
Linux Mint 18 | KDE Plasma 5.6.x | | Must enable 3D window manager support with VirtualGL 2.5 or later (Mesa causes plasmashell to crash, for unknown reasons) |
OS X | TWM | Install XQuartz | No known issues |
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 (and equivalents) | GNOME 2.16.x | | No known issues |
| KDE 3.5.x | switchdesk kde (this also sets the default WM for local logins) or export TVNC_WM=startkde | No known issues |
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 (and equivalents) | GNOME 2.28.x | | Warnings in log about lack of GLX extension |
| KDE 4.3.x | export TVNC_WM=startkde | Warnings in log about lack of GLX extension |
| XFCE 4.8.x | Add the EPEL repository > sudo yum groupinstall Xfce > export TVNC_WM=xfce4-session | No known issues |
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 (and equivalents) | GNOME 3.14.x | | Must enable 3D window manager support or use Mesa (10.0.5 known to work. Later versions encounter this issue)
See complete list of known GNOME 3 issues and workarounds here |
| KDE 4.10.x | export TVNC_WM=startkde | No known issues |
| MATE 1.14.x | Add the EPEL repository > sudo yum groupinstall "MATE Desktop" > export TVNC_WM=mate-session | No known issues |
Solaris 10 | CDE 1.6.x | export TVNC_WM=/usr/dt/bin/Xsession | May need to add -extension Composite to the vncserver command line to disable the Composite extension. This is not necessary in order to run the window manager itself, but it may be necessary in order to work around issues with certain applications.
Desktop resizing does not work, due to a limitation in the window manager. |
| GNOME 2.6.x | | May need to add -extension Composite to the vncserver command line to disable the Composite extension. This is not necessary in order to run the window manager itself, but it may be necessary in order to work around issues with certain applications. |
Solaris 11 | GNOME 2.30.x | | No known issues |
SuSE Linux Enterprise 11 | GNOME 2.24.x | | No known issues |
| KDE 4.1.x | export TVNC_WM=startkde | No known issues |
SuSE Linux Enterprise 12 | GNOME 3.14.x | | Must enable 3D window manager support or use Mesa (10.0.5 known to work. Later versions encounter this issue)
See complete list of known GNOME 3 issues and workarounds here |
Ubuntu 10.04 LTS | GNOME 2.30.x | | No known issues |
Ubuntu 12.04 LTS | MATE 1.8.x | > sudo apt-add-repository ppa:ubuntu-mate-dev/ppa > sudo apt-add-repository ppa:ubuntu-mate-dev/precise-mate > sudo apt-get install ubuntu-mate-core ubuntu-mate-desktop TurboVNC will automatically launch MATE on Ubuntu systems, if it is installed | No known issues |
| Unity 2D 5.12.x/5.14.x | | No known issues |
Ubuntu 14.04 LTS | GNOME 3.8.x (fallback) | | No known issues |
| MATE 1.8.x | sudo apt-get install mate TurboVNC will automatically launch MATE on Ubuntu systems, if it is installed | No known issues |
| Unity 7.2.x | | Must enable 3D window manager support or use Mesa |
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS | GNOME 3.18.x (flashback-metacity) | | No known issues |
| MATE 1.12.x | sudo apt-get install mate TurboVNC will automatically launch MATE on Ubuntu systems, if it is installed | No known issues |
| Unity 7.4.x | | Must enable 3D window manager support or use Mesa
See complete list of known Unity 7.4 issues and workarounds here |
3D Window Manangers
Some recent window managers (GNOME 3 and Unity, in particular) require OpenGL in order to run, and other window managers may optionally require OpenGL in order to enable desktop effects. TurboVNC 2.0 and later includes an option that allows you to easily run these window managers in VirtualGL (VirtualGL 2.4 or later required.) To enable this feature, pass an argument of -3dwm
to /opt/TurboVNC/bin/vncserver
.
Persistent Screen Resolution
Many window managers provide an applet for specifying the screen resolution. This applet interacts with the X RANDR extension, and since that extension is fully supported in TurboVNC 2.0 and later, the built-in screen resolution applet in the window manager can be used to change the size of the TurboVNC desktop. However, it should be noted that, at least in the case of GNOME and KDE, setting the TurboVNC desktop size in this manner may cause the desktop size to persist when you launch a new TurboVNC session. This is because, when the screen resolution is changed using the screen resolution applet in GNOME and KDE, the applet stores the new value and attempts to set the screen resolution to that value the next time the window manager is launched (effectively circumventing the -geometry
argument to vncserver
.) Notes on the behavior of specific window managers are included below for reference:
O/S | Window Manager | Screen Resolution Set Using... | Screen Resolution Persistence | Persistent Resolution Stored In... | How to Clear Persistent Resolution |
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 (and equivalents) | GNOME 2.16.x | System-->Preferences-->Screen Resolution | Always | GConf /desktop/gnome/screen/default/0/resolution | gconftool-2 -u /desktop/gnome/screen/default/0/resolution |
| KDE 3.5.x | Control Center-->Peripherals-->Display | When "Apply settings on KDE startup" is checked in the "Display" applet prior to clicking "Apply" | N/A | Uncheck "Apply settings on KDE startup" in the Display applet, and click "Apply" |
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 (and equivalents) | GNOME 2.28.x | System-->Preferences-->Display | Always. GNOME 2.28.x seems to want to aggressively maintain the new resolution once it is set, and this can cause an infinite desktop resize loop if using the TurboVNC Viewer with automatic desktop resizing enabled, and if attempting to set the server's resolution to a size larger than the viewer can display. | ~/.config/monitors.xml , in a configuration node containing <output name="TurboVNC"> | Edit ~/.config/monitors.xml , removing the TurboVNC configuration node |
| KDE 4.3.x | System Settings-->Display | Only when krandrtray is configured to run at login or when the Display applet is relaunched. | ~/.kde/share/config/krandrrc , in a section named [Screen_*_Output_TurboVNC] | Edit ~/.kde/share/config/krandrrc , removing the TurboVNC section |
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 (and equivalents) | KDE 4.10.x | System Settings-->Display | Only when krandrtray is configured to run at login or when the Display applet is relaunched. | ~/.kde/share/apps/kscreen/{some_unique_id} (grep for "TurboVNC") | Remove the file under ~/.kde/share/apps/kscreen/ that corresponds to the TurboVNC output |
| MATE 1.14.x | System-->Preferences-->Display | Always. MATE seems to want to aggressively maintain the new resolution once it is set, and this can cause an infinite desktop resize loop if using the TurboVNC Viewer with automatic desktop resizing enabled, and if attempting to set the server's resolution to a size larger than the viewer can display. | ~/.config/monitors.xml , in a configuration node containing <output name="TurboVNC"> | Edit ~/.config/monitors.xml , removing the TurboVNC configuration node |