The following window manager configurations have been tested either by us or by the TurboVNC community using TurboVNC 3.2.x or later. 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 | Prerequisites | -wm / $wm Value | Notes |
|---|
| Fedora 38-41 | GNOME 44.x-47.x | > sudo dnf group install gnome-desktop | | Run the window manager using VirtualGL or DRI3 to improve performance
See complete list of known GNOME 3+ issues and workarounds here |
| | GNOME 44.x-47.x (classic) | > sudo dnf install gnome-classic-session | 2d | See complete list of known GNOME 3+ issues and workarounds here |
| | MATE 1.26.x-1.28.x | > sudo dnf group install mate-desktop | mate | No known issues |
| | Xfce 4.18.x | > sudo dnf group install xfce-desktop | xfce | No known issues |
| FreeBSD 13.5, 14.2 | MATE 1.28.x | > sudo pkg install mate | mate | No known issues |
| | Xfce 4.20.x | > sudo pkg install xfce | xfce | No known issues |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 (and derivatives) | GNOME 3.28.x | > sudo yum groupinstall GNOME | | Run the window manager using VirtualGL or DRI3 to improve performance
See complete list of known GNOME 3+ issues and workarounds here |
| | GNOME 3.28.x (classic) | > sudo yum install gnome-classic-session | 2d | See complete list of known GNOME 3+ issues and workarounds here |
| | KDE 4.10.x | > sudo yum groupinstall KDE | 1-kde-plasma-standard | No known issues |
| | MATE 1.16.x | Add the EPEL repository
> sudo yum groupinstall MATE | mate | No known issues |
| | Xfce 4.12.x | Add the EPEL repository
> sudo yum groupinstall Xfce | xfce | No known issues |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 (and derivatives) | GNOME 3.32.x | > sudo dnf group install gnome-desktop | | Run the window manager using VirtualGL or DRI3 to improve performance
See complete list of known GNOME 3+ issues and workarounds here |
| | GNOME 3.32.x (classic) | > sudo dnf install gnome-classic-session | 2d | See complete list of known GNOME 3+ issues and workarounds here |
| | Xfce 4.16.x | Add the EPEL repository
> sudo dnf group install Xfce | xfce | No known issues |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 (and derivatives) | GNOME 40.x | > sudo dnf group install gnome-desktop | | Run the window manager using VirtualGL or DRI3 to improve performance
See complete list of known GNOME 3+ issues and workarounds here |
| | GNOME 40.x (classic) | > sudo dnf install gnome-classic-session | 2d | See complete list of known GNOME 3+ issues and workarounds here |
| | Xfce 4.16.x | Add the EPEL repository
> sudo dnf group install Xfce | xfce | No known issues |
| SuSE Linux Enterprise 15 (and equivalents) | GNOME 45.x | > sudo zypper in -t pattern gnome_basic gnome gnome_x11 | | Run the window manager using VirtualGL or DRI3 to improve performance
See complete list of known GNOME 3+ issues and workarounds here |
| | GNOME 45.x (classic) | > sudo zypper install gnome-shell-classic | 2d | See complete list of known GNOME 3+ issues and workarounds here |
| | KDE Plasma 5.27.x | > sudo zypper install -t pattern kde kde_plasma | plasma5 | Run the window manager using VirtualGL or DRI3 to improve performance
Windows are blank when running the window manager using VirtualGL's EGL back end |
| | MATE 1.26.x | > sudo zypper -n in patterns-mate-mate | mate | No known issues |
| | Xfce 4.20.x | > sudo zypper install -t pattern xfce | xfce | No known issues |
| Ubuntu 20.04 LTS | GNOME 3.36.x | > sudo apt install ubuntu-desktop | | Run the window manager using VirtualGL or DRI3 to improve performance
See complete list of known GNOME 3+ issues and workarounds here |
| | MATE 1.24.x | > sudo apt install ubuntu-mate-desktop | mate | No known issues |
| | Xfce 4.14.x | > sudo apt install xfce4
NOTE: This installs the basic window manager. Use sudo apt install xubuntu-desktop to install the complete Ubuntu Xfce desktop environment. | xfce | No known issues |
| Ubuntu 22.04 LTS | GNOME 42.x | > sudo apt install ubuntu-desktop | | Run the window manager using VirtualGL or DRI3 to improve performance
See complete list of known GNOME 3+ issues and workarounds here |
| | MATE 1.26.x | > sudo apt install ubuntu-mate-desktop | mate | No known issues |
| | Xfce 4.16.x | > sudo apt install xfce4
NOTE: This installs the basic window manager. Use sudo apt install xubuntu-desktop to install the complete Ubuntu Xfce desktop environment. | xfce | No known issues |
| Ubuntu 24.04 LTS | GNOME 46.x | > sudo apt install ubuntu-desktop | | Run the window manager using VirtualGL or DRI3 to improve performance
See complete list of known GNOME 3+ issues and workarounds here |
| | MATE 1.26.x | > sudo apt install ubuntu-mate-desktop | mate | No known issues |
| | Xfce 4.18.x | > sudo apt install xfce4
NOTE: This installs the basic window manager. Use sudo apt install xubuntu-desktop to install the complete Ubuntu Xfce desktop environment. | xfce | No known issues |
Some modern window managers (GNOME 3+ and later, in particular) require OpenGL, and other window managers may optionally require OpenGL in order to enable desktop effects. The TurboVNC Server includes a software OpenGL implementation that can be used to run these window managers, but the performance will not be stellar. You can improve the performance of compositing window managers by running them using VirtualGL (VirtualGL 2.4 or later required) or DRI3 (open source GPU driver required.) To run the window manager using VirtualGL, pass -vgl to /opt/TurboVNC/bin/vncserver or set $useVGL=1; in /etc/turbovncserver.conf or ~/.vnc/turbovncserver.conf. To run the window manager using DRI3, pass -drinode path-to-DRM-render-node to /opt/TurboVNC/bin/vncserver or add the same arguments to the value of the $serverArgs variable in /etc/turbovncserver.conf or ~/.vnc/turbovncserver.conf. If neither VirtualGL nor DRI3 will be used, then it is recommended that a non-compositing ("2D") window manager, such as MATE or Xfce, be used.
