Remote Ubuntu Desktop Environment using VNC Client

Remote Ubuntu Desktop Environment using VNC Client through SSH tunnel. In this tutorial , you will learn how to remote your Ubuntu Desktop Environment using VNC Client through SSH tunnel. This is a continuation of the earlier post about setting up Desktop Environment for Ubuntu 14.04

This tutorial uses Windows computer. As the continuation of this tutorial, we will use demo username to login remotely to our server.
Prerequisite:

• Putty software
• VNC Client software

Setup your putty connection

We need to create SSH connection on your local computer

1. On Putty under host name, type the server ip address or domain name
2. Under Saved Sessions, type the name of this connection (any name, its up to you)
3. On the left panel, you see Category. Go to Connection >> Data >> Auto-login username >> type your username (demo)
4. On Connection >> SSH >> Tunnels>> Enter the following details

A. Source Port: 5901
B. Destination: localhost:5901
C. Click Add button

After adding this setting, you should see this on the listbox:
L5901 localhost:5901
Don’t click Open button yet or you’ll loose your setting.

5. On Category >> Session. On the right, click Save button
6. Then click Open to start the connection connect.
7. Login to your server by typing your password

Remote your Ubuntu 14.04 Server

Open your VNC client software. On VNC server text box, type localhost:5901

Click Connect button and enter your VNC Password
If you see below image, Congratulation!!! You just connected to your server.

In the previous tutorial, we mentioned every time we restart the server we should run sudo service vncserver start. This may give you an option to run the service only when needed just to save memory.
But if you wish to run the service automatically run the following code on your server console:

sudo update-rc.d vncserver defaults