View Raspberry Pi Desktop from Ubuntu

In my quest to get sonic-pi to run on Linux, and also free up a port on my router, I’ve been trying to login to view Raspberry Pi Desktop from Ubuntu… as usual with any Linux endeavor, with limited success; but think that’s the attraction: a puzzle to solve, with a solution out there… I’ve just gotta find it 🙂

I had installed tightvncserver on the Raspberry Pi, and remmina on my Ubuntu box, but all I was getting was a black screen.
I’d accessed raspi-config and set the boot to GUI, but no luck. Seems like what I was missing was an actual GUI, lightdm wasn’t enough alone.

So with the help of 2 web sites I managed to get a view of my Raspberry Pi’s new shiny, although somewhat bare and basic, desktop.

Access your Raspberry Pi Terminal and Graphical Desktop remotely using SSH and VNC
href=”https://42bots.com/tutorials/access-raspberry-pi-terminal-and-desktop-remotely-with-ssh-and-vnc/

https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=66&t=133691

All this is working this is how I connect:

• • ssh onto Raspberry Pi from Ubuntu terminal

• from there in run tightvncserver
  • should receive message similar to: New 'X' desktop is raspberrypi:1
  • make mental note of number at end
• from Ubuntu open VNC viewer and configured connection (ip address 192.###.1.###:1) adding colon and noted number to end of usual Raspbery Pi ssh IP address
  • enter password created earlier, all should work fine
• when finished from Raspberry Pi run vncserver -kill :1 with number matching desktop created earlier

Second option to “VNC viewer” on Ubuntu is “Remmina Remote Desktop Client”
Add repository and install by running:
$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:remmina-ppa-team/remmina-next
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install remmina remmina-plugin-* libfreerdp-plugins-standard

Setup connection with VNC – VNC viewer protocol same as for “VNC viewer”

All I need to do now is add some software, sonic-pi included, then it’s still a question of if the sound will work over tightvncserver and remmina… if all else fails I can just plug in the HDMI and peripherals 🙂