Logging in to the GUI from the shell

Linux and Unix-Like UNIX and Linux Applications
1

I have an Ubuntu 12.04 LTS server running GNOME shell,that I occassionly have to remotely access to perform some maintenance. I usually vpnc into the network and then simply use vncviewer to access the Gnome GUI desktop for testing,given that the account is logged in. The other day I had to reboot the server remotely and had forgotten that the system was not set to automatically login. Having issues trying to get the automatic login to work correctly, I had to call someone at the site to log me into the desktop. Is there a way that I can login in the GUI account from the cli remotely so I can continue with testing using the gui for that account? My display Manager is GDM not LightDM.

2

Does your VNC not let you see the login screen itself? Perhaps it can be configured to do so. Other than that I don't think it can be forced from the outside, as it were -- it's a local login screen, if it accepts input from non-local sources that's a severe bug.

3

thanks for the response.

No it will not allow me to view anything until the user is logged in. I enabled remote desktop sharing from with preferences of GNOME. I beleive it uses Vino under the hood:

ps -ef|grep -i vino 
testuser   2357  2227  0 Oct04 ?        00:00:01 /usr/lib/vino/vino-server --sm-disable

You have a good point in seeing if maybe vino can be configured to allow the user to see the login in screen at the GDM manager login. I will look into it a give some feedback soon. I do rememeber me using X2VNC before.

4

If you can log into the cli remotely you should be able to run the following from the command-line to start the Gnome desktop:

gnome-session

Unless this changed in Gnome 3 that should start the desktop.

5

If i use tightvncserver, ssh to the server then start it:

tightvncserver

and then connect with a client, i get the default gui (xfce in my case. I don't use a display manager, so i can't say anything about it).

I just ran into xvfb. It works if there is no remote gui running too. But as far i can see yet i can only connect as root (ssh to server, run "Xvfb" as root, that takes a while, and then exit ssh and connect from client).