up vote 0 down vote favorite
share [g+] share [fb]

I've tried googling and store my research here.

I'm connecting my Windows 7 SP1 machine to an Amazon EC2 Ubuntu cloud server, Ubuntu 10.04 LTS. What I have done is

  1. Enabling Remote Desktop in Ubuntu (link1, link2)
  2. Connect to my server using 1) TightVNC and 2) RealVNC – I don't use uVNC since it contains viruses.

But all of those result in Connection failed. I'm giving up!

More Detail Ubuntu server to remote to: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (codename lucid)

My Windows: Windows 7 SP1

link|improve this question
67% accept rate
feedback

2 Answers

up vote 1 down vote

Although I am not familiar with EC2, you have to check a few things.

First of all, make sure that your Ubuntu installation has a desktop manager installed (Gnome/KDE/iceBox...)

Then, make sure that Amazon allows for remote access using VNC and that they haven't blocked the necessary ports. You can probably find this information in EC2's FAQ.

A connection failed may be because the remote desktop connection in ubuntu isn't configured correctly, either because of networking and blocked ports, or simply because VNC is unable to connect to the desktop manager and thus has no virtual screen to send to your machine.

This is a brief guide to installing a GUI on an Ubuntu Server:

Ubuntu Server GUI Install Guide

link|improve this answer
I'm new to Ubuntu. Please show me how to check desktop manager installed or not. – Nam G. VU Jul 27 '11 at 12:48
1  
Probably the easiest way is to connect using SSH or whatever interface you are using now, logging in and then typing in 'startx' (no quotes). If this returns an error by the likes of "command not found" or similar, you don't have a graphical user interface installed and will have to start working on that. You might want to check with Amazon about user conditions first. – akseli Jul 27 '11 at 12:49
I've startx and get the error Xauth: file /home/ubuntu/.Xauthority does not exist. What should I do next Akseli? – Nam G. VU Jul 29 '11 at 10:03
1  
What you need to do is install Gnome and X11. I've added a guide to my answer above. – akseli Aug 2 '11 at 9:48
1  
Yes, I'm pretty sure that you have to restart the server to get everything working correctly. Also remember to run the X11 configuration software, or modify the xorg.conf document according to instructions. – akseli Aug 4 '11 at 9:30
show 7 more comments
feedback
up vote 1 down vote

I installed Cygwin/X on my Windows 7 machine and I do X forwarding as follows. First open a Cygwin terminal and enter this command:

XWin :0 -clipboard -resize=randr

Then open a new Cygwin terminal instance and do:

DISPLAY=:0.0 ssh -c arcfour -fCY user@server gnome-session

This is assuming you have already installed gnome on the server of course.

link|improve this answer
feedback

Your Answer

 
or
required, but never shown
discard

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.