VNC problems on iplant atmosphere 09-04-2014d0926

2015-01-13

VNC problems seem to be fixed when vnc is restarted via ssh.
-example of ssh
--ssh username@ip_address
--ssh azim58@172.21.36.4:1
-https://pods.iplantcollaborative.org/wiki/display/atmman/Atmosphere+FAQs#AtmosphereFAQs-MyVNCconnectsbutdisplaysnodesktopORMyresumedinstance%27sVNCsessionusedtowork%28e.g.beforesuspending%29%2Cbutdoesnotworknow.WhatshouldIdo%3F
--The VNC seems very touchy.  However, one process that has worked a few times is to follow the instructions, close the command prompt, and then use the VNC program from the desktop to vnc to the ip address listed in atmosphere (not the one listed after typing the command prompt commands).
--copy of text from webpage
{
My VNC connects but displays no desktop OR My resumed instance's VNC session used to work (e.g. before suspending), but does not work now. What should I do?

We have seen some cases where the VNC session is not fully functional, although the VNC viewer and Web-based VNC connect properly. Also, when suspended instances are resumed, the instance's ip address may change causing the vnc server to fail; in this situation, the vnc server session will need to be restarted.
Workaround:

Kill all processes with "vnc" or "Xvnc". Type:
    ps aux|grep vnc|grep -v grep|awk '{print $2}'|xargs kill -9

Exit sudo to return to your user account. Type:
    exit

# Relaunch vncserver. Type:
    vncserver :1
    .
    (Optional) If you encounter errors about the existence of files, you might need to delete (i.e., rm) the following files and attempt to relaunch the vncserver:
        /tmp/.X1-lock
        /tmp/.X11-unix/X1
        # Attempt to reconnect to VNC; if the error still persists (sometimes it takes a couple of times), repeat the steps a few times. 
}

azim58wiki: