How to Install TigerVNC Server on CentOS 8
Virtual Network Computing (VNC) allows you to remotely connect to and control a server using a graphical interface. In this tutorial, we will walk through the installation and configuration of TigerVNC Server on CentOS 8.
Installing a graphical desktop environment
At this stage, it is assumed to work under the root user.
By default, CentOS 8 does not have a graphical user interface, and it is required to connect to the server via VNC. So let’s install Gnome.
dnf groupinstall "Server with GUI"
Installing TigerVNC
Now let’s install the TigerVNC server.
dnf install tigervnc-server
To connect to the server via VNC, it is better not to use the root user, because it is not safe. In addition, some functions may not work correctly. Therefore, we will create a regular user for connection, set a password for it and add it to the wheel group. This will give him sudo authority.
adduser username
passwd username
usermod -aG wheel username
TigerVNC configuration
Now we need to assign each user an individual port for connection. To do this, open the file:
nano /etc/tigervnc/vncserver.users
Add the following line to the end. You can put as many users with ports there as you need. The last digit of the port is shown here. The first part will always be 590x. In this case, we will set port 5902 for the user username. The port for each user must be unique.
:2=username
Now open the default config file.
nano /etc/tigervnc/vncserver-config-defaults
Add the default configuration here:
session=gnome
Now you need to log in with the newly created user.
su - username
Set a password for this TigerVNC server user. If you choose a view-only password, you won’t be able to control your computer, only watch.
vncpasswd
Now start the TigerVNC service and add it to autostart.
sudo systemctl enable --now vncserver@:2
Remote Desktop Connection via VNC
Any VNC client application can be used to connect. Enter your server’s public IP address and port 5902 as the VNC server.
Enter your VNC password and you will see your server’s remote desktop.
To secure the connection — see How to Establish VNC Connection Over SSH tunnel in CentOS 8.