Problems setting up TigerVNC and firewall :-/

Question

I have a box running a fresh install of Fedora 15. I've installed TigerVNC server on it and client on my windows machine.

I've done this:

vi /etc/sysconfig/iptables
(added) -A INPUT -m state --state NET -m tcp -p tcp --dport 5900 -j ACCEPT
service iptables restart [OK]

then

vi /etc/sysconfig/vncservers
(added) VNCSERVER="1:UNAME"
VNCSERVERARGS[1]="-geometry 1024x768"

then i try to start the server:

service vncserver start [failed]
Job failed. See bla bla for details

(mentions some files i have no idea to find)

Could anyone please cook together a complete step by step and how a n00b could get remote desktop connection, terminal is so hard :D

-thanks!

iptables -nvL:

Chain INPUT (policy ACCEPT 0 packets, 0 bytes)
 pkts bytes target     prot opt in     out     source               destination
  173 12044 ACCEPT     all  --  *      *       0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0           state RELATED,ESTABLISHED
    0     0 ACCEPT     icmp --  *      *       0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0
    0     0 ACCEPT     all  --  lo     *       0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0
    0     0 ACCEPT     tcp  --  *      *       0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0           state NEW tcp dpt:22
 1518 85858 REJECT     all  --  *      *       0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0           reject-with icmp-host-prohibited
    0     0 ACCEPT     tcp  --  *      *       0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0           state NEW tcp dpt:5900

Chain FORWARD (policy ACCEPT 0 packets, 0 bytes)
 pkts bytes target     prot opt in     out     source               destination
    0     0 REJECT     all  --  *      *       0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0           reject-with icmp-host-prohibited

Chain OUTPUT (policy ACCEPT 1613 packets, 146K bytes)
 pkts bytes target     prot opt in     out     source               destination``

systemctl:

vncserver.service         loaded failed failed        LSB: start|stop|restart|try-restart|status|force-reload vncserver

Answer 1

The "1:user" tells the vnc server that the username user is map to display 1, so the port number to access this user via vnc is 5901.

Note: "By default, VNC uses ports numbered 5900 plus the display number. In this example, the display is 1, so the port number is 5901.

Answer 2

I think there are two problems. One problem is that your firewall rules are wrong. It doesn't explain the service vncserver start [failed] though, so you probably have another problem there. Do post the bla bla.

Look at the INPUT chain in the iptables rules: they're processed in order, so when you try to open a connection on port 5900, the kernel goes: hmm, not RELATED or ESTABLISHED, not icmp, not loopback, not to port 22, aha that REJECT rule matches, end of story. You need to add the rule for port 5900 before the REJECT rule (just after the existing rule for port 22).

That's assuming you do want to open the VNC port, which means that everything including your VNC password will be travelling in cleartext on your LAN. If that's a problem, you could tunnel VNC over SSH (I have no idea how do set it up on the Windows side).