For my server running Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 I am trying to get a vncserver session running. I am running TigerVNC with version 1.13.1. If I don’t sign in on the physical desktop, the vnc works as expected. However, if I sign in before starting the vnc it will run for 2 seconds and then stop.

I configured the vnc with :1=admin in /etc/tigervnc/vncserver.users, then ran systemctl enable vncserver@:1.service. I also have the following in my /etc/gdm/custom.conf:

# GDM configuration storage

[daemon]
InitialSetupEnable=False
AutomaticLoginEnable=true
AutomaticLogin=admin
DefaultSession=gnome-classic.desktop
# Uncomment the line below to force the login screen to use Xorg
#WaylandEnable=false

[security]

[xdmcp]

[chooser]

[debug]
# Uncomment the line below to turn on debugging
#Enable=true

On boot, the physical desktop freezes on a black screen, but the vnc session appears over ssh connection. However, if I try to start a terminal inside of the vnc session, nothing happens. After restarting the vnc, it exits after a few seconds and the physical desktop successfully automatically logs in. I don’t understand enough of how gnome sessions share resources, but it seems theres a conflict. Trying to start the vnc session with the physical display running only returns the following messages:

May 17 19:49:02 generic systemd[1]: Starting Remote desktop service (VNC)...
May 17 19:49:02 generic systemd[1]: Started Remote desktop service (VNC).
May 17 19:49:02 generic systemd-logind[2243]: New session 17 of user admin.
May 17 19:49:02 generic systemd[1]: Started Session 17 of user admin.
May 17 19:49:04 generic systemd[1]: vncserver@:1.service: Succeeded.
May 17 19:49:04 generic systemd-logind[2243]: Session 17 logged out. Waiting for processes to exit.
May 17 19:49:12 generic systemd[1]: session-17.scope: Succeeded.
May 17 19:49:12 generic systemd-logind[2243]: Removed session 17.

and in the ~/.vnc/admin:1.log

Using desktop session gnome-classic

New 'generic:1 (admin)' desktop is generic:1

Starting desktop session gnome-classic


Xvnc TigerVNC 1.13.1 - built Apr 11 2023 08:41:50
Copyright (C) 1999-2022 TigerVNC Team and many others (see README.rst)
See https://www.tigervnc.org for information on TigerVNC.
Underlying X server release 12011000


Fri May 17 20:34:42 2024
 vncext:      VNC extension running!
 vncext:      Listening for VNC connections on all interface(s), port 5901
 vncext:      created VNC server for screen 0
xinit: XFree86_VT property unexpectedly has 0 items instead of 1
xinit: connection to X server lost
^M
waiting for X server to shut down
Fri May 17 20:34:44 2024
 ComparingUpdateTracker: 0 pixels in / 0 pixels out
 ComparingUpdateTracker: (1:-nan ratio)

Any ideas or other information I can provide to help debug this?