RealVNC server not connecting locally after update from 20.10 to 21.04

[Gilles Gravier]

Hi!

SOLVED - See below!

On 27/04/2021 13:55, Karl Auer wrote:
> On Tue, 2021-04-27 at 13:23 +0200, Gilles Gravier wrote:
>>> You need to find out why RealVNC is not providing
>>> local service.
>> Indeed. And why it was working before...
> How did you upgrade? Was it an in-place upgrade, or did you install the
> OS from scratch and then re-install RealVNC? I'm asking so that we can
> exclude (or deal with) the possibility that the server software
> changed.
>
> I am surprised that there is no logging related to this. If RealVNC
> tried to bind to port 5900, I would have expected to see some evidence
> of the attempt, positive or negative. Check out syslog as well, just in
> case there is backscatter.
>
> Some server software has a "foreground" or "debug" mode, where startup
> messages go to the console. Maybe see if RealVNC has such a thing, and
> run the server in a console to see what it's doing.
>
> Might be worth double checking the licensing too. And (since RealVNC,
> as far as I know, is a commercial product) you might try seeking help
> from the vendor.
>
> Regards, K.

So I had done a proper update from 20.10 when it prompted me to update.
Nothing fancy.

But... I asked VNC support forums. It seems that the free license only
allows CLOUD connections. Not direct connections. So I imagine that my
previous version had also vino running at startup... since I can't
install 2 VNC servers at the same time (when trying to install a second,
it prompts to remove the first).

But I added /usr/lib/vino/vino-server to my startup apps... and voila...
a VNC server listens locally on port 5900 in addition to RealVNC which
listens to cloud connections.

Pfff... That did work in the end. But not trivial. In particular vino
seemed to have been running but then disabled with update to 21.04... or
something. :)

So all is good now... Pfew!

Thanks all for the food for thought which prompted me to look at less
obvious things and finally find my solution.

Gilles