Saturday, 14 October 2017

Workaround for "Error getting private key" error while starting realvnc on Linux

Recently we received a user complaint that they were unable to access a server through vncviewer.
When I checked I found that the service was not running and when I attempted to start the service I got the below message:

[root@pbox bin]# /etc/init.d/vncserver start
Starting VNC server: 1:vncuser xhost:  unable to open display ""
chmod: cannot access `/tmp/.Xauthority-vncuser': No such file or directory
VNC(R) Server 5.3.2 (r19179) x64 (Jun 6 2016 19:59:17)
Copyright (C) 2002-2016 RealVNC Ltd.
RealVNC and VNC are trademarks of RealVNC Ltd and are protected by trademark
registrations and/or pending trademark applications in the European Union,
United States of America and other jurisdictions.
Protected by UK patent 2481870; US patent 8760366.
See http://www.realvnc.com for information on VNC.
For third party acknowledgements see:
http://www.realvnc.com/products/vnc/documentation/5.3/acknowledgements.txt

Error getting private key from /var/home/vncuser/.vnc/private.key: End of stream
Underlying X server release 609000, The X.Org Foundation

error opening security policy file /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xserver/SecurityPolicy
Could not init font path element /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc/, removing from list!
Could not init font path element /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/TTF/, removing from list!
Could not init font path element /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Type1/, removing from list!
Could not init font path element /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/CID/, removing from list!
Could not init font path element /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/, removing from list!
Could not init font path element /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi/, removing from list!
FreeFontPath: FPE "/usr/share/vnc/fonts/" refcount is 2, should be 1; fixing.
2:vncuser xhost:  unable to open display ""
chmod: cannot access `/tmp/.Xauthority-vncuser': No such file or directory
VNC(R) Server 5.3.2 (r19179) x64 (Jun 6 2016 19:59:17)
Copyright (C) 2002-2016 RealVNC Ltd.
RealVNC and VNC are trademarks of RealVNC Ltd and are protected by trademark
registrations and/or pending trademark applications in the European Union,
United States of America and other jurisdictions.
Protected by UK patent 2481870; US patent 8760366.
See http://www.realvnc.com for information on VNC.
For third party acknowledgements see:
http://www.realvnc.com/products/vnc/documentation/5.3/acknowledgements.txt

Error getting private key from /var/home/vncuser/.vnc/private.key: End of stream
Underlying X server release 609000, The X.Org Foundation

error opening security policy file /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xserver/SecurityPolicy
Could not init font path element /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc/, removing from list!
Could not init font path element /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/TTF/, removing from list!
Could not init font path element /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Type1/, removing from list!
Could not init font path element /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/CID/, removing from list!
Could not init font path element /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/, removing from list!
Could not init font path element /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi/, removing from list!
FreeFontPath: FPE "/usr/share/vnc/fonts/" refcount is 2, should be 1; fixing.
                                                           [  OK  ]


I wasn't able to query the status of the service either:

[root@pbox init.d]# service vncserver status
Xvnc dead but subsys locked

This error pointed me to the /var/lock/subsys/Xvnc file which I removed and then restarted the service but it did not work.

If I attempted to stop the service then that also did not succeed in the first attempt.

[root@pbox ~]# service vncserver stop
Shutting down VNC server: 1:vncuser 2:vncuser              [FAILED]

Although it did work the second time I tried.

[root@pbox subsys]# service vncserver stop
Shutting down VNC server:                                  [  OK  ]



When I checked the /var/home/vncuser/.vnc/private.key I found it to be empty.

[root@pbox .vnc]# ls -l private.key
-rw------- 1 vncuser vncuser 0 Oct  5 04:12 private.key

I restarted the vnc service multiple times and even installed realvnc again but that did not work. According to the documentation I found on realvnc, the private key should've been regenerated after a restart of the service or created at least when I re-installed the software but that did not happen.

I finally ended up copying the private key from a server on which realvnc was already running and started the service on the problematic server and it finally worked.

[root@pbox ~]# service vncserver restart
Shutting down VNC server: 1:vncuser 2:vncuser              [  OK  ]
Starting VNC server: 1:vncuser xhost:  unable to open display ""
chmod: cannot access `/tmp/.Xauthority-vncuser': No such file or directory
VNC(R) Server 5.3.2 (r19179) x64 (Jun 6 2016 19:59:17)
Copyright (C) 2002-2016 RealVNC Ltd.
RealVNC and VNC are trademarks of RealVNC Ltd and are protected by trademark
registrations and/or pending trademark applications in the European Union,
United States of America and other jurisdictions.
Protected by UK patent 2481870; US patent 8760366.
See http://www.realvnc.com for information on VNC.
For third party acknowledgements see:
http://www.realvnc.com/products/vnc/documentation/5.3/acknowledgements.txt

If a desktop environment fails to load for this virtual desktop, please see:
 http://www.realvnc.com/doclink/kb-345?version=5.3.2.19179
Running applications in /var/home/vncuser/.vnc/xstartup

VNC Server catchphrase: "Member barcode connect. Desire college gong."
             signature: 88-c7-cb-1a-2c-9b-90-31

Log file is /var/home/vncuser/.vnc/pbox.dev.test.org:1.log
New desktop is pbox.dev.test.org:1 (10.22.217.69:1)
2:vncuser xhost:  unable to open display ""
chmod: cannot access `/tmp/.Xauthority-vncuser': No such file or directory
VNC(R) Server 5.3.2 (r19179) x64 (Jun 6 2016 19:59:17)
Copyright (C) 2002-2016 RealVNC Ltd.
RealVNC and VNC are trademarks of RealVNC Ltd and are protected by trademark
registrations and/or pending trademark applications in the European Union,
United States of America and other jurisdictions.
Protected by UK patent 2481870; US patent 8760366.
See http://www.realvnc.com for information on VNC.
For third party acknowledgements see:
http://www.realvnc.com/products/vnc/documentation/5.3/acknowledgements.txt

If a desktop environment fails to load for this virtual desktop, please see:
 http://www.realvnc.com/doclink/kb-345?version=5.3.2.19179
Running applications in /var/home/vncuser/.vnc/xstartup

VNC Server catchphrase: "Member barcode connect. Desire college gong."
             signature: 88-c7-cb-1a-2c-9b-90-31

Log file is /var/home/vncuser/.vnc/pbox.dev.test.org:2.log
New desktop is pbox.dev.test.org:2 (10.22.217.69:2)
                                                           [  OK  ]
[root@pbox ~]#
[root@pbox ~]#
[root@pbox ~]# ps -ef | grep [v]nc
vncuser   49576      1  0 02:05 ?        00:00:00 /usr/bin/Xvnc-core :1 -auth /var/home/vncuser/.Xauthority -pn -geometry 800x600 -nolisten tcp
root      49577  49576  0 02:05 ?        00:00:00 /usr/bin/Xvnc-realvnc -rootHelper 816219 4
vncuser   49608      1  0 02:05 ?        00:00:00 /bin/sh /etc/vnc/xstartup
vncuser   49630  49608  0 02:05 ?        00:00:00 xterm -geometry 80x24+10+10 -ls
vncuser   49632  49608  0 02:05 ?        00:00:00 twm
vncuser   49654  49630  0 02:05 pts/2    00:00:00 -bash
vncuser   49667      1  0 02:05 ?        00:00:00 /usr/bin/Xvnc-core :2 -auth /var/home/vncuser/.Xauthority -pn -geometry 1600x1200 -nolisten tcp
root      49671  49667  0 02:05 ?        00:00:00 /usr/bin/Xvnc-realvnc -rootHelper 816219 4
vncuser   49711      1  0 02:05 ?        00:00:00 /bin/sh /etc/vnc/xstartup
vncuser   49731  49711  0 02:05 ?        00:00:00 xterm -geometry 80x24+10+10 -ls
vncuser   49732  49711  0 02:05 ?        00:00:00 twm
vncuser   49734  49731  0 02:05 pts/3    00:00:00 -bash
vncuser   49753  49576  0 02:05 ?        00:00:00 /usr/bin/vncserverui virtual 13
vncuser   49799  49753  0 02:05 ?        00:00:00 /usr/bin/vncserverui -statusicon 5
vncuser   49800  49667  0 02:05 ?        00:00:00 /usr/bin/vncserverui virtual 13
vncuser   49822  49800  0 02:05 ?        00:00:00 /usr/bin/vncserverui -statusicon 5


This is definitely not ideal but a quick fix just to keep things going.

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