How to setup Remote Desktop connection to Jetson Nano

Remote desktop with VNC

If you try to share your desktop from the Jetson Nano, the process fails; running Desktop Sharing fails with an error. This recipe shows you how to fix the issue, and connect remotely via VNCViewer. Having said that, we still prefer connecting via RDP (XRDP), which we find faster and more convenient.

To fix the issue, follow the steps below:

First, we will edit the org.gnome.Vino schema, as it has a missing parameter called enabled. Open the schema:

sudo nano /usr/share/glib-2.0/schemas/org.gnome.Vino.gschema.xml

Add the missing key (any location will do):

<key name='enabled' type='b'>
   <summary>Enable remote access to the desktop</summary>
   <description>
   If true, allows remote access to the desktop via the RFB
   protocol. Users on remote machines may then connect to the
   desktop using a VNC viewer.
   </description>
   <default>false</default>
</key>

Compile the new Gnome schema configuration:

sudo glib-compile-schemas /usr/share/glib-2.0/schemas

Update the Desktop Sharing settings. Your application should work now. Launch it from your Jetson Nano desktop.
- Enable Allow other users to view your desktop
- Enable the subsection Allow other users to control your desktop
- Turn off the feature You must confirm each access to this machine
- Setup the password in the section Require the user to enter this password
- Close the Desktop Sharing settings. You are done here

Setup the VNC server to autostart
- Open the Startup Application Preferences panel
- Add your VNC (Vino) entry: Add a name ('Vino'), a description (any text which makes sense to you) and the command: /usr/lib/vino/vino-server. Close the app

Disable encryption for the VNC server: unfortunately, at the time of this writing, we have to live without it. In the terminal, type the following:

gsettings set org.gnome.Vino require-encryption false
gsettings set org.gnome.Vino prompt-enabled false

reboot

after reboot, you can use any VNCViewer from your laptop to connect to the shared screen. Needless to say, the speed is what it is and if you can, use the previous, XRDP recipe.

Note: as we are crippling the security setup for remote connections via VNC, we have to be aware and enable the VNC feature (this whole section) only if needed.

Run network config to get IP of jetson machine, look under wlan0 or eth0 depending on if its using wifi or ethernet

ifconfig

Set default resolution to not be 640x480

sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Append:

Section "Screen"
	Identifier "Default Screen"
	Monitor "Configured Monitor"
	Device "Tegra0"
	SubSection "Display"
	Depth 24
	Virtual 1280 800 # Modify the resolution by editing these values
	EndSubSection
EndSection

restart

On Host machine

download and run RealVNC

https://www.realvnc.com/en/connect/download/viewer/macos/
- Alternatively, you can use TigetVNC https://tigervnc.org/

Connect to vnc://ip-of-jetson from the last step above

Configure picture quality to lowest settings to have better responsiveness

(Optional) Remote desktop with xrdp

This is useful for host machines running Windows

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-WMvmWVxJQ

Connecting from the browser

checkout https://github.com/novnc/noVNC locally

run ./utils/novnc_proxy --vnc 192.168.1.223:5900 --listen localhost:6081 where <192.168.1.223> is the IP of the jetson

open browser link that it suggests