TurboVNC Setup on Ubuntu 22.04: Run Xfce and Connect Over SSH

Setting up TurboVNC on Ubuntu 22.04 comes down to three steps: install xfce4 and turbovnc on the host, start a session from an SSH shell with /opt/TurboVNC/bin/vncserver :1 -wm xfce -localhost, and connect from the client with /opt/TurboVNC/bin/vncviewer -tunnel <user>@<host>:1. The session listens on 127.0.0.1:5901 and nowhere else, so SSH is the way in and the host firewall never has to open a VNC port.

The run below sticks to display :1, which is TCP 5901. Put in your own host and user, and if :1 is already taken on your host, use :2 and 5902 all the way through.

How the pieces fit together

On the host, /opt/TurboVNC/bin/vncserver starts Xvnc, which gives you a virtual X display with no monitor behind it, and puts its VNC listener on 5900 plus the display number: 5901 for :1. Once Xvnc is up, the wrapper runs xstartup.turbovnc, which launches whatever -wm names through its session desktop file, /usr/share/xsessions/xfce.desktop for Xfce. That script holds the session up. When it exits, say because you logged out of Xfce, the wrapper kills the session with it.

On the client, the TurboVNC Viewer brings its own SSH client. Give it -tunnel and it logs in to the host and forwards a free local port to localhost:5901, which is how a session started with -localhost still works from across the network.

You can drive this two ways. The Session Manager (vncviewer <user>@<host> with no display number) starts or lists your sessions over SSH, tunnels the connection and logs you in with a fresh one-time password. Use it for day-to-day desktop work. Start sessions by hand, as in the worked run, when you want the options in front of you on the command line or you're scripting the start.

Pick Xfce when the host has no GPU acceleration set up. GNOME and KDE composite through OpenGL, which TurboVNC can only render in software without VirtualGL or DRI3, so it recommends MATE or Xfce for a host like that. VirtualGL only comes into it for a compositing desktop such as GNOME on a host where VirtualGL is already installed. Then you add -vgl to the vncserver line, or set $useVGL=1; in /etc/turbovncserver.conf or ~/.vnc/turbovncserver.conf.

Prepare the host: SSH access and a desktop

You need an account you can SSH into with sudo, and a desktop for the session to run. Skip the desktop and the session has nothing to launch, so it dies the moment it starts. On Ubuntu 22.04 the tested Xfce build is 4.16, packaged as xfce4:

prepare the host: ssh access and a desktop

sudo apt install xfce4
ls /usr/share/xsessions/

Check that the listing includes xfce.desktop, the file -wm xfce points at. xfce4 gives you the bare desktop; if your users want the usual Xubuntu applications as well, sudo apt install xubuntu-desktop pulls in the full set.

Install TurboVNC from the project's APT repository

Go with the project's APT repository, so apt upgrade keeps TurboVNC current along with everything else. Add the signing key and the source list, then update and install:

install turbovnc from the project’s apt repository

wget -q -O- https://packagecloud.io/dcommander/turbovnc/gpgkey | gpg --dearmor | sudo tee /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/TurboVNC.gpg >/dev/null
sudo wget -q -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/TurboVNC.list https://raw.githubusercontent.com/TurboVNC/repo/main/TurboVNC.list
sudo apt update
apt-cache madison turbovnc
sudo apt install turbovnc

apt-cache madison should list a 3.3.1 build, the current release as of October 2026. If the host can't reach packagecloud, install the release .deb with dpkg -i and let apt install -f pull in the dependencies:

install turbovnc from the project’s apt repository

wget https://github.com/TurboVNC/turbovnc/releases/download/3.3.1/turbovnc_3.3.1_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i turbovnc_3.3.1_amd64.deb
sudo apt install -f

Either way, the programs land in /opt/TurboVNC/bin, which is how TurboVNC sits next to another VNC package without stepping on it. It's also the trap. Type a bare vncserver on a host that has TigerVNC too and you can start the wrong server, so call the binaries by full path.

Install the same package on a Linux client and you get /opt/TurboVNC/bin/vncviewer. On Mac and Windows, take the .dmg or .exe from the release.

Start the session and connect through SSH

SSH to the host and start the session from that shell. Keep :1 as the first argument. The wrapper only looks for the display number at the front of the line, so if you put it behind an Xvnc option such as -localhost, it isn't read as the display: the wrapper picks the next free one itself and hands your :1 to Xvnc as a stray argument.