NoMachine: Solve display issues on headless Linux machine

sudo systemctl stop display-manager
sudo systemctl disable display-manager
# sudo /etc/NX/nxserver --restart
sudo systemctl restart nxserver

See also

• Connecting to Linux headless machines with NoMachine

Install nomachine on Rocky Linux

wget https://download.nomachine.com/download/7.10/Linux/nomachine_7.10.1_1_x86_64.rpm
sudo rpm -ivh --nodigest --nofiledigest nomachine_7.8.2_1_x86_64.rpm

Install nomachine on remote headless virtual machine

• Install desktop system on the virtual machine

  sudo apt install ubuntu-desktop

• Install nomachine for linux
• The system display manager should be stop and disabled, otherwise, the remote desktop screen will be limited low resolution. Use the script below to do so:

  dm=$(basename "$(cat /etc/X11/default-display-manager)")
  sudo systemctl stop $dm
  sudo systemctl disable $dm
  sudo systemctl restart nxserver

nomachine on headless Ubuntu 18.04 virtual machine

sudo systemctl stop gdm
sudo systemctl disable gdm
sudo systemctl restart nxserver
sudo /usr/NX/bin/nxserver –restart

Setup Centos Linux VM and enable Nomachine remote desktop

1. Setup ssh access to the Linux VM:

   ssh ec2-user@centos_vm_2020

2. Create user account:

   sudo dnf install zsh
   sudo useradd -s /bin/zsh wxyz
   sudo usermod -a -G adm wxyz
   sudo usermod -a -G wheel wxyz
   

3. Enable ssh public key authentication (add public key to ~/.ssh/authorized.keys):

   sudo su wxyz
   mkdir ~/.ssh
   vim ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
   chmod 700 ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
   

4. Install GUI desktop:

   sudo dnf groupinstall Workstation
   

5. Install nomachine:

   cd /tmp
   wget https://download.nomachine.com/download/6.9/Linux/nomachine_6.9.2_1_x86_64.rpm
   sudo rpm -i /tmp/nomachine_6.9.2_1_x86_64.rpm
   

6. Reboot the VM:

   sudo systemctl set-default multi-user.target
   sudo systemctl isolate multi-user.target
   sudo reboot
   

7. Install gnome-tweaks:

   sudo dnf install gnome-tweaks
   

   and tweak the desktop environment on CentOS 8.
8. Enable Nomachine public key authentication (add public key to ~/.NX/config/authorized.crt):

   mkdir -p ~/.NX/config
   touch ~/.NX/config/authorized.crt
   chmod 700 ~/.NX/config/authorized.crt