No windowmanager when using vnc?

[Rich Stanton]

I’m running debian stable on a headless system.  I’ve installed (among others) ‘vncserver.’  However when I run ‘vncserver –geometry 1024x768’ and connect to the display using the tightvnc viewer (on a windows client) I get a window with a mottled grey background and an ‘X’ shaped cursor, but nothing else.  I can move the cursor but neither mouse button seems to do anything – it’s almost as though X is running but has no windowmanager.  I created the file ‘xstartup’ in ~/.vnc and put the following into it:   #!/bin/sh wmaker   (windowmaker is installed) and changed the permissions to 755, however it made no difference – I still have this unusuable window when I connect to the vncserver.  Here is my vnc log: 07/05/04 09:24:54 Xvnc version 3.3.3r2+tight1.2.2 07/05/04 09:24:54 Copyright (C) AT&T Laboratories Cambridge. 07/05/04 09:24:54 All Rights Reserved. 07/05/04 09:24:54 See http://www.uk.research.att.com/vnc for information on VNC 07/05/04 09:24:54 Desktop name 'X' (debian:1) 07/05/04 09:24:54 Protocol version supported 3.3 07/05/04 09:24:54 Listening for VNC connections on TCP port 5901   07/05/04 09:25:13 Got connection from client 192.168.1.3 07/05/04 09:25:13 Protocol version 3.5 07/05/04 09:25:13 Ignoring minor version mismatch 07/05/04 09:25:15 Pixel format for client 192.168.1.3: 07/05/04 09:25:15   8 bpp, depth 8 07/05/04 09:25:15   true colour: max r 7 g 7 b 3, shift r 0 g 3 b 6 07/05/04 09:25:15   no translation needed 07/05/04 09:25:15 Using tight encoding for client 192.168.1.3 07/05/04 09:25:15 rfbProcessClientNormalMessage: ignoring unknown encoding 8 07/05/04 09:25:15 Using compression level 9 for client 192.168.1.3 07/05/04 09:25:15 Enabling X-style cursor updates for client 192.168.1.3 07/05/04 09:25:15 rfbProcessClientNormalMessage: ignoring unknown encoding -232 07/05/04 09:25:15 Using image quality level 0 for client 192.168.1.3 07/05/04 09:25:15 Enabling LastRect protocol extension for client 192.168.1.3 07/05/04 09:25:15 rfbProcessClientNormalMessage: ignoring unknown encoding -223 07/05/04 09:25:23 Client 192.168.1.3 gone 07/05/04 09:25:23 Statistics: 07/05/04 09:25:23   key events received 0, pointer events 278 07/05/04 09:25:23   framebuffer updates 1, rectangles 14, bytes 1007 07/05/04 09:25:23     LastRect markers 1, bytes 12 07/05/04 09:25:23     cursor shape updates 1, bytes 82 07/05/04 09:25:23     tight rectangles 12, bytes 913 07/05/04 09:25:23   raw bytes equivalent 786444, compression ratio 861.384447     I’m sure it’s something simple, but can anyone enlighten me?  Does the debian vncserver package not use xstartup or something?   Thanks!