Thank you! Now *that* advice actually worked.

Mind you, I had to do the ubuntu install twice and it went quite differently the second (successful) time. Getting the systemd service file to work took a few attempts as well; for some reason it doesn't like to do 1920x1080 in a service file but is ok with a commandline... weird.


For some reason I didn't get offered an option for the 'package tasks' either.

All in all the experience has been a reminder of how important a clean, intelligible, correct(!), download and start/configure process is and how incredibly frustrating it is to have dozens of not-actually-functional 'tutorials' online.

> On 2020-06-01, at 3:09 PM, Paul DeBruicker <pdebruic at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> How anyone would find this out from their website I've no idea but there are
> two different official  "server" install iso's for Ubuntu 18.04.4.  The one
> that I think is easier to use is the "ubuntu-18.04.4-server-amd64.iso" one &
> not the "ubuntu-18.04.4-live-server-amd64.iso" The live one lets you test
> out the desktop environment without installing.  The non-live one just dumps
> you into the debian installer (but installs ubuntu).
> 
> You can get the non-live server iso here:
> http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/releases/18.04/release/
> 
> The installer documentation is here:
> https://help.ubuntu.com/18.04/serverguide/installing-from-cd.html
> 
> Step 15 in the directions lets you pick "package tasks" (see
> https://help.ubuntu.com/18.04/serverguide/installing-from-cd.html#install-tasks) 
> You want Open SSH server and I think there is one for "Basic Ubuntu Server"
> that you also want. But I'm not sure whats included in that.   You can also
> choose the "manually select packages" option and install whatever VNC
> packages
> (https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-install-and-configure-vnc-on-ubuntu-18-04) 
> you need at that time or after you login/ssh in.  
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> timrowledge wrote
>> This is well off-topic but I'm pretty sure somebody here will have done
>> this, so -
>> 
>> I have a  second hand lenovo i7 box that I need to install ubuntu 18.04 on
>> and configure to use headless via vnc and ssh. It needs to be 18.04 in
>> order to maintain compatibility with a work related server. It needs to be
>> headless so I can stick in my server room and vnc to it from my iMac like
>> i do with all the other machines.
>> 
>> Now I really thought this should be simple but it turns out to be a pain.
>> I installed the desktop version and started reading about how to configure
>> it. Supposedly you can turn on vnc from the settings tool but that didn't
>> work and it appears a few gazillion other people found the same. I tried
>> recipes from several other sources that didn't work.
>> 
>> I thought I'd try the server install instead - surely that  would at least
>> have ssh set up? Nope. More reading of web article claiming "it's easy!"
>> only to find that things refuse connections, display blank vnc windows,
>> take several minutes to boot, lock up the commandline when telling a
>> systemd servce to start... lots of 'fun'.
>> 
>> Advice other than "install 
>> <other OS>
>> " welcome for reasons mentioned above. Thank goodness it was never this
>> annoying to get Pi's working in this manner!
>> 
>> In the good news side, the 'work related' thing is converting a VW system
>> to Squeak, so maybe this isn't as off- topic as might be thought.
>> 
>> tim
>> --
>> tim Rowledge; 
> 
>> tim@
> 
>> ; http://www.rowledge.org/tim
>> Useful random insult:- Looks for the "Any" key.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> --
> Sent from: http://forum.world.st/Squeak-Dev-f45488.html
> 
> 


tim
--
tim Rowledge; tim at rowledge.org; http://www.rowledge.org/tim
For every action, there is an equal and opposite criticism.