I’ve been running Fedora on one of my laptops for a long time (5+ years) and each time as bugs popped up that prevented TigerVNC/vncserver from working, I removed whatever environment I had and installed another one that seemed to work with “dnf group install”, etc. First KDE, then to Xfce, then to a fairly minimal install of Gnome. I just upgraded to 43 and now even Gnome refuses to start. I think the system is sufficiently borked that it will be faster to start over with a fresh install.
Which of the various spins work with TigerVNC server? (Workstation, Plasma, Xfce, LXDE, etc) Also, X vs Wayland? (IIRC this all started when KDE moved to Wayland.) Are there better remote desktop servers than TigerVNC (that work?)
FWIW after removing gdm so I could see what is going on at X startup, I get the following errors when I run “startx”:
xauth: file /home/wsanders/.serverauth.2476 does not exist
X.Org`` X Server 1.21.1.18
X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0
Current Operating System: Linux elvostro 6.17.1-300.fc43.x86_64 #1 SMP PREEMPT_D
YNAMIC Mon Oct 6 15:37:21 UTC 2025 x86_64
Kernel command line: BOOT_IMAGE=(hd0,msdos1)/vmlinuz-6.17.1-300.fc43.x86_64 root
=/dev/mapper/fedora-root ro rd.lvm.lv=fedora/root rd.lvm.lv=fedora/swap rhgb acp
i_backlight=video quiet
Build ID: xorg-x11-server 21.1.18-2.fc43
Current version of pixman: 0.46.2
Before reporting problems, check ``http://wiki.x.org``
to make sure that you have the latest version.
Markers: (--) probed, (**) from config file, (==) default setting,
(++) from command line, (!!) notice, (II) informational,
(WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown.
(==) Log file: "/home/wsanders/.local/share/xorg/Xorg.0.log", Time: Fri Oct 10 1
5:55:14 2025
(==) Using config directory: "/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d"
(==) Using system config directory "/usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d"
The XKEYBOARD keymap compiler (xkbcomp) reports:
> Warning: Could not resolve keysym XF86OK
> Warning: Could not resolve keysym XF86GoTo
> Warning: Could not resolve keysym XF86VendorLogo
> Warning: Could not resolve keysym XF86MediaSelectProgramGuide
> Warning: Could not resolve keysym XF86MediaSelectProgramGuide
> Warning: Could not resolve keysym XF86MediaSelectHome
> Warning: Could not resolve keysym XF86MediaLanguageMenu
> Warning: Could not resolve keysym XF86MediaTitleMenu
> Warning: Could not resolve keysym XF86AudioChannelMode
> Warning: Could not resolve keysym XF86MediaSelectPC
> Warning: Could not resolve keysym XF86MediaSelectTV
> Warning: Could not resolve keysym XF86MediaSelectCable
> Warning: Could not resolve keysym XF86MediaSelectVCR
> Warning: Could not resolve keysym XF86MediaSelectVCRPlus
> Warning: Could not resolve keysym XF86MediaSelectSatellite
> Warning: Could not resolve keysym XF86MediaSelectCD
> Warning: Could not resolve keysym XF86MediaSelectTape
> Warning: Could not resolve keysym XF86MediaSelectRadio
> Warning: Could not resolve keysym XF86MediaSelectTuner
> Warning: Could not resolve keysym XF86MediaPlayer
> Warning: Could not resolve keysym XF86MediaSelectTeletext
> Warning: Could not resolve keysym XF86MediaSelectAuxiliary
> Warning: Could not resolve keysym XF86MediaPlaySlow
> Warning: Could not resolve keysym XF86NumberEntryMode
> Warning: Could not resolve keysym XF86RefreshRateToggle
> Warning: Could not resolve keysym XF86Accessibility
> Warning: Could not resolve keysym XF86DoNotDisturb
Errors from xkbcomp are not fatal to the X server
xinit: connection to X server lost
waiting for X server to shut down (II) Server terminated successfully (0). Closi
ng log file.
SOLUTION: Installed LXDE spin. Seems to work fine with TigerVNC server.