ReconFab

I recently set off on an experiment to run Linux on my Nintendo Switch. At the time, the only releases available for Ubuntu 24.04 were KDE and Unity, due to a bug with the GNOME environment. I decided to go with the Unity desktop environment.

The Problem

After enabling the “Remote Sharing” feature in Ubuntu, I attempted to connect to the VNC server using TightVNC Viewer on Windows. Initially, I encountered an error that said “Error in TightVNC Viewer: No security types supported. Server sent security types, but we do not support any of these.”

I initially suspected misconfigured ports, so I ran netstat -lntu to verify that port 5900 (TCP) was open. A telnet switch 5900 test also returned a successful response, indicating the server was reachable.

The Solution

I stumbled upon this page, where I discovered that Vino (Ubuntu’s VNC server) enforces encryption by default, which many VNC viewers, including TightVNC, do not support. To resolve this, I disabled the encryption requirement using the dconf tool:

dconf write /org/gnome/desktop/remote-access/require-encryption false

Alternatively, you can use the dconf-editor GUI to toggle this setting. After applying this change, my VNC connection worked as expected.