Hello everyone, I'm trying to build a brand new Pi4B/8Gb server today - and a process that has worked perfectly for me in the recent past [on both Pi5 and Pi4B/8Gb] is now broken, with multiple issues. I'd be incredibly grateful for anyone who can guide me through this mess to a working Pi4B with an operational X11/VNC remote control service.
For my client desktop I'm using Mint 21.3 "Virginia", running RealVNCViewer. In my RealVNCViewer client I have 7 other Pi machines [2 3Bs, 2 Pi 5s and 3 Pi 4Bs], running a mix of builds from Bullseye onwards, including at least 2 machines running Trixie [a Pi5 and a Pi4B].
Issues:-
1. Booting my 4B using a freshly-created microSD card - built via Imager and with a UserID set, with SSH enabled, I find that the system boots without either of those features configured and that I am forced to connect keyboard, mouse and monitor to actually get to the desktop.
2. I am unable to get RealVNC to work, when other Trixie hosts are using it just fine - and have done so "from the get-go". [ It looks as though there have been some configuration changes and/or upgrades on the back end and previously working features no longer work].
In terms of symptoms I get with X11 VNC connectivity... when I try to open an X11 session using the RealVNC Viewer on my desktop machine, I get a message in a pop-up window that reads, "The connection was refused by the computer".
1. wayvnc is enabled by default - but won't work with RealVNC.
However, if I then run:-
sudo systemctl stop wayvnc
sudo systemctl disable wayvnc
sudo systemctl enable vncserver-x11-serviced
sudo systemctl restart vncserver-x11-serviced
I get what looks like a working VNC service:-
$ sudo systemctl status vncserver-x11-serviced
● vncserver-x11-serviced.service - VNC Server in Service Mode daemon
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/vncserver-x11-serviced.service; enabled; preset: enabled)
Active: active (running) since Mon 2026-01-12 13:16:33 GMT; 11min ago
Invocation: 129f81b9a48d4f6f9c99db01a15f774c
Main PID: 1940 (vncserver-x11-s)
Tasks: 2 (limit: 8746)
CPU: 196ms
CGroup: /system.slice/vncserver-x11-serviced.service
├─1940 /usr/bin/vncserver-x11-serviced -fg
└─1942 /usr/bin/vncserver-x11-core -service
Jan 12 13:16:33 raspberrypi systemd[1]: Started vncserver-x11-serviced.service - VNC Server in Service Mode daemon.
Jan 12 13:16:33 raspberrypi vncserver-x11[1942]: ServerManager: Server started
Jan 12 13:16:33 raspberrypi vncserver-x11[1942]: ConsoleDisplay: Cannot find a running X server on vt7
$
If I then check my local network stack, to see what is happening, I see this:-
$ netstat -aon | grep 5900
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:5900 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN off (0.00/0/0)
tcp6 0 0 :::5900 :::* LISTEN off (0.00/0/0)
$
This looks to me as though the VNC service on my Pi is activating both IPv4 and IPv6 services, even though I have no IPv6 address configured and no active IPv6 services on the machine... Even though this doesn't look right, I get the same result on other Pi machines where I have working VNC access...
3. Once I get to the point where I have the vncserver-x11-serviced.service "up and running" [and with port 5900 being actively monitored], if I then perform the following:-
sudo raspi-config
and then take Option 3 (Interface Options) and I3 (VNC) and enable VNC, the moment I ask for it to be enabled, the RealVNC Viewer on my desktop PC crashes. After the crash, I see the following in my desktop's syslog file:
Jan 12 13:38:17 Fanless kernel: [ 1590.609733] vncviewer[3211]: segfault at d1 ip 00005735d08ea453 sp 00007ffe2b791d18 error 6 in vncviewer[5735d0800000+b99000] likely on CPU 9 (core 16, socket 0)
Jan 12 13:38:17 Fanless kernel: [ 1590.609764] Code: 52 48 8b 96 60 01 00 00 48 8d 14 ca 48 8b 0a 48 89 0f 48 8b 4a 10 48 89 4f 10 48 8d 4a 08 48 8b 72 10 48 89 4f 08 48 8d 4f 08 <48> 89 0e 48 89 4a 10 c3 90 0f 1f 40 00 41 54 55 48 63 f6 53 48 8d
I continue to search the web to look for a solution, but nothing I've tried [so far] has made a difference.
I'd be extremely grateful to anyone who can suggest a fix for this please. I'm happy to experiment and provide details of responses if anyone is able and willing to help me triage this.
Thanks in advance.
For my client desktop I'm using Mint 21.3 "Virginia", running RealVNCViewer. In my RealVNCViewer client I have 7 other Pi machines [2 3Bs, 2 Pi 5s and 3 Pi 4Bs], running a mix of builds from Bullseye onwards, including at least 2 machines running Trixie [a Pi5 and a Pi4B].
Issues:-
1. Booting my 4B using a freshly-created microSD card - built via Imager and with a UserID set, with SSH enabled, I find that the system boots without either of those features configured and that I am forced to connect keyboard, mouse and monitor to actually get to the desktop.
2. I am unable to get RealVNC to work, when other Trixie hosts are using it just fine - and have done so "from the get-go". [ It looks as though there have been some configuration changes and/or upgrades on the back end and previously working features no longer work].
In terms of symptoms I get with X11 VNC connectivity... when I try to open an X11 session using the RealVNC Viewer on my desktop machine, I get a message in a pop-up window that reads, "The connection was refused by the computer".
1. wayvnc is enabled by default - but won't work with RealVNC.
However, if I then run:-
sudo systemctl stop wayvnc
sudo systemctl disable wayvnc
sudo systemctl enable vncserver-x11-serviced
sudo systemctl restart vncserver-x11-serviced
I get what looks like a working VNC service:-
$ sudo systemctl status vncserver-x11-serviced
● vncserver-x11-serviced.service - VNC Server in Service Mode daemon
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/vncserver-x11-serviced.service; enabled; preset: enabled)
Active: active (running) since Mon 2026-01-12 13:16:33 GMT; 11min ago
Invocation: 129f81b9a48d4f6f9c99db01a15f774c
Main PID: 1940 (vncserver-x11-s)
Tasks: 2 (limit: 8746)
CPU: 196ms
CGroup: /system.slice/vncserver-x11-serviced.service
├─1940 /usr/bin/vncserver-x11-serviced -fg
└─1942 /usr/bin/vncserver-x11-core -service
Jan 12 13:16:33 raspberrypi systemd[1]: Started vncserver-x11-serviced.service - VNC Server in Service Mode daemon.
Jan 12 13:16:33 raspberrypi vncserver-x11[1942]: ServerManager: Server started
Jan 12 13:16:33 raspberrypi vncserver-x11[1942]: ConsoleDisplay: Cannot find a running X server on vt7
$
If I then check my local network stack, to see what is happening, I see this:-
$ netstat -aon | grep 5900
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:5900 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN off (0.00/0/0)
tcp6 0 0 :::5900 :::* LISTEN off (0.00/0/0)
$
This looks to me as though the VNC service on my Pi is activating both IPv4 and IPv6 services, even though I have no IPv6 address configured and no active IPv6 services on the machine... Even though this doesn't look right, I get the same result on other Pi machines where I have working VNC access...
3. Once I get to the point where I have the vncserver-x11-serviced.service "up and running" [and with port 5900 being actively monitored], if I then perform the following:-
sudo raspi-config
and then take Option 3 (Interface Options) and I3 (VNC) and enable VNC, the moment I ask for it to be enabled, the RealVNC Viewer on my desktop PC crashes. After the crash, I see the following in my desktop's syslog file:
Jan 12 13:38:17 Fanless kernel: [ 1590.609733] vncviewer[3211]: segfault at d1 ip 00005735d08ea453 sp 00007ffe2b791d18 error 6 in vncviewer[5735d0800000+b99000] likely on CPU 9 (core 16, socket 0)
Jan 12 13:38:17 Fanless kernel: [ 1590.609764] Code: 52 48 8b 96 60 01 00 00 48 8d 14 ca 48 8b 0a 48 89 0f 48 8b 4a 10 48 89 4f 10 48 8d 4a 08 48 8b 72 10 48 89 4f 08 48 8d 4f 08 <48> 89 0e 48 89 4a 10 c3 90 0f 1f 40 00 41 54 55 48 63 f6 53 48 8d
I continue to search the web to look for a solution, but nothing I've tried [so far] has made a difference.
I'd be extremely grateful to anyone who can suggest a fix for this please. I'm happy to experiment and provide details of responses if anyone is able and willing to help me triage this.
Thanks in advance.
Statistics: Posted by sproggit — Mon Jan 12, 2026 1:48 pm — Replies 6 — Views 129