Setup VNC Server in Raspbian Jessie with Pixel

If you are a Raspberry Pi owner and are testing out the Raspbian Jessie operating system with the new PIXEL desktop environment then you’ll most likely want to setup VNC server in Raspbian Jessie with PIXEL.

Raspbian Jessie is based on Debian Linux and comes packed with many features that make it a great operating system for educational use, personal use, or even business use. It is also interesting to note that each different version of Debian are named after the characters from the “Toy Story” films.

SETUP VNC SERVER IN RASPBIAN JESSIE WITH PIXEL – CONFIGURATION

Raspbian Jessie with PIXEL, Kernel version 4.4, comes with features that make it simple to configure and setup VNC server in Raspbian Jessie with PIXEL. Older versions of Raspbian required the execution of “raspi-config” from the command line in order to access configuration options.

The new Raspbian configuration GUI has an abundance of features that can allow you to tweak performance, enable and disable interfaces, control boot options, enable SSH, and setup VNC server in Raspbian Jessie with PIXEL.

To setup VNC server in Raspbian Jessie with PIXEL, the first thing you need to do is click on the “Raspberry Pi Configuration” shortcut. You can find it by clicking on the “Raspberry” at the top left of the screen, then navigating to “Preferences“, then “Raspberry Pi Configuration“.

When you open up the configuration settings you will notice that there are four main tabs at the top including System, Interfaces, Performance, and Localisation.

If you navigate to the “Interfaces” tab you will see a number of different options available to enable or disable certain properties. In order to setup VNC server in Raspbian Jessie with PIXEL you will need to enable the “VNC” option. When you have it enabled you can click “OK“.

After you have VNC enabled in the Raspberry Pi Configuration you should notice that there is a VNC icon at the top right of the desktop next to the Bluetooth and WiFi icons.

If you click the VNC icon you should get a VNC Server window that displays information about your VNC connection. Take notice to the IP address that is displayed. That is the IP address you will use to connect to your Raspberry Pi remotely via VNC.

To connect to your Raspberry Pi through VNC you will need to download RealVNC. When you have RealVNC downloaded and installed on your computer you need to run it.

Then you need to type in the IP address that was displayed when you clicked on the VNC icon in Raspbian, followed by a colon (:), then the port number. The default port number for VNC is 5900 but Java-enabled web browsers use port 5800. Then click “Connect“.

You may first see a warning letting you know that your connection isn’t encrypted. By default VNC connections are not encrypted but you can secure your connection using SSH. Click “Continue” and then login with your user credentials. Default username is “pi” and default password is “raspberry“.