Remote desktop

#What it provides

The remote desktop lets you use the server's graphical desktop straight from your browser. The desktop is XFCE; the picture comes from a TigerVNC server and is shown in the browser by the noVNC client that the panel serves. You don't need a separate VNC client or a new open port on the server: the connection travels over the panel's own address.

The desktop comes with a file manager (Thunar) and a terminal. The default browser is Google Chrome, which the component installs from Google's official repository after checking the signing key's fingerprint. If Chrome cannot be installed, the desktop is still installed and you only get a warning.

The page is under Server Admin → Remote Desktop and is open only to full server administrators. Resellers, hosting account users and limited administrator roles cannot use it.

#Edition and installation type

The remote desktop is a Pro feature. See Pricing for what each edition includes and Licensing for activating a license. The general limits of container installations are covered in Docker and Railway.

#Requirements

• Ubuntu 22.04, 24.04 or 26.04; Debian 12 or 13; AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux or RHEL 9. The EL 10 repositories ship neither a TigerVNC server nor XFCE, so the component cannot be installed there.
• systemd: every desktop session runs as a transient systemd unit.
• At least 2048 MB of total memory is recommended. Starting a session needs at least 768 MB free; a typical session uses about 450 MB.
• Installation needs roughly 400–700 MB of disk space and access to the package repositories. On EL systems the EPEL repository is enabled for XFCE.

When memory is short, installing and starting are refused. If you want to go ahead anyway, you confirm it explicitly with Install despite low memory or Start despite low memory on the page. For general server requirements see Requirements.

#Installing and removing

The component is not installed by default. Install it with Install the remote desktop on this page or from Server Admin → Components. The installation:

• installs the smallest XFCE package set and the TigerVNC server, without recommended packages;
• downloads a pinned version of the noVNC client files and verifies their SHA-256 checksum;
• creates the unprivileged bipanel-desktop system user with a locked password;
• starts no service and opens no port.

Removal closes open sessions and uninstalls only the packages the component itself installed (packages you already had, and a full XFCE desktop, are left alone). If the component installed Chrome, Chrome and its repository entry go too. The desktop user is deleted, while its home directory /var/lib/bipanel-desktop is kept as data.

#Starting and connecting

With Start session you pick the initial resolution (presets from 1280x720 to 2560x1440, or a custom value between 640x480 and 3840x2160) and your computer's keyboard layout (Turkish Q, Turkish F, English and other languages). Each administrator can have at most one session at a time; you return to yours with Connect. Up to 3 browser tabs can view the same desktop at once.

The viewer toolbar offers display scaling, quality, View only, Clipboard (text transfer in both directions), Ctrl+Alt+Del and Full screen. Closing the viewer does not end the session; End the session shuts the desktop down.

#Security model

• Re-authentication: you re-enter your panel password (plus your 2FA code if 2FA is on) every time you start a session, and when connecting if more than 5 minutes have passed since your last check.
• 2FA requirement: by default, an administrator without two-factor authentication cannot start or connect to a desktop. Turn 2FA on from the Password & Security page.
• Browser session only: it cannot be used with an API token or while signed in as someone else. The connection opens with a single-use ticket valid for 60 seconds and an Origin check. Each administrator can only connect to their own session.
• No open port: Xvnc listens only on a local Unix socket (only on 127.0.0.1 with versions that lack socket support); each session's random VNC password is stored encrypted.
• Unprivileged user: the session runs as bipanel-desktop, not root. sudo is off by default, and while it is off no process in the session can gain privileges.
• Resource limits: each session runs in a unit with memory and CPU limits and a lower priority than sites; under memory pressure the desktop is killed first.
• Logging: starts, connections, disconnections, terminations and settings changes are written to the Activity Log.

For the panel's general protections see Panel security.

#Settings

Values on the Settings tab apply to new sessions; you verify your identity again to save them.

The concurrent session limit applies to the whole server. If a session exceeds its memory limit, applications on the desktop are killed. With passwordless sudo on, applications on the desktop can gain root privileges, and all administrators get a warning notification when you save it. Turning off the 2FA requirement is not recommended.

#When sessions end

The panel checks open sessions every minute. A session is closed when its owner or another administrator ends it, when the idle timeout passes without keyboard or mouse input, when the maximum session length is reached, when its owner is no longer a full server administrator, or when the component is removed. Open viewers of an administrator who signs out of the panel are closed as well. This check keeps running even if the license drops back to Community, and an open session can still be ended in that case.

The History tab lists the last 30 sessions with their length, end reason, number of connections and data transferred; finished session records are kept for 90 days.

If you only need a command line, the lighter option is the browser terminal: Files, FTP and terminal.