Ubuntu Desktop Stuck. Help Needed!

shajeeafzal

Hey Guys,

I need your help. I have installed Ubuntu Desktop (v24) on a VPS. It started perfectly on VNC and I even enabled RDP to access it via my windows PC and it was working perfectly on RDP too. There was a little lag but the desktop environment was very usable.

But once I ran apt update and apt upgrade command, installed vscode, brave browser, vlc etc (all basic apps) and restarted the VPS, it is now getting stuck on desktop screen. Top half of the screen remains black while lower half shows my wallpaper. Cursor is aslo frozen however I can still access terminal via ALT + F4.

I have tried everything that google suggested:

1. Hard restarted my VPS.
2. Tried recovery mode.
3. Reinstalled lightdm
4. Reinstallled gdm3

Everything leads to the same result i.e. frozen desktop. I am now unable to connect via RDP. Only VNC console is working.

I am a linux newbie and would really appreciate the help. I feel stuck. The VPS provider doesn't have a console where I can attach/deattach my own ISO, so I would have to open a support ticket for them to load Ubuntu ISO in order to reinstall it. I am trying to avoid this as its an unmanaged server and I dont want to give them pain.

P.S. I changed the resolution to 1920x1080 when the desktop was working fine, could that be the reason? How do I revert it?

VPS specs:
Ryzen 7900 (4 cores - shared)
8 GB RAM.

Screenshot:

Kevinf100

Have you tried to reinstall XRDP or to uninstall XRDP and compile it yourself?
https://github.com/neutrinolabs/xrdp
Also try the Windows store version of rdp. In my experience it has more but also less features. https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9wzdncrfj3ps?hl=en-US&gl=US

ascicode

Often the setup is faulty by itself or the desktop environment has bugs from graphical side.

suut

This is why I finally chose Windows RDP.

egoror

What does

systemctl status

say?

P.S. Worst case just reinstall OS and try again from a clean slate.

yoursunny

We don't recommend installing Ubuntu Desktop on any machine.
Instead, start with Ubuntu Server, on both servers and laptops.
Then, use tasksel command to add a desktop environment.

We recommend MATE desktop environment, which has lower resource usage compare to the default GNOME.

For Visual Studio Code specifically, it's very heavy software.
You can install it on the local laptop, and use Remote-SSH plugin to connect to a development environment on the server.
This way, graphics are local while compilations are on the server, which leads to a more responsive experience.

dev_vps

@yoursunny said:

For Visual Studio Code specifically, it's very heavy software.
You can install it on the local laptop, and use Remote-SSH plugin to connect to a development environment on the server.
This way, graphics are local while compilations are on the server, which leads to a more responsive experience.

+1 for this.

The other option is ... use Windows Server OS and use VS Code on your VPS directly

Windows Server OS is far more resource optimized than Linux desktop.

Carlin0

Adding external repositories often creates issues

plumberg

I setup code-server a vs code alternative on an idler, headless.

Accessible anywhere from a browser amd works almost similarly as vscode.

No need to setup any ssh tunnels.

dev_vps

@plumberg said:
I setup code-server a vs code alternative on an idler, headless.

Accessible anywhere from a browser amd works almost similarly as vscode.

No need to setup any ssh tunnels.

This is pretty cool. Thanks so much.

plumberg

@dev_vps said:

@plumberg said:
I setup code-server a vs code alternative on an idler, headless.

Accessible anywhere from a browser amd works almost similarly as vscode.

No need to setup any ssh tunnels.

This is pretty cool. Thanks so much.

Glad I could help. I like to keep my hands dirty with practicing some code. Having this gives me the flexibility I need to have a dev instance accessible when setup on a decent host.

I have access to most plugins and extensions which are available in the official Microsoft marketplace.

So far it does wonders, plus it has great community support...

You should give it a try.

Oh they also have workspaces (coder) which can be used with teams. A complete open source suite for setting up different workspaces (I hope to set that soon).

itachikonoha

Vscode on server?

I prefer github, gitlab or even gitea.

I can never risk coding on server directly.

egoror

@plumberg said:
No need to setup any ssh tunnels.

You better do, because it's only password-protected if you don't. Keep in mind your vps can be fully controlled via code-server's Terminal.

plumberg

@egoror said:

@plumberg said:
No need to setup any ssh tunnels.

You better do, because it's only password-protected if you don't. Keep in mind your vps can be fully controlled via code-server's Terminal.

Yeah. Strong enough password and a reverse proxy does good for me atm.

artxs

@yoursunny said:

For Visual Studio Code specifically, it's very heavy software.
You can install it on the local laptop, and use Remote-SSH plugin to connect to a development environment on the server.
This way, graphics are local while compilations are on the server, which leads to a more responsive experience.

Funny I went the other way. I installed vs code server on a dedi and access it from my $200 winbook and even my $99 chromebook.

loay

@shajeeafzal said: But once I ran apt update and apt upgrade command, installed vscode, brave browser, vlc etc (all basic apps) and restarted the VPS, it is now getting stuck on desktop screen. Top half of the screen remains black while lower half shows my wallpaper. Cursor is aslo frozen however I can still access terminal via ALT + F4.

Try using Kasm and KasmVNC/RDP for connection, it is very smooth and works better than other rdp/vnc clients.