On 11/10/2026 21:29, Knute Johnson wrote:
If you want to run RealVNC server on your Pi and access it from theAh, I didn't know it was possible to change from Wayland to X11. I'll investigate.
internet you need to set your Pi to use X11 not Wayland.ÿ Do that in
raspi-config.ÿ You can get a free account from RealVNC for up to 3
servers for personal use.ÿ It works great.ÿ I have 3 Pis running RealVNC
server and accessing them from the internet.ÿ You can even get an
Android RealVNC viewer, it works great too.
Does changing from Wayland to X11 "break" anything that I might want to
run on the Pi? Did older versions of Raspian (the versions avilable when
the Pi 3 was sold) use X11?
I think I've got a spare RealVNC account, in addition to the two that I
use for accessing my desktop and laptop Windows PCs. It's a shame that
they reduced the "Lite" limit from five to three...
Annoyingly, three of the applications (*) that I use on the Pi on the PC only have HTTP interfaces (on different ports) so I either have to use port-forwarding to access from the internet or else RealVNC to the Pi
(on X11!) and then start a browser on there to access the apps from the LAN.
(*) TVHeadend video recorder; Cumulus weather station software; an app
for monitoring electricity usage over time on Kasa smart-plugs, to check that our deep freezers are working OK (look for any anomalous usage...)
If you want to run RealVNC server on your Pi and access it from theAh, I didn't know it was possible to change from Wayland to X11. I'll investigate.
internet you need to set your Pi to use X11 not Wayland.ÿ Do that in raspi-config.ÿ You can get a free account from RealVNC for up to 3
servers for personal use.ÿ It works great.ÿ I have 3 Pis running RealVNC server and accessing them from the internet.ÿ You can even get an
Android RealVNC viewer, it works great too.
I know that at one time newer versions of Raspian (eg Bookworm) wouldn't
run RealNVC server because of a problem with Wayland.
Has that situation been resolved yet? Is there a version of RealVNC
server that will work with Debian Bookworm to allow cloud-based
connections from outside my LAN?
I've got RealVNC client (eg on Windows or Android) to connect to my Pi
by Direct connection, but that doesn't help with accessing from the WAN
(eg if my phone or laptop is connected to a different internet
connection when I'm away from home).
The workaround is to use Port Forwarding on my router, to forward <WAN-IP>:<port> to <Pi-LAN-IP>:5900 so an external connection looks like
an internal LAN connection.
However I've got a new internet connection and the company (by default)
uses CGNAT which means that port-forwarding doesn't work.
I may be able to get a static IP address from my internet company which presumably means there is no CGNAT (or at least, no double-NAT) so I can access ports on the WAN address from the outside world and use port- forwarding to pass on traffic to the Pi on the LAN.
But if that is not possible, I'll need a RealVNC solution that uses a cloud-based connection (as for RealVNC server on Windows) - hence my
initial question.
On 10/11/26 14:21, NY wrote:
Or look at the RaspberryPi scheme that I don't know anything about.
On 11/10/2026 22:20, NY wrote:However...
Does changing from Wayland to X11 "break" anything that I might want
to run on the Pi? Did older versions of Raspian (the versions avilable
when the Pi 3 was sold) use X11?
It's Wayland that breaks things due to its permanently unfinished state
and features the developers just wont implement.
X11 is what Raspbian used to be shipped with. You will have no problems
with it.
If you want to run RealVNC server on your Pi and access it from the
internet you need to set your Pi to use X11 not Wayland. Do that in raspi-config. You can get a free account from RealVNC for up to 3 servers for personal use. It works great. I have 3 Pis running RealVNC server
and accessing them from the internet.
On 10/12/26 04:20, NY wrote:
"Knute Johnson" <groups@585ranch.com> wrote in message
news:11agrjv$3012t$1@dont-email.me...
If you want to run RealVNC server on your Pi and access it from the
internet you need to set your Pi to use X11 not Wayland.ÿ Do that in
raspi-config.ÿ You can get a free account from RealVNC for up to 3
servers for personal use.ÿ It works great.ÿ I have 3 Pis running
RealVNC server and accessing them from the internet.
Can I check what I need to do to switch between Wayland and X11,
because I get a blank screen when I do so...
sudo raspi-config
Advanced Options
Wayland
Openbox with X11 (as opposed to Labwc with Wayland, as it was before)
reboot
RealVNC (direct TCP connection) gives a blank window, and the output
on HDMI1 is also a black screen,
Fortunately I'd enabled SSH, so I was able to connect using PuTTY and
run raspi-config to change back to Wayland
I have one Pi5 that is running Bookworm and Wayland.ÿ I can access it
with RealVNC viewer.ÿ It sometimes gives me a gray screen (not black)
and other times I get the login screen if nobody is logged in.ÿ There
are two users on that computer and I can log in as either but only one
at a time and it is the running desktop that I can get to.ÿ I'm not sure
how it works if you connect the RealVNC viewer with one user and then
login to the computer with another but it seems to work most of the time.
FYI - I just tried to change that Pi5 to X11 and I can't get into it
with the RealVNC viewer.ÿ It may have something to do with nobody being logged in.ÿ It's not convenient to run back and forth to the computers
as they are 100 yards apart in different buildings.
I've got 4 Pis running X11 with no problems.ÿ Anytime I try Wayland I
get some sort of issue that I can't resolve.
I think RealVNC and Wayland only work when you are on the same network,
not using their servers.
"Knute Johnson" <groups@585ranch.com> wrote in message news:11agrjv$3012t$1@dont-email.me...
If you want to run RealVNC server on your Pi and access it from the
internet you need to set your Pi to use X11 not Wayland.ÿ Do that in
raspi-config.ÿ You can get a free account from RealVNC for up to 3
servers for personal use.ÿ It works great.ÿ I have 3 Pis running
RealVNC server and accessing them from the internet.
Can I check what I need to do to switch between Wayland and X11, because
I get a blank screen when I do so...
sudo raspi-config
Advanced Options
Wayland
Openbox with X11 (as opposed to Labwc with Wayland, as it was before)
reboot
RealVNC (direct TCP connection) gives a blank window, and the output on HDMI1 is also a black screen,
Fortunately I'd enabled SSH, so I was able to connect using PuTTY and
run raspi-config to change back to Wayland
On 13/10/2026 15:16, Knute Johnson wrote:
FYI - I just tried to change that Pi5 to X11 and I can't get into it
with the RealVNC viewer.ÿ It may have something to do with nobody
being logged in.ÿ It's not convenient to run back and forth to the
computers as they are 100 yards apart in different buildings.
You need to make sure the vncserver-x11-serviced service is running, and
you have set up Real VNC with a password.
I've got 4 Pis running X11 with no problems.ÿ Anytime I try Wayland I
get some sort of issue that I can't resolve.
I have a few Pi 3's running the Real VNC Server on the 'standard'
desktop, and it works. But I mainly use open source x11vnc with Pi 4's
and 5's that use the Mate desktop, as it allows the main session to be shared.
I think RealVNC and Wayland only work when you are on the same
network, not using their servers.
It works for me when coming in from other networks over OpenVPN. Do you
have any firewall rules rejecting other networks?
---druck
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