Advertisement Using a There are so many amazing things that you can do with a Raspberry Pi, from running your own space program to building a media centre. Although ostensibly intended as a compact computer that can be... But often, you may not need these items. Your USB ports may be too busy to connect a keyboard and a monitor may be too unwieldy for your project. While a compact, The Raspberry Pi comes with a variety of useful add-ons, but one piece of kit that has proved particularly popular is the Raspberry Pi 7-inch Touchscreen Display. Here's how to set one up. SSH is a popular means of doing this, but without additional software and configuration, this is limited to command line access. VNC is a strong alternative for remote desktop access, and now comes built into the main Raspberry Pi operating system, Raspbian Jessie with the PIXEL desktop. Virtual Computing Network is a means by which you can connect remotely to a second computer. It uses the Remote Frame Buffer protocol to allow desktop access and control, and it can be used across operating systems too. This is where VNC comes in. Now the onus is on making sure you have the RealVNC server software configured on your Raspberry Pi, and a VNC viewer on your main or controller device. Configure VNC on Raspbian Jessie The easiest way to get started with RealVNC on your Raspberry Pi is to use Since its release in 2012, the Raspberry Pi's Raspbian operating system has had a few revisions, but the desktop environment had remained largely the same. You however need to enable the VNC server before you can connect to it. To do everything headless i. Do this by switching off your Pi, removing the microSD card and inserting it into your computer. In the boot partition, create a blank file called SSH, with no extension. Safely eject the card and re-insert into your Pi. When booted, SSH will now be enabled. Login over a SSH connection, either by using the direct IP address or the Bonjour address raspberrypi. Run: sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install realvnc-vnc-server realvnc-vnc-viewer To enable, use raspi-config as described above. VNC Server will now launch automatically each time the Pi is booted. Remotely Control Your Raspberry Pi With VNC Connect RealVNC can also be used to remotely control your Pi from anywhere in the world as long as you have an internet connection! VNC Connect is a free cloud service for Home use, but Professional and Enterprise options are also available that offers simple connection management and cloud-brokered secure connections. This removes the need to create proxies or static IP addresses, and streamlines true remote access in a way that has not been seen before. Also, VNC Connect has improvements in desktop rendering speed and accuracy, which should make remote control even better than before. Create a RealVNC Account With RealVNC server running on your Pi, you should create an account on your PC. Head to to grab a copy of the VNC Viewer app from RealVNC, and follow the steps during the initial launch to create an account with their service. Once this is done, remote connect to your Raspberry Pi desktop via VNC Viewer. To access the VNC Connect service, click on the RealVNC icon in the desktop panel, click Sign In and follow the instructions, making sure to select the Direct and Cloud connectivity option. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete setup of your account. That has the potential to make things a lot easier for many existing Raspberry Pi projects, and might just inspire something new! Simply install and launch the app, click the + symbol and enter the IP address and screen number. RealVNC Viewer has a well-considered user interface, giving you the ability to accurately move the mouse with your fingertip and tap or double-tap on tools and icons in the PIXEL desktop environment. VNC and the Raspberry Pi If you need to access your Raspberry Pi desktop remotely, VNC is perhaps the most flexible option. SSH is certainly faster, and RDP might offer some competition in the performance stakes, but VNC is cross platform with full graphical streaming. What do you think? Do you use VNC or do you prefer to The Raspberry Pi can accept SSH commands when connected to a local network either by Ethernet or Wi-Fi , enabling you to easily set it up. The benefits of SSH go beyond upsetting the daily screening...? Have you tried TightVNC and RealVNC, and perhaps have a different opinion on them to us? Tell us in the comments.
