I had a problem with VNC-Engines with my zynbleton (latest vangelis) dev machine, which I’d like to share here.
```
Jan 25 10:24:50 zynbleton kernel: alternatives: applying boot alternatives
Jan 25 10:24:50 zynbleton kernel: Kernel command line: coherent_pool=1M 8250.nr_uarts=1 snd_bcm2835.enable_headphones=0 cgroup_disable=memory numa_policy=interleave nvme.max_host_mem_size_mb=0 snd_bcm2835.enable_headphones=1 snd_bcm2835>
Jan 25 10:24:50 zynbleton kernel: cgroup: Disabling memory control group subsystem
Jan 25 10:24:50 zynbleton kernel: mempolicy: NUMA default policy overridden to ‘interleave:0-1’
Jan 25 10:24:50 zynbleton kernel: Unknown kernel command line parameters “modules-load=dwc2,libcomposite”, will be passed to user space.
Jan 25 10:24:50 zynbleton kernel: Fallback order for Node 0: 0 1
Jan 25 10:24:50 zynbleton kernel: Fallback order for Node 1: 1 0
Jan 25 10:24:50 zynbleton kernel: Built 2 zonelists, mobility grouping on. Total pages: 2061312
Jan 25 10:24:50 zynbleton kernel: Policy zone: Normal
Jan 25 10:24:50 zynbleton kernel: mem auto-init: stack:all(zero), heap alloc:off, heap free:off
Jan 25 10:24:50 zynbleton kernel: software IO TLB: area num 4.
Jan 25 10:24:50 zynbleton kernel: software IO TLB: mapped [mem 0x0000000037400000-0x000000003b400000] (64MB)
Jan 25 10:24:50 zynbleton kernel: SLUB: HWalign=64, Order=0-3, MinObjects=0, CPUs=4, Nodes=2
…skipping…
Jan 25 10:25:07 zynbleton systemd[1]: Dependency failed for novnc1.service - VNC Web Viewer.
Jan 25 10:25:07 zynbleton systemd[1]: novnc1.service: Job novnc1.service/start failed with result ‘dependency’.
Jan 25 10:25:07 zynbleton systemctl[1088]: A dependency job for novnc1.service failed. See ‘journalctl -xe’ for details.
Jan 25 10:25:07 zynbleton startx[888]: ERROR:zynthian_state_manager.start_vncserver: Command ‘systemctl start novnc1’ returned non-zero exit status 1.
```
Alas, running journalctl -xe did not offer any insights, until I manually ran systemctl start novnc1 again:
```
(venv) root@zynbleton:~# journalctl -xe
░░ Support: Debian -- User Support
░░ Documentation: sd-login(3)
░░
░░ A new session with the ID 3 has been created for the user root.
░░
░░ The leading process of the session is 1505.
Jan 25 10:32:00 zynbleton systemd[1]: Started session-3.scope - Session 3 of User root.
░░ Subject: A start job for unit session-3.scope has finished successfully
░░ Defined-By: systemd
░░ Support: Debian -- User Support
░░
░░ A start job for unit session-3.scope has finished successfully.
░░
░░ The job identifier is 959.
Jan 25 10:32:00 zynbleton sshd[1505]: pam_env(sshd:session): deprecated reading of user environment enabled
Jan 25 10:34:09 zynbleton systemd[1]: Starting vncserver1.service - Remote desktop service (VNC)…
░░ Subject: A start job for unit vncserver1.service has begun execution
░░ Defined-By: systemd
░░ Support: Debian -- User Support
░░
░░ A start job for unit vncserver1.service has begun execution.
░░
░░ The job identifier is 1043.
Jan 25 10:34:09 zynbleton vncserver[1587]: hostname: Name or service not known
Jan 25 10:34:09 zynbleton vncserver[1585]: vncserver: Could not acquire fully qualified host name of this machine.
Jan 25 10:34:09 zynbleton systemd[1]: vncserver1.service: Control process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
░░ Subject: Unit process exited
░░ Defined-By: systemd
░░ Support: Debian -- User Support
░░
░░ An ExecStart= process belonging to unit vncserver1.service has exited.
░░
░░ The process’ exit code is ‘exited’ and its exit status is 1.
Jan 25 10:34:09 zynbleton systemd[1]: vncserver1.service: Failed with result ‘exit-code’.
░░ Subject: Unit failed
░░ Defined-By: systemd
░░ Support: Debian -- User Support
░░
░░ The unit vncserver1.service has entered the ‘failed’ state with result ‘exit-code’.
Jan 25 10:34:09 zynbleton systemd[1]: Failed to start vncserver1.service - Remote desktop service (VNC).
░░ Subject: A start job for unit vncserver1.service has failed
░░ Defined-By: systemd
░░ Support: Debian -- User Support
░░
░░ A start job for unit vncserver1.service has finished with a failure.
░░
░░ The job identifier is 1043 and the job result is failed.
Jan 25 10:34:09 zynbleton systemd[1]: Dependency failed for novnc1.service - VNC Web Viewer.
░░ Subject: A start job for unit novnc1.service has failed
░░ Defined-By: systemd
░░ Support: Debian -- User Support
░░
░░ A start job for unit novnc1.service has finished with a failure.
░░
░░ The job identifier is 1040 and the job result is dependency.
Jan 25 10:34:09 zynbleton systemd[1]: novnc1.service: Job novnc1.service/start failed with result ‘dependency’.
```
The hostname part led me to the correct path of action: I had given this machine a different hostname, to wit ‘zynbleton’ (to keep my everyday zynth at zynthian.local). And it might be I finally did this partially through the command line after it did not work from webconf. I do not know whether the webconf-route changes /etc/hosts, but for me I have now fixed vnc-engines not working by changing the line in /etc/hosts from
127.0.1.1 zynthian
to
127.0.1.1 zynbleton