Connect to your Spark's VNC desktop
VNC desktop access is optional and off by default. Check Enable VNC desktop access when you deploy an instance (or find it isn't checked, and redeploy) and GPUwerk generates a username and password for you, shown once in the console's connect panel and retrievable there for as long as the instance exists.
1. Find your connection details
Open the instance in the console. If VNC was enabled at deploy time, its Connect panel shows a VNC desktop section with an address, a username and a password. The address is host:port. If your instance has a dedicated public IPv4, that's the host and the port is the standard 5900. Otherwise the host is the shared gateway hostname and the port is one specific to your instance, not 5900. Always use the value shown in the console rather than assuming either.
Everywhere below, <address> and <port> mean exactly those two values from your console. If you didn't enable VNC at deploy time, there's nothing to connect to: redeploy with the checkbox on, or rebuild the instance if it supports rebuilding in place. Don't want to install a native client? The Connect panel also offers a VNC viewer directly in the browser, using the same username and password. The steps below are for the native-client path.
2. Linux
TigerVNC's viewer is the most common client and packaged on most distributions:
# Debian, Ubuntu sudo apt install tigervnc-viewer vncviewer <address>:<port> # Fedora sudo dnf install tigervnc vncviewer <address>:<port>
It prompts for the password from the console. Prefer a GUI? Remmina ships in most distro repositories: add a new connection, protocol VNC, server <address>:<port>, and enter the password when prompted.
3. macOS
No install needed. macOS's built-in Screen Sharing speaks VNC. Either:
open vnc://<address>:<port>
or, without the terminal: Finder → Go → Connect to Server (⌘K), enter vnc://<address>:<port>, and Connect. Enter the password when Screen Sharing asks for it.
4. Windows
Windows has no built-in VNC client. Two well-maintained free options:
- TigerVNC Viewer: download the Windows installer, launch it, enter
<address>::<port>in the server field (double colon before a non-default port), Connect, enter the password. - RealVNC Viewer: install, enter
<address>:<port>in the address bar, Connect, enter the password.
5. A note on security
VNC's own authentication and screen traffic are not encrypted by default. The password exchange and everything you see and type over a direct VNC connection can be read by anything positioned to observe the connection between you and the instance. This is a property of the VNC protocol itself, not something specific to how GPUwerk runs it.
For anything beyond quick, low-sensitivity use (installing a package with a GUI installer, checking a render preview), either change the generated password to one only you know as a matter of habit, or tunnel the connection over SSH as described below, which is encrypted and authenticated by the SSH key you already use for the instance.
6. Tunnel it over SSH instead
If you already connect to the instance over SSH (see the SSH keys guide), forward the VNC port through that same encrypted connection and point your viewer at localhost instead of the public address:
# -N means "no shell, just the tunnel"; replace <port> with the VNC port shown in the console
ssh -N -L 5900:localhost:<port> root@my-instance.gpuwerk.com
Leave that running, then connect your VNC viewer to localhost:5900 with the same generated password. Nothing about the VNC port needs to be reachable from the internet for this to work.