# Getting Error: no HOME environment variable Starting VNC server

**URL:** <https://discourse.openondemand.org/t/getting-error-no-home-environment-variable-starting-vnc-server/3202>\
**Category:** Get Help\
**Created:** [January 10, 2024, 7:05pm UTC](https://discourse.openondemand.org/t/getting-error-no-home-environment-variable-starting-vnc-server/3202 "2024-01-10T19:05:58Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 18\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![s.roberts23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@s.roberts23](https://discourse.openondemand.org/u/s.roberts23)\
**Post date:** [January 10, 2024, 7:05pm UTC](https://discourse.openondemand.org/t/getting-error-no-home-environment-variable-starting-vnc-server/3202/1 "2024-01-10T19:05:58Z")

</div>

When trying to set up virtual desktops we keep getting this error in the output log for the virtual desktop

```auto
/usr/bin/id: cannot find name for user ID 2614687
/usr/bin/id: cannot find name for group ID 2000513
/usr/bin/id: cannot find name for user ID 2614687
Setting VNC password...
Error: no HOME environment variable
Starting VNC server...
vncserver: The HOME environment variable is not set.
vncserver: The HOME environment variable is not set.
vncserver: The HOME environment variable is not set.
vncserver: The HOME environment variable is not set.
vncserver: The HOME environment variable is not set.
vncserver: The HOME environment variable is not set.
vncserver: The HOME environment variable is not set.
vncserver: The HOME environment variable is not set.
vncserver: The HOME environment variable is not set.
vncserver: The HOME environment variable is not set.
vncserver: The HOME environment variable is not set.
vncserver: The HOME environment variable is not set.
vncserver: The HOME environment variable is not set.
vncserver: The HOME environment variable is not set.
vncserver: The HOME environment variable is not set.
vncserver: The HOME environment variable is not set.
vncserver: The HOME environment variable is not set.
vncserver: The HOME environment variable is not set.
vncserver: The HOME environment variable is not set.
vncserver: The HOME environment variable is not set.
Cleaning up...
vncserver: The HOME environment variable is not set.

```

i havent touched the form.yml file but have set up a dir called submit for submission and here is the yaml for it

```auto
---
batch_connect:
  before_script: |
    # Export the module function if it exists
    [[$(type -t module) == "function"]] && export -f module

```

and here is the desktop yaml

```auto
# /etc/ood/config/apps/bc_desktop/viking_login_desktop.yml
---
title: "Viking Desktop"
cluster: "viking-cluster"
submit: submit/viking_submint.yml.erb

```

any help you could provide would be greatly appreciated. ive been banging my head on this for the past week.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jeff.ohrstrom](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/discourse.openondemand.org/jeff.ohrstrom/32/136_2.png) [@jeff.ohrstrom](https://discourse.openondemand.org/u/jeff.ohrstrom)\
**Post date:** [January 10, 2024, 7:18pm UTC](https://discourse.openondemand.org/t/getting-error-no-home-environment-variable-starting-vnc-server/3202/2 "2024-01-10T19:18:45Z")

</div>

I’d add something like this to setup the environment. If you run a scheduler like Slurm - it doesn’t setup a bash environment, so you may need to force it by sourcing /etc/profile or similar.

```yaml
---
batch_connect:
  before_script: |
    # source /etc/profile to setup the environment.
    . /etc/profile

    # Export the module function if it exists
    [[$(type -t module) == "function"]] && export -f module

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![s.roberts23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@s.roberts23](https://discourse.openondemand.org/u/s.roberts23)\
**Post date:** [January 10, 2024, 7:28pm UTC](https://discourse.openondemand.org/t/getting-error-no-home-environment-variable-starting-vnc-server/3202/3 "2024-01-10T19:28:23Z")

</div>

> [@jeff.ohrstrom](#):
>
> ```auto
> # source /etc/profile to setup the environment.
> . /etc/profile
> 
> ```

first off good guess we are running slurm. and second off i added that to the submit and restarted httpd and still getting the same error. i saw in a previous post about this problem that you may have to clear the pun’s but have no idea how to do that.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jeff.ohrstrom](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/discourse.openondemand.org/jeff.ohrstrom/32/136_2.png) [@jeff.ohrstrom](https://discourse.openondemand.org/u/jeff.ohrstrom)\
**Post date:** [January 10, 2024, 7:31pm UTC](https://discourse.openondemand.org/t/getting-error-no-home-environment-variable-starting-vnc-server/3202/4 "2024-01-10T19:31:10Z")

</div>

> [@s.roberts23](#):
>
> you may have to clear the pun’s but have no idea how to do that.

It’s in the Help menu → ‘Restart Web Server’ will restart your PUN.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![s.roberts23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@s.roberts23](https://discourse.openondemand.org/u/s.roberts23)\
**Post date:** [January 10, 2024, 7:44pm UTC](https://discourse.openondemand.org/t/getting-error-no-home-environment-variable-starting-vnc-server/3202/5 "2024-01-10T19:44:41Z")

</div>

ok cleared the puns and still getting the error’s. is there logging somewhere else i can turn up to know what im doing wrong? also do i need to have a shell script that enter’s the vnc session into the slurm scheduler.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jeff.ohrstrom](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/discourse.openondemand.org/jeff.ohrstrom/32/136_2.png) [@jeff.ohrstrom](https://discourse.openondemand.org/u/jeff.ohrstrom)\
**Post date:** [January 10, 2024, 7:55pm UTC](https://discourse.openondemand.org/t/getting-error-no-home-environment-variable-starting-vnc-server/3202/6 "2024-01-10T19:55:56Z")

</div>

> [@s.roberts23](#):
>
> . is there logging somewhere else i can turn up to know what im doing wrong?

Not really - this is a shell script that’s running on the cluster - nothing more special than `sbatch my_script.sh`.

To debug a bit more though you could take an old job (find the session directory) and start to edit those scripts.

The top level script that gets submitted to the scheduler is `job_script_content.sh`. You can try to `set -x` in there or similar `echo` or `env` statements.

So you can edit and resubmit `job_script_content.sh` with `--export NONE` to simulate how we submit the job.

Maybe you need to source /etc/profile in `script_wrapper` instead? So it sources before the before script is even ran?

```yaml
---
batch_connect:
  script_wrapper: |
    # source /etc/profile to setup the environment.
    . /etc/profile
    
    %s

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![s.roberts23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@s.roberts23](https://discourse.openondemand.org/u/s.roberts23)\
**Post date:** [January 11, 2024, 2:26pm UTC](https://discourse.openondemand.org/t/getting-error-no-home-environment-variable-starting-vnc-server/3202/7 "2024-01-11T14:26:44Z")

</div>

Ok so after getting some much needed sleep i think i see the problem. We have set home to be on a nfs mount so when a user launches they can have all of their slurm scripts with them no matter what node get’s selected. and at the top of the error i see it cant find my UID and GID and because of that can not set my home dir. is there away for me to set a custom home?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jeff.ohrstrom](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/discourse.openondemand.org/jeff.ohrstrom/32/136_2.png) [@jeff.ohrstrom](https://discourse.openondemand.org/u/jeff.ohrstrom)\
**Post date:** [January 11, 2024, 2:52pm UTC](https://discourse.openondemand.org/t/getting-error-no-home-environment-variable-starting-vnc-server/3202/8 "2024-01-11T14:52:47Z")

</div>

> [@s.roberts23](#):
>
> is there away for me to set a custom home?

No, is your $HOME on the webserver not the $HOME on the compute nodes?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![s.roberts23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@s.roberts23](https://discourse.openondemand.org/u/s.roberts23)\
**Post date:** [January 11, 2024, 4:39pm UTC](https://discourse.openondemand.org/t/getting-error-no-home-environment-variable-starting-vnc-server/3202/9 "2024-01-11T16:39:19Z")

</div>

Home is mounted over NFS for each compute/gpu node as well as the head node

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![s.roberts23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@s.roberts23](https://discourse.openondemand.org/u/s.roberts23)\
**Post date:** [January 11, 2024, 7:01pm UTC](https://discourse.openondemand.org/t/getting-error-no-home-environment-variable-starting-vnc-server/3202/10 "2024-01-11T19:01:54Z")

</div>

So what i think might be happening is that when the job gets dispatched to a node it tries to read the nodes /etc/profile and can not. so would it make sense to make a sethome.sh in /etc/profile.d to have it load home that way?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![s.roberts23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@s.roberts23](https://discourse.openondemand.org/u/s.roberts23)\
**Post date:** [January 16, 2024, 4:27pm UTC](https://discourse.openondemand.org/t/getting-error-no-home-environment-variable-starting-vnc-server/3202/11 "2024-01-16T16:27:45Z")

</div>

Hello so ive made some progress but now im getting a slurm error when trying to call the virtual desktop

```auto
/cm/local/apps/slurm/var/spool/job415849/slurm_script: line 3: module: command not found
/cm/local/apps/slurm/var/spool/job415849/slurm_script: line 134: hostname: command not found
/cm/local/apps/slurm/var/spool/job415849/slurm_script: line 134: awk: command not found
Setting VNC password...
/cm/local/apps/slurm/var/spool/job415849/slurm_script: line 125: head: command not found
/cm/local/apps/slurm/var/spool/job415849/slurm_script: line 125: head: command not found
Error: no HOME environment variable
Starting VNC server...
/cm/local/apps/slurm/var/spool/job415849/slurm_script: line 150: seq: command not found
Cleaning up...
/cm/local/apps/slurm/var/spool/job415849/slurm_script: line 30: awk: command not found
/usr/bin/env: 'perl': No such file or directory
/cm/local/apps/slurm/var/spool/job415849/slurm_script: line 34: pkill: command not found

```

do i need to have my slurm admin add a module to load VNC?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jeff.ohrstrom](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/discourse.openondemand.org/jeff.ohrstrom/32/136_2.png) [@jeff.ohrstrom](https://discourse.openondemand.org/u/jeff.ohrstrom)\
**Post date:** [January 16, 2024, 4:34pm UTC](https://discourse.openondemand.org/t/getting-error-no-home-environment-variable-starting-vnc-server/3202/12 "2024-01-16T16:34:53Z")

</div>

> [@s.roberts23](#):
>
> do i need to have my slurm admin add a module to load VNC?

No, but it looks like you need to fix your `PATH`. OOD uses `--export NONE` when it submits jobs, but sometimes we need to fix that like what we do on our production desktops below.

> <https://github.com/OSC/osc-ood-config/blob/a347861607210fa8c7b71c418b79a91b97a3eb40/apps.awesim.org/apps/bc_desktop/submit/vdi.yml.erb#L14-L15>

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![s.roberts23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@s.roberts23](https://discourse.openondemand.org/u/s.roberts23)\
**Post date:** [January 16, 2024, 4:52pm UTC](https://discourse.openondemand.org/t/getting-error-no-home-environment-variable-starting-vnc-server/3202/13 "2024-01-16T16:52:15Z")

</div>

ok so here is my submit

```auto
---
batch_connect:
  before_script: |
    # reset SLURM_EXPORT_ENV so that things like srun & sbatch work out of the box
    export SLURM_EXPORT_ENV=ALL

     %s

```

before i had the following in there

```auto
batch_connect:
  script_wrapper: |
    # source /etc/profile to setup the environment.
    . /etc/profile/

    %s

```

do i need to incorporate the two?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jeff.ohrstrom](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/discourse.openondemand.org/jeff.ohrstrom/32/136_2.png) [@jeff.ohrstrom](https://discourse.openondemand.org/u/jeff.ohrstrom)\
**Post date:** [January 16, 2024, 5:04pm UTC](https://discourse.openondemand.org/t/getting-error-no-home-environment-variable-starting-vnc-server/3202/14 "2024-01-16T17:04:07Z")

</div>

yea I would combine them into

```yaml
batch_connect:
  script_wrapper: |
    # source /etc/profile to setup the environment.
    . /etc/profile/

    # reset SLURM_EXPORT_ENV so that things like srun & sbatch work out of the box
    export SLURM_EXPORT_ENV=ALL

    %s

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![s.roberts23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@s.roberts23](https://discourse.openondemand.org/u/s.roberts23)\
**Post date:** [January 16, 2024, 5:18pm UTC](https://discourse.openondemand.org/t/getting-error-no-home-environment-variable-starting-vnc-server/3202/15 "2024-01-16T17:18:32Z")

</div>

ok ive tried and im still getting the same error

can you tell me if there is anything i need to change in my cluster.yml?

```auto
v2:
  metadata:
    title: "Cluster"
  login:
    host: "server.host.edu"
  job:
    adapter: "slurm"
    bin: "/cm/shared/apps/slurm/current/bin"
    conf: "/cm/shared/apps/slurm/var/etc/slurm/slurm.conf"
    # bin_overrides:
      # sbatch: "/usr/local/bin/sbatch"
      # squeue: ""
      # scontrol: ""
      # scancel: ""
    copy_enviornment: false
  batch_connect:
    basic:
      script_wrapper: |
        module purge
        %s
      set_host: "host=$(hostname -A | awk '{print $1}')"
    vnc:
      script_wrapper: |
        module purge
        export PATH="/opt/TurboVNC/bin:$PATH"
        #source /etc/profile
        #source ~/.bash_profile
        #export PATH="/usr/local/turbovnc/bin:/opt/TurboVNC/bin"
        export WEBSOCKIFY_CMD="/usr/local/websockify"
        export SLURM_EXPORT_ENV=ALL
        %s
      set_host: "host=$(hostname -A | awk '{print $1}')"

```

ive also tried setting copy environment to true but that doesnt help either

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![s.roberts23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@s.roberts23](https://discourse.openondemand.org/u/s.roberts23)\
**Post date:** [February 6, 2024, 6:03pm UTC](https://discourse.openondemand.org/t/getting-error-no-home-environment-variable-starting-vnc-server/3202/16 "2024-02-06T18:03:58Z")

</div>

So we ended up having to modify the vnc.rb files in order to get websockify to initiate to then call VNC. here is what we changed.

```auto
require "ood_core/refinements/hash_extensions"

module OodCore
  module BatchConnect
    class Factory
      using Refinements::HashExtensions

      # Build the VNC template from a configuration
      # @param config [#to_h] the configuration for the batch connect template
      def self.build_vnc(config)
        context = config.to_h.symbolize_keys.reject { |k, _| k == :template }
        Templates::VNC.new(context)
      end
    end

    module Templates
      # A batch connect template that starts up a VNC server within a batch job
      class VNC < Template
        # @param context [#to_h] the context used to render the template
        # @option context [#to_sym, Array<#to_sym>] :conn_params ([]) A list of
        # connection parameters added to the connection file (`:host`,
        # `:port`, `:password`, `:spassword`, `:display` and `:websocket`
        # will always exist)
        # @option context [#to_s] :websockify_cmd
        # ("${WEBSOCKIFY_CMD:-/opt/websockify/run}") the path to the
        # websockify script (assumes you don't modify `:after_script`)
        # @option context [#to_s] :vnc_log ("vnc.log") path to vnc server log
        # file (assumes you don't modify `:before_script` or `:after_script`)
        # @option context [#to_s] :vnc_passwd ("vnc.passwd") path to the file
        # generated that contains the encrypted vnc password (assumes you
        # don't modify `:before_script`)
        # @option context [#to_s] :vnc_args arguments used when starting up the
        # vnc server (overrides any specific vnc argument) (assumes you don't
        # modify `:before_script`)
        # @option context [#to_s] :name ("") name of the vnc server session
        # (not set if blank or `:vnc_args` is set) (assumes you don't modify
        # `:before_script`)
        # @option context [#to_s] :geometry ("") resolution of vnc display (not
        # set if blank or `:vnc_args` is set) (assumes you don't modify
        # `:before_script`)
        # @option context [#to_s] :dpi ("") dpi of vnc display (not set if
        # blank or `:vnc_args` is set) (assumes you don't modify
        # `:before_script`)
        # @option context [#to_s] :fonts ("") command delimited list of fonts
        # available in vnc display (not set if blank or `:vnc_args` is set)
        # (assumes you don't modify `:before_script`)
        # @option context [#to_s] :idle ("") timeout vnc server if no
        # connection in this amount of time in seconds (not set if blank or
        # `:vnc_args` is set) (assumes you don't modify `:before_script`)
        # @option context [#to_s] :extra_args ("") any extra arguments used
        # when initializing the vnc server process (not set if blank or
        # `:vnc_args` is set) (assumes you don't modify `:before_script`)
        # @option context [#to_s] :vnc_clean ("...") script used to clean up
        # any active vnc sessions (assumes you don't modify `:before_script`
        # or `:clean_script`)
        # @see Template
        def initialize(context = {})
          super
        end

        private
          # We need to know the VNC and websockify connection information
          def conn_params
            (super + [:display, :websocket, :spassword]).uniq
          end

          # Before running the main script, start up a VNC server and record
          # the connection information
          def before_script
            <<-EOT.gsub(/^ {14}/, "")
              # Setup one-time use passwords and initialize the VNC password
              function change_passwd () {
                echo "Setting VNC password..."
                password=$(create_passwd "#{password_size}")
                spassword=${spassword:-$(create_passwd "#{password_size}")}
                (
                  umask 077
                  echo -ne "${password}\\n${spassword}" | vncpasswd -f > "#{vnc_passwd}"
                )
              }
              change_passwd

              # Start up vnc server (if at first you don't succeed, try, try again)
              echo "Starting VNC server..."
              for i in $(seq 1 10); do
                # Clean up any old VNC sessions that weren't cleaned before
                #{vnc_clean}

                # for turbovnc 3.0 compatability.
                if timeout 2 vncserver --help 2>&1 | grep 'nohttpd' >/dev/null 2>&1; then
                  HTTPD_OPT='-nohttpd'
                fi

                # Attempt to start VNC server
                VNC_OUT=$(vncserver -log "#{vnc_log}" -rfbauth "#{vnc_passwd}" -noxstartup 2>&1)
                VNC_PID=$(pgrep -s 0 Xvnc) # the script above will daemonize the Xvnc process
                echo "${VNC_OUT}"

                # Sometimes Xvnc hangs if it fails to find working disaply, we
                # should kill it and try again
                kill -0 ${VNC_PID} 2>/dev/null && [["${VNC_OUT}" =~ "Fatal server error"]] && kill -TERM ${VNC_PID}

                # Check that Xvnc process is running, if not assume it died and
                # wait some random period of time before restarting
                kill -0 ${VNC_PID} 2>/dev/null || sleep 0.$(random_number 1 9)s

                # If running, then all is well and break out of loop
                kill -0 ${VNC_PID} 2>/dev/null && break
              done

              # If we fail to start it after so many tries, then just give up
              kill -0 ${VNC_PID} 2>/dev/null || clean_up 1

              # Parse output for ports used
              display=$(echo "${VNC_OUT}" | awk -F':' '/^Desktop/{print $NF}')
              port=$((5900+display))

              echo "Successfully started VNC server on ${host}:${port}..."

              #{super}
            EOT
          end

          # Run the script under the VNC server's display
          def run_script
            %(DISPLAY=:${display} #{super})
          end

          # After startup the main script, scan the VNC server log file for
          # successful connections so that the password can be reset
          def after_script
            websockify_cmd = context.fetch(:websockify_cmd, "${WEBSOCKIFY_CMD:-/opt/websockify/run}").to_s

            <<-EOT.gsub(/^ {14}/, "")
              #{super}

              # Launch websockify websocket server
              echo "Starting websocket server..."
              websocket=$(find_port)
              #{websockify_cmd}websockify -D ${websocket} localhost:${port} 

              # Set up background process that scans the log file for successful
              # connections by users, and change the password after every
              # connection
              echo "Scanning VNC log file for user authentications..."
              while read -r line; do
                if [[${line} =~ "Full-control authentication enabled for"]]; then
                  change_passwd
                  create_yml
                fi
              done < <(tail -f --pid=${SCRIPT_PID} "#{vnc_log}") &
            EOT
          end

          # Clean up the running VNC server and any other stale VNC servers
          def clean_script
            <<-EOT.gsub(/^ {14}/, "")
              #{super}

              #{vnc_clean}
              [[-n ${display}]] && vncserver -kill :${display}
            EOT
          end

          # Log file for VNC server
          def vnc_log
            context.fetch(:vnc_log, "vnc.log").to_s
          end

          # Password file for VNC server
          def vnc_passwd
            context.fetch(:vnc_passwd, "vnc.passwd").to_s
          end

          # Arguments sent to `vncserver` command
          def vnc_args
            context.fetch(:vnc_args) do
              name = context.fetch(:name, "").to_s
              geometry = context.fetch(:geometry, "").to_s
              dpi = context.fetch(:dpi, "").to_s
              fonts = context.fetch(:fonts, "").to_s
              idle = context.fetch(:idle, "").to_s
              extra_args = context.fetch(:extra_args, "").to_s

              args = []
              args << "-name #{name}" unless name.empty?
              args << "-geometry #{geometry}" unless geometry.empty?
              args << "-dpi #{dpi}" unless dpi.empty?
              args << "-fp #{fonts}" unless fonts.empty?
              args << "-idletimeout #{idle}" unless idle.empty?
              args << extra_args

              args.join(" ")
            end.to_s
          end

          # Clean up any stale VNC sessions
          def vnc_clean
            context.fetch(:vnc_clean) do
              %(vncserver -list | awk '/^:/{system("kill -0 "$2" 2>/dev/null || vncserver -kill "$1)}')
            end.to_s
          end
      end
    end
  end
end

```

could you please tell me how you would like me to proceed with our findings by opening up an issue or a pull request to fix this? Thank you

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jeff.ohrstrom](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/discourse.openondemand.org/jeff.ohrstrom/32/136_2.png) [@jeff.ohrstrom](https://discourse.openondemand.org/u/jeff.ohrstrom)\
**Post date:** [February 6, 2024, 6:14pm UTC](https://discourse.openondemand.org/t/getting-error-no-home-environment-variable-starting-vnc-server/3202/17 "2024-02-06T18:14:16Z")

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A pull request is best. I can patch it myself since you gave the file there, but if you want credit - you should open a pull request.

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**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/uploads/osc/original/2X/b/bae70bd0ed39a3ae769c2108155f4cb3e9da8385.png) [@system](https://discourse.openondemand.org/u/system)\
**Post date:** [August 4, 2024, 6:14pm UTC](https://discourse.openondemand.org/t/getting-error-no-home-environment-variable-starting-vnc-server/3202/18 "2024-08-04T18:14:59Z")

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