# Unable to start xfce desktop

**URL:** <https://discourse.openondemand.org/t/unable-to-start-xfce-desktop/2920>\
**Category:** Get Help\
**Created:** [August 24, 2023, 1:46am UTC](https://discourse.openondemand.org/t/unable-to-start-xfce-desktop/2920 "2023-08-24T01:46:20Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 7

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**Author:** ![sh\_hpc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/74df32/32.png) [@sh\_hpc](https://discourse.openondemand.org/u/sh_hpc)\
**Post date:** [August 30, 2023, 11:23pm UTC](https://discourse.openondemand.org/t/unable-to-start-xfce-desktop/2920/7 "2023-08-30T23:23:28Z")

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I solved it! The error above was overcome by fixing the permissions on `/tmp` (it was not writable for some reason). I found that this was an issue by running Xvnc manually and seeing that Xvnc failed to create a “/tmp/.tX1-lock”. There was no other system error log, so it was tough to figure out until I did this manual run.

After that, the “Launch Desktop” button was finally visible. But, clicking it resulted in “Failed to connect to server” in the VNC console. By reading a prior topic here, I found that there was a 404 code in the Websockify request. After configuring the reverse proxy, the desktop finally works!

> [@noVNC: Failed to connect to server](https://discourse.openondemand.org/t/novnc-failed-to-connect-to-server/2304/13):
>
> Hi @jeff.ohrstrom any further thoughts on this?

Thank you for your help, Jeff!

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