# \[VNC Desktop / XFCE4\] "Failed to connect to proxy" Issue

**URL:** <https://discourse.openondemand.org/t/vnc-desktop-xfce4-failed-to-connect-to-proxy-issue/4925>\
**Category:** Get Help\
**Created:** [July 10, 2026, 8:41pm UTC](https://discourse.openondemand.org/t/vnc-desktop-xfce4-failed-to-connect-to-proxy-issue/4925 "2026-07-10T20:41:57Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 19

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![JPGlaser](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/discourse.openondemand.org/jpglaser/32/967_2.png) [@JPGlaser](https://discourse.openondemand.org/u/JPGlaser)\
**Post date:** [July 15, 2026, 5:06pm UTC](https://discourse.openondemand.org/t/vnc-desktop-xfce4-failed-to-connect-to-proxy-issue/4925/19 "2026-07-15T17:06:02Z")

</div>

> [@Micket](#):
>
> `vncserver -xstartup xfce4-session`

This worked right out of the gate. Here is the final state:

```auto
  before_script: |
    # Isolate the XDG Runtime Directories
    export TMPDIR = "$(mktemp -d)"
    export XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=$TMPDIR/xdg_runtime
    export XDG_CACHE_DIR=$TMPDIR/xdg_cache
    mkdir -p $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR $XDG_CACHE_DIR
    # Unset DBUS Hooks to allow TurboVNC to Work with XFCE4
    unset DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS
    unset DBUS_SYSTEM_BUS_ADDRESS
    eval $(dbus-launch --sh-syntax)
    # Export the module function if it exists
    [[$(type -t module) == "function"]] && export -f module
    # reset SLURM_EXPORT_ENV so that things like srun & sbatch work out of the box
    export SLURM_EXPORT_ENV=ALL

```

For @jeff.ohrstrom , nothing illuminating was in the journalctl or other system logs. This system is running RHEL 9.7 and kernel `5.14.0-611.55.1.el9_7.x86_64` with xfce4 `4.18.3-1.el9`.

The one issue I am running into is that the screensaver comes up and requires a password, which it doesn’t accept from the user. If I remember right, a solution for this is to just uninstall `xfce4-screensaver`.

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_[View the full topic](https://discourse.openondemand.org/t/vnc-desktop-xfce4-failed-to-connect-to-proxy-issue/4925)._