Can't open terminal through tightvncserver on Ubuntu 20 / no gnome panel

Question

I followed https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-install-and-configure-vnc-on-ubuntu-20-04 by putting
xrdb $HOME/.Xresources
startxfce4 &

into my .vnc/startup and I can sucessfully log into the VNC and use nautilus and other apps but there's no maximize/close buttons and most importantly I cannot open terminal. I click on it on the dock and nothing happens
I also tried putting this:
gnome-panel &
gnome-settings-daemon &
metacity &
gnome-terminal &
nautilus &

and I could sucessfully log and see nautilus open but using it to open terminal results in nothing, and I also see no other thing other than nautilus (no icones to click)
I'd preferably use gnome on VNC but I can't make both work

zuchie · Answer

For xfce, the default action of open terminal is to open x-terminal-emulator, which in turn links to gnome-terminal.wrapper. You can get this info from Applications->File Manager->Edit->Configure custom actions..., and Applications->Settings->Settings Manager->Preferred Applications->Utilities, also to trace the symlink of x-terminal-emulator.
The thing is that gnome-terminal is trying to connect to D-Bus but failed to get a response and timed out, to verify it you could launch D-Bus first, e.g. $ dbus-launch gnome-terminal and you will see a gnome terminal pops up.
The easiest way to solve this is to use an alternative terminal. To do it, open a xfce terminal from Applications->System->Xfce Terminal, use command $ sudo update-alternatives --config x-terminal-emulator, choose an alternative from the list instead of the default gnome-terminal, like xfce4-terminal or xterm, then you should be good to go to open a terminal.
For using gnome instead of xfce, try put the following to your xstartup file, start the vncserver and check the log file, fix any errors by installing the missing packages, then you should be able to see the gnome DE from vnc client.
xrdb $HOME/.Xresources 
xsetroot -solid grey

export XKL_XMODMAP_DISABLE=1 
export XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP="GNOME-Flashback:Unity" 
export XDG_MENU_PREFIX="gnome-flashback-"

unset DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS

gnome-session --session=gnome-flashback-metacity --disable-acceleration-check &

Can't open terminal through tightvncserver on Ubuntu 20 / no gnome panel

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