# XFCE session fails to start on Ubuntu 24.04 with Wayland **URL:** \ **Category:** Community Support\ **Created:** [13 April 2026 06:34 UTC](https://community.thinlinc.com/t/xfce-session-fails-to-start-on-ubuntu-24-04-with-wayland/1975 "2026-04-13T06:34:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![antoncm12](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5e9695/32.png) [@antoncm12](https://community.thinlinc.com/u/antoncm12)\ **Post date:** [13 April 2026 06:34 UTC](https://community.thinlinc.com/t/xfce-session-fails-to-start-on-ubuntu-24-04-with-wayland/1975/1 "2026-04-13T06:34:54Z")
Hello, I have been trying to set up ThinLinc so I can connect remotely from my MacBook to my Ubuntu desktop, but I am unable to get a working session. Setup: - Server: Ubuntu 24.04.4 LTS, ThinLinc 4.20.0, running GNOME on Wayland (local display) - Client: macOS, ThinLinc client 4.20.0 What I have tried: Since GNOME sessions exited immediately with code 143 (killed by SIGTERM, likely due to conflict with the already-running local GNOME/Wayland session), I installed XFCE4 and configured ThinLinc to use it instead. The session log shows XFCE failing with the following errors: (xfwm4): cannot open display: wayland-0 (xfce4-panel): Could not open X display xfce4-panel: Unable to open display from environment variable DISPLAY=‘wayland-0’, exiting. It appears that the WAYLAND\_DISPLAY environment variable from the local session is leaking into the ThinLinc session, causing XFCE components to try to connect to the Wayland compositor instead of the ThinLinc Xvnc display (:10). I attempted to fix this by adding the following to ~/.xsession: unset WAYLAND\_DISPLAY unset DISPLAY export DISPLAY=:10 exec startxfce4 However, after this change the session still does not connect, the ThinLinc client on the Mac shows the loading screen but never presents a desktop, and eventually disconnects without any error message. Both vsmserver and vsmagent are running. SSH is accessible on port 22. Port 904 is listening. The firewall (ufw) is inactive. Any advice? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![aaron](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/community.thinlinc.com/aaron/32/13_2.png) [@aaron](https://community.thinlinc.com/u/aaron)\ **Post date:** [13 April 2026 21:45 UTC](https://community.thinlinc.com/t/xfce-session-fails-to-start-on-ubuntu-24-04-with-wayland/1975/2 "2026-04-13T21:45:00Z")
Hi, The core issue here is likely that most modern desktop environments don’t handle running multiple sessions as the same user very well. This is likely to be aggravated by the fact that one of the sessions is X11, and the other Wayland. One option might be to have two separate users, one for remote access via ThinLinc, and one for local console access. Are you trying to access the local console session on your Ubuntu machine remotely? ThinLinc is a terminal server solution, so this isn’t actually a use-case we explicitly cater to. ThinLinc creates its own sessions, and is designed for multi-user systems. One way of handling this though is to connect via ThinLinc, even when sitting in front of the physical server. There’s a bit of discussion around this here: > [@Is Linux "not ready" for Remote Desktop? We have some thoughts](https://community.thinlinc.com/t/1854): > > Hi everyone, We recently came across a Reddit thread where a user was ready to give up on Linux entirely because the user couldn’t get a seamless “one-to-one” remote desktop experience. Their conclusion? “Linux is just not ready for remote desktop.” We both agree and disagree with that statement. In our latest blog post, we break down why many users struggle with remote access (hint: it’s the “Console vs. Virtual Session” trap) and how ThinLinc provides that “Windows RDP-like” experience on L… Hope that helps!