Thanks Frank. The below in fact worked and restarting the service. Jerry To get mate to show up use the follow text in your ~.vnc/xstartup file: #!/bin/sh # Uncomment the following two lines for normal desktop: # unset SESSION_MANAGER unset DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS # exec /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc [ -x /etc/vnc/xstartup ] && exec /etc/vnc/xstartup [ -r HOME/.Xresources ] && xrdb HOME/.Xresources xsetroot -solid grey vncconfig -iconic & x-terminal-emulator -geometry 80x24+10+10 -ls -title "$VNCDESKTOP Desktop" & mate-session &