Connecting to QNAP’s Linux Station via VNC

The Linux Station app that is available on the QNAP’s QTS interface is really handy. It installs an instance of Ubuntu Desktop with a single click and automatically mounts your NAS’s shared folders. However, what isn’t handy is connecting to a Linux Station install via the Linux Station app’s web VNC client. The logical workaround is to connect using your VNC client of choice but there is no option within the Linux Station app to set a VNC password. This is because a Linux Station install generates a new VNC password every time it boots. My work around is as follows:

Connect to Linux Station install via ssh. You can find the IP in Linux Station. Make sure remote access is enabled

ssh qnap_admin@linuxstation_ip

cat /tmp/.qnap/vncpassword

It will return a random string of characters that is your VNC password. Enjoy!