kex unable to connect to socket: connection refused(10061)

[Mehtab Zafar (mzfr)]

I have installed kali linux using wsl2. Then I followed this guide to install win-kex. It was working fine till this morning.

Now if I try to run kex I get the following error:

Error connecting to the KeX server.
Please try "kex start" to start the service.
If the server fails to start, please try "kex kill" or restart your WSL2 session and try again.

If I run kex stop or kex kill I get the following output:

❯ kex stop                                                                                                                                                                                                     
tigervncserver: No matching VNC server running for this user!
tigervncserver: No matching VNC server running for this user!

~
❯ kex kill                                                                                                                                                                                                     tigervncserver: No matching VNC server running for this user!
tigervncserver: No matching VNC server running for this user!
tigervncserver: No matching VNC server running for this user!
tigervncserver: No matching VNC server running for this user!

I googled around to find various methods to fix this. Most of the articles/discussion suggest the following ways:

1. Install dbus-x11
   • Already installed still having the issue
2. Running the following command:

    -> kex stop
    -> cd /home
    -> kex
   

   • This is not working for me
3. Kill vncserver and then start kex

   -> vncserver --kill :*
   -> kex stop
   -> kex kill
   -> kex
   

   • this gives the same error

In the 3rd method if I do all that and then start the vncserver by running:

vncserver

I get:

New Xtigervnc server 'pc.localdomain:1 (pwnbox)' on port 5901 for display :1.
Use xtigervncviewer -SecurityTypes VncAuth -passwd /home/.vnc/passwd :1 to connect to the VNC server.

And if I run kex after that I get error saying No Matching security Type

[X (KingHack-X)]

I don't have and answer. I was just gonna say that it does the same for me

[Mehtab Zafar (mzfr)]

This is not the exact fix of the problem but if you want to you can use vcxsrv to run the GUI.

Basically install xfce4 and xfce4-goodies and kali-desktop-xfce. Also install vcxsrv(either download from Sourceforge or use choco). vcxsrv will be installed on your windows machine and not inside the kali VM.

Now run following command in kali terminal:

• if wsl1 then export DISPLAY=:0.0
• if wsl2 then export DISPLAY=$(grep -m 1 nameserver /etc/resolv.conf | awk '{print $2}'):0.0

Once all this is done, run xfce4-session, if everything was done correctly you'll see kali GUI.

[Matheus Grossi (matteothebrave)]

I have to add something. i tried almost everything but no success.. i just opened Kali as administrator and worked. i hope it works for someone too..

[aioont (aioont)]

I have to add something. i tried almost everything but no success.. i just opened Kali as administrator and worked. i hope it works for someone too..

Yes that works for root user because both normal and root have separate .vnc ( configuration files )

[Afonso Franco F. (afonsofrancof)]

After hours of searching to no avail, I have found that you need to:

1. do sudo su (all the commands need to be performed by root user) ;
2. delete the symlink in /tmp/.X11-unix ( just do rm /tmp/.X11-unix) ;
3. run vncserver (It will now be able to create the server) ;
4. Run kex and everything should work.

[ahenzen]

yeo when i rm /tmp/.X11-unix it says can't rm because it's a directory then i did sudo rmdir /tmp/.X11-unix and it said it couldn't rm because device or recourse is busy any help?

[aioont (aioont)]

If you encountered the "device or resource is busy" error, it means that some processes are still actively using resources within that directory, and therefore, it cannot be deleted. To resolve this, you need to find the processes that are using the X server and terminate them. Before doing so, be aware that this can cause your graphical user interface to stop functioning, and you may need to restart your system to restore it.

To identify processes using the X server, you can use the lsof command (list open files). Open a terminal and run:
sudo lsof /tmp/.X11-unix
This will show you a list of processes that have files open within the /tmp/.X11-unix directory. Once you identify these processes, you can decide whether it's safe to terminate them or not. To terminate a process, you can use the kill command followed by the process ID (PID).

sudo kill <PID>

[ahenzen]

Thaks a lot but when I do lsof /tmp/.X11-unix it just doesn't respond, and nothing pops up I assumed it was because nothing was using it but i tried to rmdir it again and it still said resource is busy.

[aioont (aioont)]

Try
rm -rf /tmp/.X11-unix

Or you can use this script https://github.com/aioont/kex

[Tharindu Yehan (TYehan)]

Deleting read-only files in Linux requires a bit more attention than usual files. Here are three approaches you can consider, depending on the situation:

1. Change file permissions:

• Check current permissions: Use ls -l filename to see the file's permissions. The first character indicates the file type, and the next three sets of three characters represent permissions for owner, group, and others. Look for a "-" in the write permission section (e.g., "-rw-").
• Grant write permission: If you have the necessary permissions, use chmod u+w filename to add write permission for the owner (you). Replace "filename" with the actual file name. You can use u+rw for both read and write access.
• Use sudo: If the file belongs to another user or requires root privileges, use sudo chmod u+w filename. Enter your password when prompted.
• Delete the file: Once you have write permission, use rm filename to delete the file.

2. Temporarily remount the filesystem with write access:

• Caution: This method involves modifying system settings and should be done with caution. Only proceed if you understand the risks and potential consequences.
• Identify filesystem: Use df to find the filesystem where the file resides. Look for the line containing the file's location.
• Remount with write access: Use sudo mount -o remount,rw /path/to/filesystem. Replace "/path/to/filesystem" with the actual path obtained from df.
• Delete the file: Use rm filename to delete the file.
• Remount read-only: Once done, remount the filesystem read-only with sudo mount -o remount,ro /path/to/filesystem.

3. Move the file:

• If deleting isn't essential, consider moving the file to a writable location. Use mv filename /path/to/writable/location. Replace "filename" and "path/to/writable/location" with the actual names.

Important notes:

• Always be cautious when dealing with system files and changing permissions. Consider backing up important data before proceeding.
• If you're unsure about the file's purpose or ownership, consult your system administrator or someone with more Linux expertise.
• The specific commands and steps may vary slightly depending on your Linux distribution.

I hope this helps! Let me know if you have any other questions.

[DJNuria (Dhalbakken)]

Adding to the solution found by Afonso Franco F. (@afonsofrancof)
I was able to recreate this. Following the logs from vncserver stating:

_XSERVTransSocketUNIXCreateListener: mkdir(/tmp/.X11-unix) failed, errno = 11
_XSERVTransMakeAllCOTSServerListeners: failed to create listener for unix

Xvnc TigerVNC 1.11.0 - built 2021-03-22 21:21
Copyright (C) 1999-2020 TigerVNC Team and many others (see README.rst)
See https://www.tigervnc.org for information on TigerVNC.
Underlying X server release 12010000, The X.Org Foundation

Sun Aug 1 21:05:56 2021
vncext: VNC extension running!
vncext: Listening for VNC connections on all interface(s), port 5901
vncext: created VNC server for screen 0

Sun Aug 1 21:06:26 2021
ComparingUpdateTracker: 0 pixels in / 0 pixels out
ComparingUpdateTracker: (1:-nan ratio)
_XSERVTransSocketUNIXCreateListener: mkdir(/tmp/.X11-unix) failed, errno = 11
_XSERVTransMakeAllCOTSServerListeners: failed to create listener for unix

I haven't done extensive testing, but I believe the issue resides in the way that the Standard User and associated permissions are created during initial setup through WSL2. As best I can tell, the only way to launch a KeX environment right now is to do so as root. However, this creates another potential issue: The KeX GUI environment's login will be root.

Attempting to launch KeX using the user you create during initial setup causes the recurring error quoted above until KeX times out and throws

Error connecting to the KeX server.
Please try "kex start" to start the service.
If the server fails to start, please try "kex kill" or restart your WSL2 session and try again.

I recommend posting this discussion as a bug report to the Kali Community and/or appropriate KeX developers.

[qyz (absly)]

I suppose that u are right. My kex worked very well util I updated the windows system to 11 or the wsl core or something else.
This bug still troubles me, because the root account cant support Gui well, many software don't allow root login.
By the way, have you or someone else reported this bug?

[Martn (MartinOberhauser)]

Hey, just for your information. I had the same problem, but what worked out for me is i checked my WSL version and i saw that i used
version 1. So i upgraded to version 2 and now it runs perfecty!

Cheers!

[Justin (KiriTowaha)]

root or non-root ?

[Martn (MartinOberhauser)]

You have to set the WSL Version in Windows of the VM.
e.g. wsl --set-version kali 2

[tiagofe]

Worked for me too. Thanks!

[Sameera Praditha (sameerapr)]

I have installed kali linux using wsl2. Then I followed this guide to install win-kex. It was working fine till this morning.

Now if I try to run kex I get the following error:

Error connecting to the KeX server.
Please try "kex start" to start the service.
If the server fails to start, please try "kex kill" or restart your WSL2 session and try again.

If I run kex stop or kex kill I get the following output:

❯ kex stop                                                                                                                                                                                                     
tigervncserver: No matching VNC server running for this user!
tigervncserver: No matching VNC server running for this user!

~
❯ kex kill                                                                                                                                                                                                     tigervncserver: No matching VNC server running for this user!
tigervncserver: No matching VNC server running for this user!
tigervncserver: No matching VNC server running for this user!
tigervncserver: No matching VNC server running for this user!

I googled around to find various methods to fix this. Most of the articles/discussion suggest the following ways:

1. Install dbus-x11

   • Already installed still having the issue

2. Running the following command:

    -> kex stop
    -> cd /home
    -> kex
   

   • This is not working for me

3. Kill vncserver and then start kex

   -> vncserver --kill :*
   -> kex stop
   -> kex kill
   -> kex
   

   • this gives the same error

In the 3rd method if I do all that and then start the vncserver by running:

vncserver

I get:

New Xtigervnc server 'pc.localdomain:1 (pwnbox)' on port 5901 for display :1.
Use xtigervncviewer -SecurityTypes VncAuth -passwd /home/.vnc/passwd :1 to connect to the VNC server.

And if I run kex after that I get error saying No Matching security Type

How to No matching VNC server Problem working 100%
https://youtu.be/WCLTQ0MIP28

[zzkluck (zzkluck)]

simply use 'sudo kex' instead of 'kex' seems to work well

[dl1rich]

This literally solved all of my issues, thank you zzkluck :)

[elnur0000]

I have a similar problem in my win 11,
while solution provided by Afonso Franco F. (@afonsofrancof) worked, there are still some problems
kex command gives "Error connecting to the KeX server."
and vncserver gives "Segmentation fault"
sudo kex command now works perfectly, but I would prefer not using root for security reasons

[Marco Belotti (m-belotti)]

I've resolved with "kex --esm --ip -sound", working well as non-root account.

[Walter D. (gwd999)]

I really like that solution, also started having the same issues out of nowhere, or b/c of switching to WIN11, had totally forgotten about the RDP option. So will stick with that for now - thnx for reminding me of esm
Gonna add a nice alias to my .zshrc and wait for updates on the issue, I guess.

[Yan Matheus (REFSZIN)]

TRX MANNNNNNNNN <3

[aioont (aioont)]

Let me know these work ?

It's properly working on kali linux rootless on android.

https://github.com/aioont/kex

If your error still exist,then try these

cd ~/.vnc/
rm -rf *.log *.pid
cd /

rm -rf /tmp/.X* /tmp/.xfsm* /tmp/.l2s* /tmp/.ICE-unix
vncserver -kill :*
vncserver -depth 24 -geometry 1920x1080 :1

//Removing log pid files in ~/.vnc directory
//Removing some files and directories under /tmp

[Vagner Silva (VagnerSilva)]

I've resolved with...

Run the ps command if there is any process referring to kex finalize it

sudo rm -rf /tmp/.X* (if '/tmp/.X11-unix' exists)
sudo mkdir /tmp/.X11-unix
sudo chmod 1777 /tmp/.X11-unix
sudo chown root /tmp/.X11-unix/
vncserver -localhost no

sudo nano ~/.vnc/xstartup

#!/bin/bash

PATH=/usr/bin:/usr/sbin
unset SESSION_MANAGER
unset DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS
export XDG_SESSION_TYPE=x11
export GDK_BACKEND=x11
exec startxfce4

sudo chmod 777 ~/.vnc/xstartup
vncserver -localhost no
kex --win -s

[CorruptedBios (corrupted-bios)]

Solved my issue, thanks, I just had to run # umount /tmp/.X11-unix first, as suggested by Anders Alfredsson (@pacive)

[Josué B. Almeida (Joshpcbrrj)]

I solver my problem with it. I hope that my pc restart the solution dont crash. Thank Vagner Silva (@VagnerSilva), and @chadmelancia and Anders Alfredsson (@pacive) too. You are are wonderful.

[nanners (nannerpusser)]

I solver my problem with it. I hope that my pc restart the solution dont crash. Thank Vagner Silva (@VagnerSilva), and @chadmelancia and Anders Alfredsson (@pacive) too. You are are wonderful.

Actually it's the WSL shutdown and restart that is going to wipe it out. At least this is the state of systemd init (it's actually systemd-tmpfiles) in WSLg and versions of Ubuntu and Debian I have been able to use kex on perfectly until last major WSL update pushed by MS. They changed the way /tmp/ sockets are being handled, or at least how the /tmp/.X11-unix socket is treated at boot by systemd. It is wiped out no matter what and remounted as ro when it needs to be rw. The fix I was using was to just umount /tmp/.X11-unix and remount with rw. Very much like parent comment here suggests doing with chmod.

[SK-Infidel]

Ok, took some sleuthing, but there was a lot going on with this error.

To be clear, the problem as defined is not being able to run kex as a NON-ADMIN.
running it with sudo, or as root is NOT a solution. The error occurs when trying to start kex/xfce as a non administrator.

Because that's what you're supposed to do. Because security matters. You don't wanna be messing around with some of these tools and unwittingly jack your entire box up because you owned yourself, and that stuff happens for many reasons.
Been up for a long time, too much coffee, not enough coffee, yadda yadda. Being a regular user while using hacking tools is a very good idea, and it's a good idea anyway.

I tried everything in these suggestions, and nothing worked. In fact some made it worse.

There's a crazy interplay of xfce components at work here. DBUS, ICE, PolicyKit, TigerVNC, etc. etc. etc.

What I noticed was that DBUS didn't seem to know anything about me. In the .xsessionerrors file in ~ I saw repeated messages akin to

"dbus-update-activation-environment: systemd --user not found, ignoring --systemd argument"

Kind of beside the point, as wsl doesn't use systemd, but the "user not found" part of that message is very intersting.

I needed to let it know how to find me... and that we're not in a systemd init environment.

dbus-update-activation-environment --all

Checked the logs again, and I was getting a dbus session, which was progress, so I went to the next error in the list.

"_IceTransmkdir: Owner of /tmp/.ICE-unix should be set to root"
So I checked a full installation into an actual vm of ubuntu and I noticed that the file was owned by root:root and the mode was 1777

So I recreated it with the proper permissions

cd /tmp
mkdir .ICE-unix
sudo chown root:root .ICE-unix
sudo chmod 1777 .ICE-unix

After that, the ICE error was gone in the ~.xsessionerrors log, but I was seeing

"(xfwm4:7394): Gtk-WARNING **: 18:06:13.137: cannot open display: wayland-0

(xfce4-panel:7411): libxfce4ui-WARNING **: 18:06:14.261: ICE I/O Error"

Shopped around for the ICE runtime directory, and after I found it, I noticed there was a lock file and a pid for wayland 0, so I deleted them.

cd /mnt/wslg/runtime-dir
rm -rf wayland*

Then I ran kex --win -s, and boom. I have a stable desktop.

I wrote a script to fix it. you'll have set it to executable and run it sudo. Not as root. Non-admin account.. sudo...

#Clean up lock and pid files that exist in various places

rm -rf ~/.vnc/*.pid
rm -rf /tmp/*.X
rm -rf /tmp/.xfsm*
rm -rf /tmp/*.l2s
rm -rf /tmp/ssh*
rm -rf /tmp/.X10-unix/*
rm -rf /mnt/wslg/runtime-dir/wayland*

#Set permissions for .ICE-unix

mkdir /tmp/.ICE-unix
rm -rf /tmp/.ICE-unix/*
sudo chown root:root /tmp/.ICE-unix
chmod 1777 /tmp/.ICE-unix


#Fix DBUS

dbus-update-activation-environment --all

echo "That's it, we're all done here."

Then just run "kex --win -s" normally. No insecure localhost options, no geometry in vncserver first.. just run it how it's designed to run.

Hope this helps.

[Peter-Jon Lawrence (P33J3)]

Manually running the commands in the script worked for me in January 2023 (newbie);

updated rm -rf /tmp/.X11-unix/*

and used cosminiq advice to umount file first.

Thank you people.

[branderage]

thanks, works great!

[Jonathan (onomatopellan)]

Kali-win-kex has been updated to version 3.0 and it fixes most of the problems. Now is also compatible with WSLg in Windows 11.

[qyz (absly)]

I've tried the newest version. It now works well in window mode, but in seamless mode I met a new problem.

And the log:

[xkb] Starting '"\wsl.localhost\kali-linux\usr\lib\win-kex\VcXsrv\xkbcomp" -w 1 "-R\wsl.localhost\kali-linux\usr\lib\win-kex\VcXsrv\xkbdata" -xkm "C:\Users\Absolute OB\AppData\Local\Temp\xkb_a15144" -em1 "The XKEYBOARD keymap compiler (xkbcomp) reports:" -emp "> " -eml "Errors from xkbcomp are not fatal to the X server" "C:\Users\Absolute OB\AppData\Local\Temp\server-3.xkm"' failed: Incorrect funtion
(EE) Error compiling keymap (server-3) executing '"\wsl.localhost\kali-linux\usr\lib\win-kex\VcXsrv\xkbcomp" -w 1 "-R\wsl.localhost\kali-linux\usr\lib\win-kex\VcXsrv\xkbdata" -xkm "C:\Users\Absolute OB\AppData\Local\Temp\xkb_a15144" -em1 "The XKEYBOARD keymap compiler (xkbcomp) reports:" -emp "> " -eml "Errors from xkbcomp are not fatal to the X server" "C:\Users\Absolute OB\AppData\Local\Temp\server-3.xkm"'
(EE) XKB: Couldn't compile keymap
(EE) XKB: Failed to load keymap. Loading default keymap instead.
[xkb] Starting '"\wsl.localhost\kali-linux\usr\lib\win-kex\VcXsrv\xkbcomp" -w 1 "-R\wsl.localhost\kali-linux\usr\lib\win-kex\VcXsrv\xkbdata" -xkm "C:\Users\Absolute OB\AppData\Local\Temp\xkb_a15144" -em1 "The XKEYBOARD keymap compiler (xkbcomp) reports:" -emp "> " -eml "Errors from xkbcomp are not fatal to the X server" "C:\Users\Absolute OB\AppData\Local\Temp\server-3.xkm"' failed: Incorrect funtion
(EE) Error compiling keymap (server-3) executing '"\wsl.localhost\kali-linux\usr\lib\win-kex\VcXsrv\xkbcomp" -w 1 "-R\wsl.localhost\kali-linux\usr\lib\win-kex\VcXsrv\xkbdata" -xkm "C:\Users\Absolute OB\AppData\Local\Temp\xkb_a15144" -em1 "The XKEYBOARD keymap compiler (xkbcomp) reports:" -emp "> " -eml "Errors from xkbcomp are not fatal to the X server" "C:\Users\Absolute OB\AppData\Local\Temp\server-3.xkm"'
(EE) XKB: Couldn't compile keymap
XKB: Failed to compile keymap
Keyboard initialization failed. This could be a missing or incorrect setup of xkeyboard-config.
(EE)
Fatal server error:
(EE) Failed to activate virtual core keyboard: 2(EE)
(EE) Server terminated with error (1). Closing log file.

how to solve this?

[Jonathan (onomatopellan)]

qyz (@absly) Same here. What's your output for wsl.exe --version ?

[qyz (absly)]

Jonathan (@onomatopellan)
WSL version： 0.51.2.0
Kernel version： 5.10.81.1
WSLg version： 1.0.30
Windows version： 10.0.22543.1000

[Jonathan (onomatopellan)]

qyz (@absly) Seamless mode uses a windows binary vcxsvr.exe so it could be an issue with the WSL Store version. #7754
You can try to uninstall the Store version (it won't touch your distros) and see if the system version has this problem too. You may need to run wsl.exe --update --inbox

[qyz (absly)]

Jonathan (@onomatopellan)
It works! Thanks for your help!

[ryankamfolt]

Very simple fix for WSL. Go to google and download VNCViewer. Install in Windows. Open and when it asks for server to connect to type: localhost:5901. Enter the password you setup earlier for KEX and bam you are in!

[flabeee]

Worked for me! Much appreciated!

[carl (carl1l)]

i find a way to solve this problem,but it will create another problem. i use net stop winnat and net start winnat. then i can use kex --win normally,but now my kali can not conncet the internet

[carl (carl1l)]

i think maybe i find the way to solve my new problem.i just Remove this option and then shutdown my windows system.then i did not appear this problem

[mrdragonblack]

please help me i using kali linux in wsl2 in win11 after update my wsl2 win kex won't connect to win kex server all win kex broken kex ls no working, win kex wont'connect , win kex esm just blank screen last win kex not working please help me sorry for bad english i have screenshot


thank you for your help

[mrdragonblack]

not work win kex wont connect to kex that way i hate wsl wsl suck

[Paciupa]

For me everything worked out fine with previous version from Windows optional feature (not WSL 1, just older WSL 2).
And I was able to repair win mode Win-KeX with sudo mount -o remount,rw /tmp/.X11-unix, thanks elasco, if you want to use the latest WSL version from the Store

[Mistry Siddh (mistrysiddh)]

sudo mount -o remount,rw /tmp/.X11-unix

I have to write this code everytime when i login into kali

[Paciupa]

You can just add this command in your ~/.bashrc file and it will be executed every time you login into. (To find out more search about ~/.bashrc)

[Mistry Siddh (mistrysiddh)]

i have already added to .zshrc which is my default terminal but i use this command to access it.

wsl kex --sl -s

[mrdragonblack]

Thank for your help if not working thats ok if not your help maybe i Will quit from wsl linux wsl is suck for Linux Pada tanggal Rab, 14 Des 2022 13.25, Vagner Silva ***@***.***> menulis:

…

Open de prompt as admin. netsh winsock reset restart you windows In some cases it helps. I hope it solves your problem. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#6675 (reply in thread)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/A4FMJMLCBTFDLUDRAR6IKVLWNFK4VANCNFSM4ZG33LTQ> . You are receiving this because you commented.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[Tims Kurskiev (tkurskiev)]

In my case, restarting computer helped.

[DurvalPaicheco]

Run without docker,
install using NPM

### npm install -g @soketi/soketi

After start the service --

soketi start

Doc : https://docs.soketi.app/getting-started/installation/cli-installation

[Jonathan Halls (JonathanHallsProgram)]

An additional fix to this "afonsofrancof
on Jul 15, 2021
After hours of searching to no avail, I have found that you need to:

do sudo su (all the commands need to be performed by root user) ;
delete the symlink in /tmp/.X11-unix ( just do rm /tmp/.X11-unix) ;
run vncserver (It will now be able to create the server) ;
Run kex and everything should work."
The symlink may be a mount instead. On my install rm /tmp/.X11-unix returned Device or resource busy rather than working. findmnt /tmp/.X11-unix showed it was a tmpfs bind mount of /mnt/wslg/.X11-unix, held by the WSLg system distro. Check which you have first:
ls -ld /tmp/.X11-unix
Leading l = symlink, rm works as described. Leading d + a findmnt hit = mount, so umount -l /tmp/.X11-unix first, then rm.

Don't stay as root for step 4. sudo su applies sudoers' secure_path, which strips all /mnt/c/... entries from PATH — kex then fails with route.exe: command not found. Run vncserver/kex as your normal user; only the /tmp/.X11-unix removal needs root.

If the viewer still times out after all that: in my case vncserver started fine and ss -ltnp | grep 590 showed Xtigervnc listening, but the client got error 10060. Cause was ufw's default INPUT DROP silently discarding the connection. Quick diagnostic:
timeout 5 bash -c '</dev/tcp/127.0.0.1/5901' && echo OPEN || echo FAILED
Timeout vs. "connection refused" is the tell — refused means nothing is listening, timeout means packets are being dropped. Fix:
sudo ufw allow from 127.0.0.1 to any port 5901 proto tcp
If you're on WSL2 mirrored networking mode, note there's no 172.16.x interface, so rules scoped to that range silently match nothing.

Also worth flagging that WSLg recreates /tmp/.X11-unix on every distro start, so step 2 isn't permanent. Setting guiApplications=false under [wsl2] in .wslconfig stops it coming back, at the cost of native WSLg app support.