Regarding the VNC issues. This seems to have been a problem for some time. If you plug a monitor in when you power up the PI it seems to do fine. Think I found a work around, this is from my notes:
Video Setup
Change cmdline.txt in /boot Add the following: video=HDMI-A-1:1280x720@60D
Mine looks like:
console=serial0,115200 console=tty1 root=PARTUUID=9c48fee6-02 rootfstype=ext4 fsck.repair=yes rootwait quiet splash video=HDMI-A-1:1280x720@60D plymouth.ignore-serial-consoles
After making these changes I have had no VNC/monitor issues at all. This locks it in at 720, but that is good enough for me plus it keeps VNC snappy.
Video Setup
Change cmdline.txt in /boot Add the following: video=HDMI-A-1:1280x720@60D
Mine looks like:
console=serial0,115200 console=tty1 root=PARTUUID=9c48fee6-02 rootfstype=ext4 fsck.repair=yes rootwait quiet splash video=HDMI-A-1:1280x720@60D plymouth.ignore-serial-consoles
After making these changes I have had no VNC/monitor issues at all. This locks it in at 720, but that is good enough for me plus it keeps VNC snappy.