{"id":2589,"date":"2021-06-18T22:09:25","date_gmt":"2021-06-19T06:09:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wonghoi.humgar.com\/blog\/?p=2589"},"modified":"2025-11-30T23:17:53","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T07:17:53","slug":"run-vnc-server-before-logging-to-linux-gui","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wonghoi.humgar.com\/blog\/2021\/06\/18\/run-vnc-server-before-logging-to-linux-gui\/","title":{"rendered":"Run VNC server before logging to Linux GUI"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I installed X11vnc<\/a> and to my dismay, there isn’t a easy option that automatically configures VNC as a service like most Windows VNC software does (so you can VNC into a computer before you login as a user graphically and launch the X11vnc executable). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had to manually create a service and I ran into a few problems as the instructions<\/a> on StackExchange and other forums are missing critical pieces. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In here, I will use X11vnc server on Ubuntu Cinnamon (systemd) as an example. Instead of blindly pasting code here without context, I’ll sketch out the ideas here:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. Establish a password in a password file stored in common areas such as \/etc\/x11vnc.pwd instead of using the user-specific home folder default ~\/.vnc\/passwd<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Create a service (such as systemd) pointing to x11vnc program with the right parameters, which includes the path to the password file stored in common areas<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Start the service<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    It’s worth nothing that the X11server connection is unencrypted. I tried the -ssl options but my RealVNC clients complained about their version <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n\n\n\n

    First of all, x11vnc -storepasswd<\/code><\/code> creates the encrypted password file at the current home folder where you run the code. You are going to call the said password file with x11vnc -rbfauth {path to password file}<\/code> parameter when launching the X11vnc server program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    One way to do it is to copy the created password to a system-specific configuration folder instead of user’s home folder:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    sudo cp ~\/.vnc\/passwd \/etc\/x11vnc.pwd<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
    Alternatively (which I do not recommend), is to specify the password AND the password-file path directly with optional specifiers of the -storepasswd<\/code> parameter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
    # Directly create the password file without a prompt that hides the password entry\nx11vnc -storepasswd my_pASSword \/etc\/x11vnc.pwd\n# Clean up your terminal command history since you've exposed the password visually\nhistory -c<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
    Unfortunately, if you want to specify the path to the password-file, you have to specify type the plain text password in the command line, which you should do it when nobody’s watching and clear the history immediately afterwards. If you are in a public place, just do it the old way and copy the password file over <\/p>\n\n\n\n
    \n\n\n\n
    The core part of setting (doing the data-entry) for registering a service<\/a> is the figuring out the command line parameters executing x11vnc program. At minimal, you’ll need<\/p>\n\n\n\n