Configure your system to have x11vnc running at startup.

x11vnc_server_on_startup.txt

## Ubuntu 15.04 – Configure your system to have x11vnc running at startup. ##


Hello World,

If you are following us, you probably remember that we wrote already a post about this topic
(see Ubuntu 14.10 – Configure your sytem to have x11vnc running at startup).
Since Ubuntu 15.04 is using systemd, the instructions found in the previous post are not applicable anymore.
Some of our readers had issues after upgrading to Ubuntu 15.04.
The x11VNC is not running at startup anymore.

This post will provide the necessary information to have x11vnc running at startup on ubuntu 15.04 when systemd is used.

## Our Goal ##

At the end of this post, you should be able to connect via vnc to your Ubuntu machine even if there is a reboot
and even if no user are logged into the machine.
This configuration should display the login screen via vnc viewer client you are using.

We didn’t invent anything here.
All the information provided here are based on the information made available
at this location :
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/VNC/Servers#Have_x11vnc_start_automatically_via_systemd_in_any_environment_.28Vivid.2B-.29

## Installing x11vnc server ##

In this post, we have decided to use the x11vnc server package to provide vnc capabilities.
The installation process is quite straight forward.
Log into your ubuntu 15.04 machine, open the terminal console and issue the following command :

$ sudo apt-get install x11vnc

To have a minimum of security, we will protect the vnc connection via a password.
The password will be stored in a file.
To create this file, you will need to issue the following command :

$ sudo x11vnc –storepasswd /etc/x11vnc.pass

You will be asked to enter a password. Enter the password and confirm your choice and you should be good to go.

## Create the Service Unit file ##

So far, we have just issued standard command related to the x11vnc
package.  We need to create the service unit file for our x11vnc
service.  To do this, we will issue the following command :

$ sudo nano /lib/systemd/system/x11vnc.service

This file should content the following lines

[Unit]
Description=Start x11vnc at startup.
After=multi-user.target
[Service]
Type=simple
ExecStart=/usr/bin/x11vnc -auth guess -forever -loop -noxdamage -repeat -rfbauth /etc/x11vnc.pass -rfbport 5900 -shared
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
Save the file

## Configure Systemd ##

It’s time to issue the command to have systemd aware of the change
and make the service running at startup.  In a command prompt, you will
issue the following command :

$ sudo systemctl daemon-reload
$ sudo systemctl enable x11vnc.service
 
Restart the system and do not login.  We will check if this is working…..

## Testing the solution ##

To check that you can indeed perform a vnc connection to your Ubuntu Machine,
you will try to connect to it using your favourite vncviewer (we are using TigerVnc)
while nobody is connected and just after a reboot of the machine.

In the vncviewer, you will provide the
ip address or hostname of the machine to connect and the port to be used.
In our example, the port used is 5900. 
If you have set a password to protect your vnc connection, you will be prompted for a password as well.

If everything is ok, you should see the Ubutun login page displayed inside your vncviewer

## Final Notes ##

And voila! We have sucessfully updated the instructions on how to have x11vnc run at startup.
As you can see, since Ubuntu 15.04 is using the Systemd solution,
we need to create our service unit files (x11vnc.service), register them with systemctl and we are done.

If you still can't connect, try:

sudo chmod 600 /etc/x11vnc.pass
sudo systemctl restart x11vnc.service

Now try again ;)