Arch Linux

WinnerWind

Member

From: Bangalore, India

Registered: 2024-09-07

Posts: 27

Website

[SOLVED] Run TigerVNC/X11VNC in a headless arch home server.

Hello!

I have a small Lenovo Thinkcenter that I'm using with a wifi card. My setup is not too unconventional, but what I want to do is a bit unconventional.
I want to run virtual machines in this thing. Things like Windows and Ubuntu, and then from my own personal laptop, access the server's desktop, then start the virtual machine as required. In short, I want to use this computer like a remote desktop, along with a few other things (Jellyfin, Filebrowser, and Syncthing to be specific).

Right now, it doesn't have a display manager, but I have installed XFCE4. I can boot into XFCE4 normally by using

startxfce4

. From there, if I start a terminal and run

x11vnc

, I can access it just fine.

But, what I want it to do instead, is for x11vnc to start a sort of "headless" version of xfce4, and not display it on tty1 at all. I tried using

x11vnc -create

which creates a new XORG instance, and that boots fine except it's just a black screen. How do I tell x11vnc to instead start xfce4 when I start it using x11vnc -create?

So, in short.
- x11vnc works, I can see my xfce session if its already running
- x11vnc works, I can see a black screen when no session is running, but the cursor exists, so clearly XORG is running
- xfce works, I can start my xfce session using startxfce4
- I want to run x11vnc without having to start xfce session, and have x11vnc start it for me.

I'm also considering TigerVNC, but so far I have not gotten it to work.

Last edited by WinnerWind (2025-03-03 05:57:28)

demaio

Member

From: Germany

Registered: 2012-09-02

Posts: 102

Website

Re: [SOLVED] Run TigerVNC/X11VNC in a headless arch home server.

A few months ago I just followed the instructions at the TigerVNC wiki page and it is working.

I do use IceWM instead of LXQT which is mentioned in the wiki.

Last edited by demaio (2025-02-24 08:44:16)

WinnerWind

Member

From: Bangalore, India

Registered: 2024-09-07

Posts: 27

Website

Re: [SOLVED] Run TigerVNC/X11VNC in a headless arch home server.

I'll give tigervnc a try and see how it goes.

WinnerWind

Member

From: Bangalore, India

Registered: 2024-09-07

Posts: 27

Website

Re: [SOLVED] Run TigerVNC/X11VNC in a headless arch home server.

TigerVNC worked. I followed the install guide and I can access the VNC instance without having to do any fancy work/bashrc disowning.
Thanks! Marked as solved.