OS: GNU/Linux Debian 9 with Cinnamon DE.
Since we managed to get VNC on Debian server running, thanks to GAD3R again, it's time to make VNC a regular service.
I want it to be running all the time, since boot, without having to SSH to server, while running:
x11vnc -rfbauth ~/.vnc/passwd
Also, I don't want to run a separate Cinnamon session, I want to see directly what's on the primary screen or whatever you call it, and manipulate with that session live.
Similar to Vlastimil's own solution, but with a few other details: (from VNC server for Cinnamon with systemd)
Create the file /etc/systemd/system/x11vnc.service :
[Unit]
Description=VNC Server for X11
Requires=display-manager.service
After=syslog.target network-online.target ##optional for better performance
Wants=syslog.target network-online.target ##optional for better performance
[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/bin/x11vnc -display :0 -rfbauth /etc/x11vnc.pwd -shared -forever -o /var/log/x11vnc.log
ExecStop=/usr/bin/x11vnc -R stop
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=2
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
Generate and Set the VNC password (replace MY_PASSWORD)
x11vnc -storepasswd MY_PASSWORD /etc/x11vnc.pwd
Finally:
systemctl daemon-reload
systemctl enable x11vnc
systemctl start x11vnc
ExecStop doesn't work, also, when you stop the service, it works exactly the same if you remove this parameter note: it does show an error, either way so I just removed ExecStop
First, it might be a good idea to copy the password file under /etc/, something like:
sudo cp ~/.vnc/passwd /etc/vnc.passwd
This also ensures the ownership to root and his rw access, as confirmed by:
$ ll /etc/vnc.passwd
-rw------- 1 root root 8 Nov 3 04:00 /etc/vnc.passwd
Second, we have to create the service file ourselves:
sudo nano /lib/systemd/system/vnc.service
while the simplest solution I came up with is for it to contain:
[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/vnc.passwd -rfbport 5900 -shared
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
Note, while it is by far the simplest service file, it can't even have support for stop or restart, I myself need to figure this out yet.
Disclaimer: The man page is quite lengthy, and maybe I've made some serious, e.g. security mistake here. Use on your own risk.
sudo systemctl enable vnc.service
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
and you may simply reboot the machine.
As a side-note, on the client-side, you may want to copy the password file from the server for you not to enter a password each time, you connect, and define some alias similar to:
alias vnc-server='(vncviewer 192.168.0.xxx:5900 -passwd /home/UserName/.vnc/server.passwd > /dev/null 2>&1 &)'
so that it won't flood your terminal.