Set up VNC server in 3 steps, accessible with browsers and other viewers

[se2131]

EDIT: Ok, I lied, I meant 4 steps (w/ an optional 5th)

I just did this on Gutsy, and I thought that it might be worth sharing as a simple way to set up a persistent VNC server. This is accessible using regular vnc viewers, and through java-enabled browsers. That's right, you can work on your computer through a browser.

1) Install packages

sudo aptitude install x11vnc vnc-java

2) Set up password to allow clients to view

x11vnc -storepasswd

3) Open up ports 5800 and 5900 on your firewall

4) Run this command: x11vnc -forever -usepw -httpdir /usr/share/vnc-java/ -httpport 5800

That's it!

And an optional step 5:

5) Add the command from 4) to your sessions, so that it starts at each login

If you want to test it out on a browser, type this in the URL field:

25.542.161.414:5800

Of course, replace the 25.etc. w/ your external IP address.

Addendums to this are welcome, such as how to make it more secure. I just thought it'd be nice to have a quick and dirty tutorial for getting this set up easily.

[ryansinn]

x11vnc* doesn't exist in gutsy .. you want to use vncserver and vnc-java

but FYI this method is very insecure and doesn't actually work as advertised.

If you want to run a persistant VNC server -- you should really look more at tunneling the VNC connection via SSH if at all possible.

[krunge]

x11vnc* doesn't exist in gutsy .. you want to use vncserver and vnc-java

I think it is available in the universe repository.

but FYI this method is very insecure and doesn't actually work as advertised.

Recent versions of x11vnc are SSL enabled and you could run it like:

x11vnc -http_ssl -ssl SAVE -display :0 ...

then point the browser at the https URL:

https://hostname:5900

You may need to download x11vnc's java viewer jar files separately because Debian doesn't include them.

[sasagundul]

nice tutorial
thanks
it helped me to set my home server