my not so Raspberry PI adventure

[VK5PJ]

Okay here is VNC, it is not going to be pretty and at one point I was ready to blow linux away and install Win 10 in its place, yep the air around me was B-L-U-E with nasty words.

After a great deal of searching and failure I found this forum post...  YES an answer on a forum, who would have thought that.

While his english syntax is not that great the actual code you need to run is all outlined here: VNC Install  So just in case his posting disappears, I will try and transfer the steps to here. This is all done in a terminal window (Console view)

Install the basic VNC software:

Code:

sudo apt-get install tigervnc-scraping-server

Update the packages

Code:

sudo update-alternatives --config x0vncserver

Start the VNC server for the first time

Code:

x0vncserver -SecurityTypes=none

At this point you can connect to the computer via VNC without a password if you want to try it now.

In the terminal use Ctrl C to kill the VNC server so you can proceed


Set the VNC password

Code:

vncpasswd

this will prompt you for a password to access this linux system when you connect over VNC, when it asks for a View-Only password say no.


Start the VNC server again BUT now requiring a password (getting closer)

Code:

x0vncserver -PasswordFile=/home/<user>/.vnc/passwd

now where in the line it shows <user> this is the username of the account you used to login, in my case its is vk5pj
or   $ x0vncserver -PasswordFile=/home/vk5pj/.vnc/passwd

This will now have the VNC server running as an interactive process from that console window, not exactly handy as you have to be logged in an remember to run it.... 

Next step is to make it run as a service under Linux...   now this required the help from yet another Forum...  what are the chances of that, sorry Doug.

GITHUB Answer

On this page, it shows the steps on how to create the needed files and commands to get the vnc server to run as a service under linux, phew.

Firstly you need to create a script file, Create a file with path /usr/local/bin/x0vnc.sh

Edit this file with a text editor and paste this code, be sure to replace 'vk5pj' with the linux username your using.

Code:

#! /bin/bash

# Export an environment variable of the Display Manager
export XAUTHORITY="/var/run/lightdm/root/:0"

# Start VNC server for :0 display in background
## Set path to binary file
VNC_BIN=/usr/bin/x0vncserver

## Set parameters
#PARAMS="-display :0 -SecurityTypes None"
PARAMS="-display :0 -passwordfile /home/vk5pj/.vnc/passwd"
if [[ -f /etc/vnc.conf ]];
then
    ## Launch VNC server
    ($VNC_BIN $PARAMS) &
else
    ## Add parameters
    PARAMS+=" --I-KNOW-THIS-IS-INSECURE"
    
    ## Launch VNC server
    $VNC_BIN $PARAMS
fi

# Provide clean exit code for the service
exit 0

This is the script that is going to be referenced in the service startup config that follows

Create a file with path /etc/systemd/system/x0vncserver.service
edit it with a text editor and past in this code.

Code:

[Unit]
Description=Remote desktop service (VNC) for :0 display

# Require start of
Requires=display-manager.service

# Wait for
After=network-online.target
After=display-manager.service

[Service]
Type=forking

# Set environment
Environment=HOME=/root

# Start command
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/x0vnc.sh

# Restart service after session log out
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=5

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

now we can test the script but first we need to declare it as an executable file

Code:

sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/x0vnc.sh

Launch the script

Code:

sudo /usr/local/bin/x0vnc.sh

Try to connect via VNC. you will need a password.

Now lets make this all into a service with the help of the systemd unit

Code:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload

sudo systemctl start x0vncserver.service

sudo systemctl status x0vncserver.service

Enable autostart at boot up.

Code:

sudo systemctl enable x0vncserver.service

yes I know that's a lot of steps to make VNC work and a smarter person that I could probably script that but as I only need to do it once what is the point 

I doubt many if any will want to duplicate this but found forums are a handy place to document your own work even if very few follow the same path,