Author: Carlos Alfaro

The answer is actually a combination of two separate solutions, each of which did not work separately. I have 10.04 now working headless on two different servers (different MB, Video…) and both are working great.

Step 1. Create a xorg.conf in /etc/X11 with the following. I tried Step 2 without doing this and it failed exactly as it had before.

Section “Device”
Identifier “VNC Device”
Driver “vesa”
EndSection

Section “Screen”
Identifier “VNC Screen”
Device “VNC Device”
Monitor “VNC Monitor”
SubSection “Display”
Modes “1024×768”
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section “Monitor”
Identifier “VNC Monitor”
HorizSync 30-70
VertRefresh 50-75
EndSection

Step 2. Disable KMS for your video card as described here https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/KernelModeSetting

The jist is to know which video card manufacturer you have and use the command line entry below it to create the appropriate kms.conf file with the line “options…modeset=0” line in it. If you have access to the GUI you could just are easily create/modify the file and put the “options…modeset=0” in as appropriate.

The following are input into the terminal windows as a line command.

# ATI Radeon:
echo options radeon modeset=0 > /etc/modprobe.d/radeon-kms.conf

# Intel:
echo options i915 modeset=0 > /etc/modprobe.d/i915-kms.conf

# Nvidia (this should revert you to using -nv or -vesa):
echo options nouveau modeset=0 > /etc/modprobe.d/nouveau-kms.conf

Step 3. Reboot…Putty In…startx…GTG!

This is a simple guide on setting up X11VNC on a system running Ubuntu 10.04 in a headless configuration. Good Luck, and YMMV.

1. Terminal > sudo apt-get install x11vnc
OR compile x11vnc from source: http://www.karlrunge.com/x11vnc/

2. Terminal > sudo nano /etc/gdm/Init/Default

2.1. Add on the second last line:
/usr/bin/x11vnc -xkb -rfbauth /etc/x11vnc/passwd -o /etc/x11vnc/log -bg -forever
OR if you compiled from source, add the following line:
/usr/local/bin/x11vnc -xkb -rfbauth /etc/x11vnc/passwd -o /etc/x11vnc/log -bg -forever

2.2. Terminal > sudo mkdir /etc/x11vnc

2.3. Terminal > sudo touch /etc/x11vnc/log

2.4. Terminal > sudo x11vnc -storepasswd /etc/x11vnc/passwd
Follow the commands to store your password. Alternatively, if you do not wish to use a password, do not run this line and remove the -rfbauth /etc/x11vnc/passwd section from /etc/gdm/Init/Default

3. Terminal > sudo restart gdm

Para tener un VNC que inicie automaticamente con el perfil de usuario deseado y con la resolucion que uno elija, hay que hacer un archivo llamado vnc en la ruta /etc/init.d con el siguiente contenido:

#!/bin/sh -e
### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides:          vncserver
# Required-Start:    networking
# Default-Start:     S
# Default-Stop:      0 6
### END INIT INFO

PATH=”$PATH:/usr/X11R6/bin/”

# The Username:Group that will run VNC
export USER=”mythtv”
#${RUNAS}

# The display that VNC will use
DISPLAY=”1″

# Color depth (between 8 and 32)
DEPTH=”16″

# The Desktop geometry to use.
#GEOMETRY=”<WIDTH>x<HEIGHT>”
#GEOMETRY=”800×600″
GEOMETRY=”1024×768″
#GEOMETRY=”1280×1024″

# The name that the VNC Desktop will have.
NAME=”my-vnc-server”

OPTIONS=”-name ${NAME} -depth ${DEPTH} -geometry ${GEOMETRY} :${DISPLAY}”

. /lib/lsb/init-functions

case “$1” in
start)
log_action_begin_msg “Starting vncserver for user ‘${USER}’ on localhost:${DISPLAY}”
su ${USER} -c “/usr/bin/vncserver ${OPTIONS}”
;;

stop)
log_action_begin_msg “Stoping vncserver for user ‘${USER}’ on localhost:${DISPLAY}”
su ${USER} -c “/usr/bin/vncserver -kill :${DISPLAY}”
;;

restart)
$0 stop
$0 start
;;
esac

exit 0

Despues ejecutamos lo siguiente, para que arranque automaticamente con el sistema, recuerda de hacer ejecutable el archivo vnc con el comando chmod +x vnc

update-rc.d vncserver defaults