How to VNC into an existing X session?

Question

Would like to be able to connect to an existing X display, so can access my work environment and everything I left open from home. I vaguely remember something about using x11vnc in the past. But the package does not exists for Fedora 11, so I am thinking there is some built in method now.

NOTE: I connect to my work machine through a VPN so password protection is all I need security wise.

Sekenre · Accepted Answer · 2019-07-12T11:24:51.027

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Use x11vnc, It will attach to a running session and let you share the desktop. If you run it as root to connect to an xdm session, you will need to do some research into Xauth as it can be a bit fiddly to set up.

Edit to add: Karl Runge no longer appears to be maintaining the original x11vnc however development is continuing on github. Or you could do as suggested below by @ivan-talalaev and use x0vncserver.

Another advantage of this server is that it supports alot of the advanced VNC features used by UltraVNC including large bitmap caching and file-transfer.

edited Jul 12 '19 at 11:24

answered Jun 17 '09 at 08:51

Sekenre

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If you go this route, be aware that you might hit the problem hinted at with this question: http://serverfault.com/questions/19855/how-do-i-change-the-default-location-for-a-login-sessions-xauthority-file – David Mackintosh Jun 17 '09 at 16:45
okay so x11vnc still the go. So where is the fedora package for it :( – grom Jun 18 '09 at 01:16
Have a look here: http://rpm.pbone.net/index.php3/stat/3/srodzaj/1/search/x11vnc You might not have much luck though. Fedora 11 is too new. Try installing the Fedora 10 packages. – Sekenre Jun 18 '09 at 09:20
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it also has a long standing and well documented bug that crashes the server constantly with many standard window functions and the code is orphaned and will likely never be fixed. – Scott Mar 15 '19 at 01:55
@Scott please provide links. Also If you could suggest alternatives I would be happy to update my answer. – Sekenre Mar 15 '19 at 14:07
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x11vnc is deprecated, use x0vncserver instead (see an other answer) – sebix Jul 07 '19 at 11:16
@sebix Updated thanks. – Sekenre Jul 12 '19 at 11:25

score 19 · Answer 2 · edited May 01 '22 at 13:19

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According documentation Tigervnc has support for this.

x0vncserver is a TigerVNC Server which makes any X display remotely accessible via VNC, TigerVNC or compatible viewers. Unlike Xvnc(1), it does not create a virtual display. Instead, it just shares an existing X server (typically, that one connected to the physical screen).

x0vncserver -display :0

Make sure vncserver isn't already running, or you'll get the error failed to bind socket: Address already in use (98)

edited May 01 '22 at 13:19

glibg10b

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answered Jul 31 '18 at 18:59

Ivan Talalaev

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Just note you will usually need to specify vnc password file too: `x0vncserver -display :0 -rfbauth .vnc/passwd` – Honza Oct 03 '19 at 13:31
https://www.howtoforge.com/tutorial/how-to-start-a-vnc-server-for-the-actual-display-scraping-with-tigervnc/ – Muhamed Huseinbašić Feb 18 '21 at 00:32
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For the record, Debian provides the package `tigervnc-scraping-server` for this use-case – Joril Apr 01 '21 at 12:29

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Jun 17 '09 at 06:50

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If you're using KDE at work, KDE already has a VNC server built in.

Presumably, GNOME does too.

answered Jun 17 '09 at 06:50

Convict

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-1 - Those create new sessions, don't use the existing one. – Robert Munteanu Jun 17 '09 at 07:19
Robert Munteanu: no you are mistaken. gnome has vino and you can dinamically bind vnc to an already running X session. – cstamas Jun 17 '09 at 07:27
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@cstamas - the original answer gave no indication of it - a name/link/config sample would be appreciated. – Robert Munteanu Jun 17 '09 at 07:40
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@Robert: http://www.gnome.org/~markmc/remote-desktop-2.html – cstamas Jun 17 '09 at 09:09
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=266981 and http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=1592817 have information on enabling vino from command line – grom Jul 01 '09 at 06:32

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Jun 17 '09 at 06:46

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As an alternative, you might want to look at NX. It is usually much faster than VNC over the Internet, and I know you can configure it to be able to access the running X session on the console.

answered Jun 17 '09 at 06:46

Evan

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score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Jun 17 '09 at 09:07

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x11vnc (http://www.karlrunge.com/x11vnc/)

answered Jun 17 '09 at 09:07

Yoann Le Touche

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Grzegorz Wierzowiecki · Answer 6 · 2022-02-03T22:25:24.997

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VirtScreen may be also interesting option/wrapper , helping in setting up x11vnc with xrandr : https://github.com/kbumsik/VirtScreen

Also: Extending your X11 Desktop using VNC https://ogbe.net/blog/moar_monitors.html

edited Feb 03 '22 at 22:25

answered Feb 03 '22 at 22:19

Grzegorz Wierzowiecki

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Thomas · Answer 7 · 2022-04-05T13:18:12.377

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Use xrfb.

Edit 2022-04-05: xrfb is, no my knowledge, not the same as xvfb. Someone suggested an edit changing this to xvfb, but I think xvfb is not actually an answer to the question of how to VNC into an existing session.

But xrfb no longer exists in debian/ubuntu, it seems, and seems to generally have been disappeared from the Internet.

So my answer was fine 13 years ago, but not a good answer today.

edited Apr 05 '22 at 13:18

answered Jun 17 '09 at 06:47

Thomas

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A link to the home page would be much more useful. – vines May 30 '15 at 13:06
here we go: XVFB -> https://www.x.org/releases/X11R7.7/doc/man/man1/Xvfb.1.xhtml – Nakamoto Dec 13 '20 at 00:26
XRFB is not XVFB, is it? @Nakamoto – Thomas Apr 05 '22 at 13:18

score 0 · Answer 8 · edited Jun 11 '20 at 10:02

I did a fairly elaborate setup for a customer site that might be appropriate for you.

This is based on a configuration I did for a customer. They wanted the following:

that users could remote-desktop into an already-running desktop running on the system console;

that users could initiate a session running on the console if one wasn't already running, and then use that; and

that other users could connect to an already-running desktop, sharing access with the user who was already logged in.

See the details here.

Beware the security implications too.

How to VNC into an existing X session?

8 Answers8