I wanted to be able to connect to my Linux system's boot up screen remotely using VNC.

To do that, I needed to install x11vnc. Since I'm running Kubuntu, the KDE version of Ubuntu, I simply typed:

$ sudo apt-get install x11vnc

After poking around I found the xauth file in /var/run/xauth, so to start x11vnc, I typed

$ XAUTH=`ls -t /var/run/xauth/* | head -n 1`
$ nohup x11vnc -display :0 -auth $XAUTH &

Since x11vnc complains there is no password, I could have instead used:

$ XAUTH=`ls -t /var/run/xauth/* | head -n 1`
$ nohup x11vnc -passwd insert_password_here -display :0 -auth $XAUTH &

I tried:

$ XAUTH=`ls -t /var/run/xauth/* | head -n 1`
$ x11vnc -usepw -display :0 -auth $XAUTH

and even

$ x11vnc -storepasswd insert_password_here $HOME/.vnc/passwd
$ XAUTH=`ls -t /var/run/xauth/* | head -n 1`
$ x11vnc -passwdfile $HOME/.vnc/passwd -display :0 -auth $XAUTH

but couldn't get either to work.

When I was done with this VNC instance, I removed it from memory via:

$ killall x11vnc

This doesn't kill the actual desktop, just the x11vnc instance in memory.

To create a new virtual KDE desktop, I installed vnc4server via:

$ sudo apt-get install vnc4server

and then created the desktop with:

$ vnc4server -geometry 1024x768 -depth 24 :1

For -geometry, I can effectively use any values I want, but I generally use smaller values, as a larger desktop takes longer to repaint.

For -depth I usually use 24, or 32.

When I was done with this desktop, I removed it from memory via:

$ vnc4server -kill :1