Setting Up X11VNC On Ubuntu

I recently set up a Ubuntu box as a media server in my house, and I needed a way to start and stop movies remotely. VNC was the easiest and quickest solution available to me.

First off, we have to install the packages required for X11VNC.

sudo apt-get install x11vnc vnc-java

Now, we store a password that clients will use to connect to our VNC server.

x11vnc -storepasswd

If you want to enable access from outside your network, you will need to open ports 5800 and 5900 on your firewall. (5800 for the web administration interface for this VNC server)

Run the following terminal command to start the VNC server, don’t forget to add it to your start up commands!

x11vnc -forever -usepw -httpdir /usr/share/vnc-java/ -httpport 5800

Note: You can change 5800 to anything else, if you prefer to use an alternative port.