HOWTO: Share desktops with x11vnc instead of Built in Remote Desktop

[intangible]

This explains how to share individual logged in users desktops using x11vnc instead of the built-in "Remote Desktop" feature of Ubuntu. The reason for this is because "vino" which is used by the "Remote Desktop" option is inadequate for a lot of people (no clipboard support), no accessible configuration options, and quite slow.

This is a decent companion to sharing a VNC -> GDM connection (both these howtos work together!) http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=42941

OK, we have a two step process here, getting x11vnc to run automagically on a user's login and then installing autocutsel; Autocutsel is used to make sure the VNC Clipboard gets updated from both just selecting and right-click copying. You do not have to install autocutsel, it just makes things work a little nicer.

Before you do anything else, you need to enable the universe repositories: http://www.ubuntuguide.org/#extrarepositories

Setting up x11vnc

1. Install x11vnc: sudo apt-get install x11vnc
2. Set the password: vncpasswd ~/.vnc/passwd (vncpasswd is included with vnc-common, which is installed by default)
3. Make it auto-start when the user logs in and show which port we're running on (useful if you run multiple vnc servers) the port will be put in ~/.vnc/port.txt:
   
   1. sudo gedit /usr/local/bin/sharex11vnc Paste in the following:
      

      #!/bin/sh
      
      x11vnc -nap -bg -many -rfbauth ~/.vnc/passwd -desktop "VNC ${USER}@${HOSTNAME}"|grep -Eo "[0-9]{4}">~/.vnc/port.txt
      
      # comment out the following if you don't want a popup telling you which port you're using.
      zenity --info --text="Your VNC port is `cat ~/.vnc/port.txt`"

   2. sudo chmod 755 /usr/local/bin/sharex11vnc
   3. System->Preferences->Sessions->Startup Programs then click Add and type in sharex11vnc

Installing autocutsel:

1. Download tar.gz from http://www.lepton.fr/tools/autocutsel/
2. Move file: sudo mv /home/user/location/autocutsel-0.8.0.tar.gz /usr/src
3. Extract file: cd /usr/src;sudo tar -xzvf autocutsel-0.8.0.tar.gz
4. Install packages required to compile and install autocutsel into a deb package:
   
   1. sudo apt-get install gcc checkinstall libx11-dev libxaw8-dev This may take a while if you don't already have gcc or the xlibs installed installed.
   2. cd autocutsel-0.8.0
   3. ./configure --prefix=/usr
   4. sudo checkinstall -y --nodoc The resulting deb will be installed and the package will be left in the current directory
5. Make it auto-start when the user logs in:
   System->Preferences->Sessions->Startup Programs then click Add and type in autocutsel

The best VNC client for windows is UltraVNC http://ultravnc.sf.net - I recommend it for all your VNC needs.