x11vnc is a VNC server for real X displays (i.e. a display corresponding to a physical monitor, keyboard, and mouse).
I needed this to remotely make changes to an Orange Pi which was connected to a physical monitor. The monitor serves as my dashboard and has a bunch of widgets showing like a binary clock, todo items and so on..
1# install
2sudo apt install x11vnc
3
4# Set a password
5x11vnc -storepasswd
6
7# run
8x11vnc
9
10# this will run x11vnc on port 5900
11# you can now view and control the server from a vnc client
12# e.g. Remmina is pre-installed on Ubuntu
13# 192.168.0.X:5900
1# keep running
2x11vnc -forever
If you set x11vnc to start at boot, it’ll start working before you have even logged in.
1# start at boot
2sudo nano /lib/systemd/system/x11vnc.service
[Unit]
Description="x11vnc"
Requires=display-manager.service
After=display-manager.service
[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/bin/x11vnc -auth guess -loop -forever -shared -o /var/log/x11vnc.log
ExecStop=/usr/bin/killall x11vnc
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target