vncserver(1) Virtual Network Computing vncserver(1)NAMEvncserver - start or stop a VNC server
SYNOPSISvncserver [:display#] [-name desktop-name] [-geometry widthxheight]
[-depth depth] [-pixelformat format] [-fp font-path] [-fg] [-autokill]
[-noxstartup] [-xstartup script] [Xvnc-options...]
vncserver-kill :display#
vncserver-list
DESCRIPTIONvncserver is used to start a VNC (Virtual Network Computing) desktop.
vncserver is a Perl script which simplifies the process of starting an
Xvnc server. It runs Xvnc with appropriate options and starts a window
manager on the VNC desktop.
vncserver can be run with no options at all. In this case it will
choose the first available display number (usually :1), start Xvnc with
that display number, and start the default window manager in the Xvnc
session. You can also specify the display number, in which case vnc‐
server will attempt to start Xvnc with that display number and exit if
the display number is not available. For example:
vncserver :13
Editing the file $HOME/.vnc/xstartup allows you to change the applica‐
tions run at startup (but note that this will not affect an existing
VNC session.)
OPTIONS
You can get a list of options by passing -h as an option to vncserver.
In addition to the options listed below, any unrecognised options will
be passed to Xvnc - see the Xvnc man page, or "Xvnc -help", for
details.
-name desktop-name
Each VNC desktop has a name which may be displayed by the
viewer. The desktop name defaults to "host:display# (username)",
but you can change it with this option. The desktop name option
is passed to the xstartup script via the $VNCDESKTOP environment
variable, which allows you to run a different set of applica‐
tions depending on the name of the desktop.
-geometry widthxheight
Specify the size of the VNC desktop to be created. Default is
1024x768.
-depth depth
Specify the pixel depth (in bits) of the VNC desktop to be cre‐
ated. Default is 24. Other possible values are 8, 15 and 16 -
anything else is likely to cause strange behaviour by applica‐
tions.
-pixelformat format
Specify pixel format for Xvnc to use (BGRnnn or RGBnnn). The
default for depth 8 is BGR233 (meaning the most significant two
bits represent blue, the next three green, and the least signif‐
icant three represent red), the default for depth 16 is RGB565,
and the default for depth 24 is RGB888.
-cc 3 As an alternative to the default TrueColor visual, this allows
you to run an Xvnc server with a PseudoColor visual (i.e. one
which uses a color map or palette), which can be useful for run‐
ning some old X applications which only work on such a display.
Values other than 3 (PseudoColor) and 4 (TrueColor) for the -cc
option may result in strange behaviour, and PseudoColor desktops
must have an 8-bit depth.
-kill :display#
This kills a VNC desktop previously started with vncserver. It
does this by killing the Xvnc process, whose process ID is
stored in the file "$HOME/.vnc/host:display#.pid". The -kill
option ignores anything preceding the first colon (":") in the
display argument. Thus, you can invoke "vncserver -kill $DIS‐
PLAY", for example at the end of your xstartup file after a par‐
ticular application exits.
-fp font-path
If the vncserver script detects that the X Font Server (XFS) is
running, it will attempt to start Xvnc and configure Xvnc to use
XFS for font handling. Otherwise, if XFS is not running, the
vncserver script will attempt to start Xvnc and allow Xvnc to
use its own preferred method of font handling (which may be a
hard-coded font path or, on more recent systems, a font cata‐
log.) In any case, if Xvnc fails to start, the vncserver script
will then attempt to determine an appropriate X font path for
this system and start Xvnc using that font path.
The -fp argument allows you to override the above fallback logic
and specify a font path for Xvnc to use.
-fg Runs Xvnc as a foreground process. This has two effects: (1)
The VNC server can be aborted with CTRL-C, and (2) the VNC
server will exit as soon as the user logs out of the window man‐
ager in the VNC session. This may be necessary when launching
TigerVNC from within certain grid computing environments.
-autokill
Automatically kill Xvnc whenever the xstartup script exits. In
most cases, this has the effect of terminating Xvnc when the
user logs out of the window manager.
-noxstartup
Do not run the %HOME/.vnc/xstartup script after launching Xvnc.
This option allows you to manually start a window manager in
your TigerVNC session.
-xstartup script
Run a custom startup script, instead of %HOME/.vnc/xstartup,
after launching Xvnc. This is useful to run full-screen applica‐
tions.
-list Lists all VNC desktops started by vncserver.
FILES
Several VNC-related files are found in the directory $HOME/.vnc:
$HOME/.vnc/xstartup
A shell script specifying X applications to be run when a VNC
desktop is started. If this file does not exist, then vncserver
will create a default xstartup script which attempts to launch
your chosen window manager.
$HOME/.vnc/config
An optional server config file wherein options to be passed to
Xvnc are listed to avoid hard-coding them to the physical invo‐
cation. List options in this file one per line. For those
requiring an argument, simply separate the option from the argu‐
ment with an equal sign, for example: "geometry=2000x1200" or
"securitytypes=vncauth,tlsvnc". Options without an argument are
simply listed as a single word, for example: "localhost" or
"alwaysshared".
$HOME/.vnc/passwd
The VNC password file.
$HOME/.vnc/host:display#.log
The log file for Xvnc and applications started in xstartup.
$HOME/.vnc/host:display#.pid
Identifies the Xvnc process ID, used by the -kill option.
SEE ALSOvncviewer(1), vncpasswd(1), vncconfig(1), Xvnc(1)
http://www.tigervnc.org
AUTHOR
Tristan Richardson, RealVNC Ltd., D. R. Commander and others.
VNC was originally developed by the RealVNC team while at Olivetti
Research Ltd / AT&T Laboratories Cambridge. TightVNC additions were
implemented by Constantin Kaplinsky. Many other people have since par‐
ticipated in development, testing and support. This manual is part of
the TigerVNC software suite.
TigerVNCvncserver(1)
