How can VNC be started at boot-time?

[dave]

I'm having a big problem getting VNC to start up at boot-time and
wonder if someone can help me with this pls?

I've done quiet a bit of looking around the forums etc and this seems
a very popular topic :-) but nothing I can do works for this.

I've set up Xvnc as a server (ubuntu 9.04) and that works just great
to a PC running the VNC client.

Tried many things inc “simple”ones like putting the shell cmd in
/etc/.rc.local (no go).
Things like editing this file was suggested:-
/etc/init.d/vncserver (but doesn't exist on my machine)
(adevice from:
fromhttp://faq.gotomyvnc.com/fom-serve/cache/86.html


The “real” way (afaik) seems to involve (x)inetd. I have only a basic
idea of the detail of this and it seem these demons are services which
launch/control other services (like VNC and ftp)? So maybe there's a
way for tell xinetd to do this task - but that's a lot (for a rel.
newbie) to learn just now I think

Something promising on a forum I came across said...

***start quote***
If you just want vncserver to start at system startup, you can just
add it to the correct runlevel: this will probably be
/etc/rc3.d/ (console login, not graphical, with networkin
support).

To make vncserver startup automatically just add a symlink here to
/etc/init.d/vncserver
# cd /etc/rc3.d
# sudo ln -s /etc/init.d/ vncserver S99vncserver

The number S99 just means it will be executed as the last program.
(numbering goes to 100). This way just makes vncserver start
automatically...
***End quote ***

Now I understand what a symlink is, but haven't clue what this link is
doing or how it's meant to work here! In fact, while I understand
sudo and ln – the line as a whole is meaningless to me... help!

What is rc3.d ?

Considering I've only been using ubuntu for a few weeks, it feels like
I have learned a decent amount and am very pleased with how robust the
software is and the fantastic support esp form this NG. However, with
this particular problem I'm just going around in circles so would
really appreciate help on any of the above.
Thanks

[johnny bobby bee]

Tried many things inc “simple”ones like putting the shell cmd in
/etc/.rc.local (no go).

Surprised this didn't work. What is your sell command?

Things like editing this file was suggested:-
/etc/init.d/vncserver (but doesn't exist on my machine)

Create a script from your shell command (chmod a+x), place it in
/etc/init.d/

Then install and use sysvconfig (or any other runlevel editor) to run
the script at boot.

What is rc3.d ?

It's where init scripts live.
man update-rc.d (might help).
sysvconfig is a graphical tool for update-rc.d.

Keep at it. Best of luck.

[Ignoramus21755]

bzzt, wrong answer.

He does not need root privileges to do it.

i

Post by johnny bobby bee

Tried many things inc ?simple?ones like putting the shell cmd in
/etc/.rc.local (no go).

Surprised this didn't work. What is your sell command?

Things like editing this file was suggested:-
/etc/init.d/vncserver (but doesn't exist on my machine)

Create a script from your shell command (chmod a+x), place it in
/etc/init.d/
Then install and use sysvconfig (or any other runlevel editor) to run
the script at boot.

What is rc3.d ?

It's where init scripts live.
man update-rc.d (might help).
sysvconfig is a graphical tool for update-rc.d.
Keep at it. Best of luck.

[johnny bobby bee]

Post by Ignoramus21755
bzzt, wrong answer.

dope.

[dave]

On Wed, 08 Jul 2009 12:28:29 -0400, johnny bobby bee

Post by johnny bobby bee

Post by dave
Tried many things inc “simple”ones like putting the shell cmd in
/etc/rc.local (no go).

Surprised this didn't work. What is your sell command?

hi, I put
vncserver :1 -extension XFIXES -Idle Timeout 0

This is exactly the line I use to start VNC from the login shell - and
it works fine.

Thanks for your other details/suggestions which I will try later.
-dave

[Huge]

Post by dave
On Wed, 08 Jul 2009 12:28:29 -0400, johnny bobby bee

Post by johnny bobby bee

Post by dave
Tried many things inc “simple”ones like putting the shell cmd in
/etc/rc.local (no go).

Surprised this didn't work. What is your sell command?

hi, I put
This is exactly the line I use to start VNC from the login shell - and
it works fine.

A couple of things to bear in mind;

- The rc files have no shell context (PATH, etc.) so it is a good idea
to use the full path to commands. So, your command should be;

/path/to/vncserver :1 -extension XFIXES -Idle Timeout 0

Find out wjhat "/path/to" should really be by typing;

which vncserver

In a terminal window.

- Is rc.local getting run at all? Check for "Running local boot scripts"
in your syslog;

grep "Running local boot scripts" /var/log/syslog

[dave]

On Wed, 08 Jul 2009 12:28:29 -0400, johnny bobby bee

Post by johnny bobby bee
Create a script from your shell command (chmod a+x), place it in
/etc/init.d/
Then install and use sysvconfig (or any other runlevel editor) to run
the script at boot.
Keep at it. Best of luck.

Thanks.
I did have a go at the above - and, well, unfortunately still no luck!
The sysvconfig installed and runs just fine. I entered the line
identical to the one that works when I start vnc for the cmd shell -
rebooted - still no sign of it running. If I cd .../init.d and exec
the cmd directly - it works fine!

I set the * option in sysvconfig for the name of the file containing
the vnc startup line and edited level 2 to be S99 (last to go?).

This really is a strange one.

[Ignoramus21755]

Post by dave
I did have a go at the above - and, well, unfortunately still no luck!
The sysvconfig installed and runs just fine. I entered the line
identical to the one that works when I start vnc for the cmd shell -
rebooted - still no sign of it running. If I cd .../init.d and exec
the cmd directly - it works fine!
I set the * option in sysvconfig for the name of the file containing
the vnc startup line and edited level 2 to be S99 (last to go?).
This really is a strange one.

Try using crontab instead of all that. It is easy and I explained how
to do it in a previous post.

i

[Marcel Bruinsma]

Post by dave

Post by johnny bobby bee
Create a script from your shell command (chmod a+x), place it in
/etc/init.d/

I did have a go at the above - and, well, unfortunately still no luck!
The sysvconfig installed and runs just fine. I entered the line
identical to the one that works when I start vnc for the cmd shell -
rebooted - still no sign of it running.

Try a different script:

#!/bin/sh
exec >/root/vncsrv.out 2>&1
/usr/bin/vncserver :1 -extension XFIXES -Idle Timeout 0

After reboot, examine /root/vncsrv.out. It might tell you
what went wrong (vncserver is a perl script that contains
several ‘die ...’ statements).

[Ignoramus21755]

There is only one answer, which is to do it from crontab.

In your crontab file, add an entry such as

@reboot vncserver -geometry 1100x750 :16 > vncserver.log 2>&1

This would start VNC server upon reboot, with given geometry, on
virtual display 16.

i

[Huge]

Post by Ignoramus21755
There is only one answer, which is to do it from crontab.

Err, no. This is the wrong way to start something at bootup, which the
rc.N scripts are specifically designed for.

[Joe]

Post by Huge

Post by Ignoramus21755
There is only one answer, which is to do it from crontab.

Err, no. This is the wrong way to start something at bootup, which the
rc.N scripts are specifically designed for.

It's not really the "wrong" way. Linux is all about choice. The
normal way, though, would be through the init scripts, and (as usual)
Ignoramus made an ignorant statement ("There is only one answer...")

[Huge]

Post by Joe

Post by Huge

Post by Ignoramus21755
There is only one answer, which is to do it from crontab.

Err, no. This is the wrong way to start something at bootup, which the
rc.N scripts are specifically designed for.

It's not really the "wrong" way. Linux is all about choice.

Quite so. One may indeed choose to do something stupid, illogical and
incorrect.

[Ignoramus10294]

Post by Joe

Post by Huge

Post by Ignoramus21755
There is only one answer, which is to do it from crontab.

Err, no. This is the wrong way to start something at bootup, which the
rc.N scripts are specifically designed for.

It's not really the "wrong" way. Linux is all about choice. The
normal way, though, would be through the init scripts, and (as usual)
Ignoramus made an ignorant statement ("There is only one answer...")

It is you who is ignorant.

A user should not use root level setup to start a user task at reboot.

That's what crontab is for.

i

[Joe]

Post by Ignoramus10294

Post by Joe

Post by Huge

Post by Ignoramus21755
There is only one answer, which is to do it from crontab.

Err, no. This is the wrong way to start something at bootup, which the
rc.N scripts are specifically designed for.

It's not really the "wrong" way. Linux is all about choice. The
normal way, though, would be through the init scripts, and (as usual)
Ignoramus made an ignorant statement ("There is only one answer...")

It is you who is ignorant.
A user should not use root level setup to start a user task at reboot.
That's what crontab is for.

Thanks for your input, moron. Now go do some research. I was
certified in Linux at the Redhat HQ, likely before you installed your
first "alternate" OS. Crontab CAN do it, but that is NOT what it was
designed for. And to suggest that crontab is the "ONLY" answer is
about as stupid a statement as you could make WRT Linux. There are
very few questions that have only one answer in Linux.

And anything that opens up remote access to a machine should be done
by an administrator that knows what he's doing.

[Ignoramus10294]

Post by Joe

Post by Ignoramus10294
A user should not use root level setup to start a user task at reboot.
That's what crontab is for.

Thanks for your input, moron. Now go do some research. I was
certified in Linux at the Redhat HQ, likely before you installed your
first "alternate" OS.

Yes, when exactly were you certified?

At least what year?

Post by Joe
Crontab CAN do it, but that is NOT what it was designed for.

Type "man 5 crontab" and search for @reboot, to see how it was
"designed" to perform tasks at reboot.

i

[Joe]

Post by Ignoramus10294

Post by Joe

Post by Ignoramus10294
A user should not use root level setup to start a user task at reboot.
That's what crontab is for.

Thanks for your input, moron. Now go do some research. I was
certified in Linux at the Redhat HQ, likely before you installed your
first "alternate" OS.

Yes, when exactly were you certified?
At least what year?

Don't recall. It was on RHEL 3.0, so quite a while back. I was one
of the people in here dumb enough to answer your idiotic questions
when you started out here...

Post by Ignoramus10294

Post by Joe
Crontab CAN do it, but that is NOT what it was designed for.

"designed" to perform tasks at reboot.

Again, dumbass, that is something that cron CAN do, as I've said. It
is not "what it was designed to do". Cron/crontab is a scheduling
system, not a boot daemon manager.

[Ignoramus10294]

Post by Joe

Post by Ignoramus10294

Post by Joe

Post by Ignoramus10294
A user should not use root level setup to start a user task at reboot.
That's what crontab is for.

Thanks for your input, moron. Now go do some research. I was
certified in Linux at the Redhat HQ, likely before you installed your
first "alternate" OS.

Yes, when exactly were you certified?
At least what year?

Don't recall. It was on RHEL 3.0, so quite a while back. I was one
of the people in here dumb enough to answer your idiotic questions
when you started out here...

Well, can you try to recall in what your you were certified?

RHEL 3.0 came out in 2003, right? So it could not be before 2003.

After all, I remember very well when I installed Linux the first time.

It was 1995.

I released my first GPLed program in 1996.

Check out my post from 1997, for example:

http://groups.google.com/group/comp.os.linux.misc/browse_thread/thread/69d9a9977a6c6640/cd18e06adf5293a1?q=group:comp.os.linux.misc+author:ichudov%40algebra.com#cd18e06adf5293a1

or

http://tinyurl.com/m2x4bq

So, tell me when exactly you were "Certified for RHEL 3.0".

Post by Joe

Post by Ignoramus10294

Post by Joe
Crontab CAN do it, but that is NOT what it was designed for.

"designed" to perform tasks at reboot.

Again, dumbass, that is something that cron CAN do, as I've said. It
is not "what it was designed to do". Cron/crontab is a scheduling
system, not a boot daemon manager.

And a nonprivileged user's VNC server is hardly an "operating system daemon".

It is fully proper to start it from crontab, which was designed to
start user programs upon boot, among other things.

i

[jellybean stonerfish]

Post by Ignoramus10294
And a nonprivileged user's VNC server is hardly an "operating system daemon".
It is fully proper to start it from crontab, which was designed to start
user programs upon boot, among other things.

I may be totally wrong here, but I was under the impression that the OP
was trying to start the vnc server as root.

[Huge]

Post by jellybean stonerfish

Post by Ignoramus10294
And a nonprivileged user's VNC server is hardly an "operating system daemon".
It is fully proper to start it from crontab, which was designed to start
user programs upon boot, among other things.

I may be totally wrong here, but I was under the impression that the OP
was trying to start the vnc server as root.

Pay no attention to the drooler in the corner.

'cron' is entirely the wrong tool for this.

[Ignoramus10294]

Post by Huge

Post by jellybean stonerfish

Post by Ignoramus10294
And a nonprivileged user's VNC server is hardly an "operating system daemon".
It is fully proper to start it from crontab, which was designed to start
user programs upon boot, among other things.

I may be totally wrong here, but I was under the impression that the OP
was trying to start the vnc server as root.

Pay no attention to the drooler in the corner.
'cron' is entirely the wrong tool for this.

Why?

i

[Joe]

Post by Ignoramus10294

Post by Joe

Post by Ignoramus10294

Post by Joe

Post by Ignoramus10294
A user should not use root level setup to start a user task at reboot.
That's what crontab is for.

Thanks for your input, moron. Now go do some research. I was
certified in Linux at the Redhat HQ, likely before you installed your
first "alternate" OS.

Yes, when exactly were you certified?
At least what year?

Don't recall. It was on RHEL 3.0, so quite a while back. I was one
of the people in here dumb enough to answer your idiotic questions
when you started out here...

Well, can you try to recall in what your you were certified?
RHEL 3.0 came out in 2003, right? So it could not be before 2003.

Sorry, dipshit, not interested in digging out old paperwork.
Somewhere in that range, though. 03-04...

Post by Ignoramus10294
After all, I remember very well when I installed Linux the first time.
It was 1995.

You should have tried using it. Since when you first posted to this
group you were completely clueless about the most basic of questions.
You remain in that camp.

Post by Ignoramus10294
I released my first GPLed program in 1996.
http://groups.google.com/group/comp.os.linux.misc/browse_thread/thread/69d9a9977a6c6640/cd18e06adf5293a1?q=group:comp.os.linux.misc+author:ichudov%40algebra.com#cd18e06adf5293a1
or
http://tinyurl.com/m2x4bq
So, tell me when exactly you were "Certified for RHEL 3.0".

Post by Joe

Post by Ignoramus10294

Post by Joe
Crontab CAN do it, but that is NOT what it was designed for.

"designed" to perform tasks at reboot.

Again, dumbass, that is something that cron CAN do, as I've said. It
is not "what it was designed to do". Cron/crontab is a scheduling
system, not a boot daemon manager.

And a nonprivileged user's VNC server is hardly an "operating system daemon".

Anything that opens a port for incoming connections should be handled
as an operating system daemon. VNC was designed to run from xinet.

Post by Ignoramus10294
It is fully proper to start it from crontab, which was designed to
start user programs upon boot, among other things.

Clearly, your cluelessness knows no bounds. I think you need to be
back in the boob bin for a few more months. Your reading
comprehension continues to prove to be extremely limited.

[Ignoramus10294]

Post by Joe

Post by Ignoramus10294

Post by Joe

Post by Ignoramus10294

Post by Joe

Post by Ignoramus10294
A user should not use root level setup to start a user task at reboot.
That's what crontab is for.

Thanks for your input, moron. Now go do some research. I was
certified in Linux at the Redhat HQ, likely before you installed your
first "alternate" OS.

Yes, when exactly were you certified?
At least what year?

Don't recall. It was on RHEL 3.0, so quite a while back. I was one
of the people in here dumb enough to answer your idiotic questions
when you started out here...

Well, can you try to recall in what your you were certified?
RHEL 3.0 came out in 2003, right? So it could not be before 2003.

Sorry, dipshit, not interested in digging out old paperwork.
Somewhere in that range, though. 03-04...

Then, I think, you need to curtail your bragging about "how you passed
a Redhat exam so long ago", especially considering that your verbal
abuse is directed against someone who started using Linux 8 years
before "RHEL 3.0" came out.

Post by Joe

Post by Ignoramus10294

Post by Joe
Again, dumbass, that is something that cron CAN do, as I've said. It
is not "what it was designed to do". Cron/crontab is a scheduling
system, not a boot daemon manager.

And a nonprivileged user's VNC server is hardly an "operating system daemon".

Anything that opens a port for incoming connections should be handled
as an operating system daemon. VNC was designed to run from xinet.

The more typical use of a VNC server is to run permanently and be
reused between invocations, and not to run from xinetd. (not xinet, as
you mistakenly say).

Post by Joe

Post by Ignoramus10294
It is fully proper to start it from crontab, which was designed to
start user programs upon boot, among other things.

Clearly, your cluelessness knows no bounds. I think you need to be
back in the boob bin for a few more months. Your reading
comprehension continues to prove to be extremely limited.

It is clear, by now, that you have a foul mouth, but it is not as
clear as to whether you know what you are talking about.

i

[Huge]

Post by Joe

Post by Ignoramus10294
That's what crontab is for.

Thanks for your input, moron. Now go do some research. I was
certified in Linux at the Redhat HQ, likely before you installed your
first "alternate" OS. Crontab CAN do it, but that is NOT what it was
designed for.

Precisely. Iggie is an idiot and went straight in the bozo bin here.

(And while we're willy waving, I've been adminning Unix machines since before
Linux was thought of and long before Iggy was pissing his diaper.)

[Joe]

Post by Huge

Post by Joe

Post by Ignoramus10294
That's what crontab is for.

Thanks for your input, moron. Now go do some research. I was
certified in Linux at the Redhat HQ, likely before you installed your
first "alternate" OS. Crontab CAN do it, but that is NOT what it was
designed for.

Precisely. Iggie is an idiot and went straight in the bozo bin here.
(And while we're willy waving, I've been adminning Unix machines since before
Linux was thought of and long before Iggy was pissing his diaper.)

My first job Administering Unix was a low-level job with a local
college running Solaris, back in 1990. I first used Unix remotely in
around '83...

[Ignoramus10294]

Post by Huge

Post by Joe

Post by Ignoramus10294
That's what crontab is for.

Thanks for your input, moron. Now go do some research. I was
certified in Linux at the Redhat HQ, likely before you installed your
first "alternate" OS. Crontab CAN do it, but that is NOT what it was
designed for.

Precisely. Iggie is an idiot and went straight in the bozo bin here.

Do not use insults as a replacement for proper arguments.

You do not really have an argument here and you know it.

Crontab (cron) starts things upon boot just fine, was designed to do
so, and is the only mechanism for an unprivileged user to start
something upon boot.

Post by Huge
(And while we're willy waving, I've been adminning Unix machines since before
Linux was thought of and long before Iggy was pissing his diaper.)

Then reading crontab's manual page would certainly be advised.

i

[Ignoramus10294]

Post by Huge

Post by Ignoramus21755
There is only one answer, which is to do it from crontab.

Err, no. This is the wrong way to start something at bootup, which the
rc.N scripts are specifically designed for.

Crontab is also designed to start things at bootup.

This is the meaning of @reboot entries.

A user withough root privileges can start things at boot, by using
crontab.

This is exactly the OP's situation.

i

[Huge]

Post by Ignoramus10294

Post by Huge

Post by Ignoramus21755
There is only one answer, which is to do it from crontab.

Err, no. This is the wrong way to start something at bootup, which the
rc.N scripts are specifically designed for.

Crontab is also designed to start things at bootup.

No it isn't.

What an appropriate username you have.

*plonk*

[Ignoramus10294]

Post by Huge

Post by Ignoramus10294

Post by Huge

Post by Ignoramus21755
There is only one answer, which is to do it from crontab.

Err, no. This is the wrong way to start something at bootup, which the
rc.N scripts are specifically designed for.

Crontab is also designed to start things at bootup.

No it isn't.

Try typing

man 5 crontab

and look for

Instead of the first five fields, one of eight special strings
may appear:

string meaning
------ -------
@reboot Run once, at startup.

i

Post by Huge
What an appropriate username you have.
*plonk*

[Joyce Haslam]

Post by dave
To make vncserver startup automatically just add a symlink here to
/etc/init.d/vncserver
# cd /etc/rc3.d
# sudo ln -s /etc/init.d/ vncserver S99vncserver
The number S99 just means it will be executed as the last program.
(numbering goes to 100). This way just makes vncserver start
automatically...
***End quote ***
Now I understand what a symlink is, but haven't clue what this
link is doing or how it's meant to work here! In fact, while I
understand sudo and ln " the line as a whole is meaningless to
me... help!
What is rc3.d ?

cd is the command to Change Directory. So you are creating a link
in the directory /etc/rc3.d to a file in /etc/init.d

In the desktop, under Places (if you are using gnome), open the
home directory and click the up arrow to get to the root directory.
You will find the etc directory there, with rc3.d and init.d inside
it. You can try creating a link to vncserver then and there, but
all those files belong to root, so the sudo command is probably
necessary.

As another newbie I don't know what vnc is (I don't have it in
/etc/init.d), so I don't know whether you can simply add an entry
for it in System->Preferences->Startup Applications

Joyce (started learning winxp and ubuntu in Nov, 7 months ago).

[Huge]

Post by Joyce Haslam
As another newbie I don't know what vnc

Virtual Network Computing; it's a cross-platform remote desktop application.

Post by Joyce Haslam
is (I don't have it in
/etc/init.d), so I don't know whether you can simply add an entry
for it in System->Preferences->Startup Applications

[Man-wai Chang to The Door (+MS=V32B)]

The “real” way (afaik) seems to involve (x)inetd. I have only a basic
idea of the detail of this and it seem these demons are services which
launch/control other services (like VNC and ftp)? So maybe there's a
way for tell xinetd to do this task - but that's a lot (for a rel.
newbie) to learn just now I think

Here is what I did in Ubuntu 9.04:

1. apt-get install xinetd tightvncserver

2. add this line to /etc/services
tightvnc1024 5902/tcp #VNC &GDM

3. create /etc/xinetd.d/vncserver
service tightvnc1024
{
disable = no
socket_type = stream
protocol = tcp
wait = no
user = nobody
server = /usr/bin/Xtightvnc
server_args = -inetd -query localhost -geometry 1024x768 -depth 16 -once
-fp /usr/share/fonts/X11/misc
}

4. modify /etc/gdm/gdm-custom.conf
4.1 uncomment the "RemoteGreeter" line
4.2. Go to section [xdmcp], Enable=true

5. Now fire up your vnc client, and connect to ip_address_of_vncserver:2

A useful link:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=122402