Name

vncserver-x11 - VNC® Server in User Mode

Synopsis

vncserver-x11 [OPTION...]

vncserver-x11 [MODE] [OPTION...] COMMAND

Description

vncserver-x11 starts VNC Server in User Mode, to remote the desktop of the currently-logged on user to connected VNC Viewers. When this user is logged out, VNC Server automatically stops; all VNC Viewers are disconnected, and cannot reconnect.

Run vncserver-x11 to start VNC Server and wait for connections on port 5900, if available. A user interface consisting of a status dialog and, if supported by the window manager, a status icon is displayed, providing connectivity information and convenient access to features such as file transfer and chat.

By default, a VNC Viewer can authenticate to a VNC Server that has:

• A Professional or Enterprise subscription by supplying the system credentials of the user starting VNC Server. Specify the Permissions parameter to widen access to other users or groups.
• A Home subscription by supplying a password specific to VNC Server; see vncpasswd(1).

Note that an instance of vncserver-x11 is automatically started (as the root user) by VNC Server in Service Mode; see vncserver-x11-serviced(1).

vncserver-x11 consumes one computer ‘desktop’ from your subscription, as the user starting it.

Commands

Applying a command to vncserver-x11 performs an auxiliary operation instead of starting VNC Server.

To see a list of valid commands, run vncserver-x11 -help.

Mode

To apply a COMMAND to the privileged instance of vncserver-x11 started by VNC Server in Service Mode, specify -service.

Otherwise, commands apply automatically to VNC Server in User Mode.

OPTIONS

Options are parameters, used to configure VNC Server, and also the following:

-iconnect HOST[::PORT]

Establishes a reverse connection to a Listening VNC Viewer on HOST at PORT (5500 by default). See vncviewer(1).

-newinstance

Starts a new instance of VNC Server, providing your subscription permits; see vnclicense(1). By default, running vncserver-x11 a second time interacts with the first instance.

-showstatus

Displays the status dialog and status icon. This may be useful to force display in some desktop environments.

-vncconfigfile FILE

For convenience, if you have many parameters to specify at the command line, populate a text file (one parameter per line; omit the dash) and reference it using this flag.

To see a list of valid parameters, run vncserver-x11 -help.

VNC configuration files

Parameters can be specified as command line OPTIONS, but preferably in VNC configuration files. VNC configuration files are available for:

• All programs, or just VNC Server
• All users of the computer, or just the user starting VNC Server
• Policy, in order to lock down VNC Server

When VNC Server starts, parameters are applied in the following order:

1. System-wide VNC configuration files
2. Per-user VNC configuration files
3. Command line OPTIONS
4. Policy VNC configuration files

This means that a particular parameter specified at the command line overrides the same parameter specified in a per-user or in a system-wide VNC configuration file, but is itself overridden by the same parameter specified in a policy VNC configuration file. Policy cannot be changed by users.

Note there is a disadvantage to specifying parameters at the command line: parameters cannot be reloaded while VNC Server is running. VNC configuration files can be reloaded, however, which means that VNC Server can be reconfigured without downtime.

For a full list of available VNC configuration files, visit Configuring VNC Connect Using Parameters

Logging

By default, vncserver-x11 logs basic activity to file at $HOME/.vnc/vncserver-x11.log.

To change the log quality, quantity, or destination, specify the Log, LogDir, and LogFile parameters.

See also

vncserver-x11-serviced(1), vnclicense(1), vncinitconfig(1), vncpasswd(1), vncviewer(1)