On OS X, I like to use Chicken of the VNC. Finally, connect to your server with a VNC client on port 590X, where X is the value of 'DISPLAY' in the vncserver script.To start the server without rebooting, run sudo /etc/init.d/vncserver start.Update: jpb writes that you may need to use sudo update-rc.d vncserver 99 instead if the job is running too early in the boot process. This adds the appropriate symlinks to the vncserver script so that it is sent the start and stop commands at the appropriate time. Then, run sudo update-rc.d vncserver defaults.Make the script executable with sudo chmod +x /etc/init.d/vncserver.# The name that the VNC Desktop will have. For Gnome, try running 'gnome-session', and for KDE, try 'startkde'. Here is my copy of xstartup: it runs an icewm session, Azureus, and K3B. To launch programs or a session when your VNC session starts, modify ~/.vnc/xstartup. Better yet, deny direct access to VNC and only allow SSH tunnelled or VPN connections. VNC authentication is not the strongest encryption available, so be sure to firewall your server from all but trusted machines. When you run 'vncserver' for the first time, it will ask you to set a password. Set up the VNC server for the user you wish to log in as.It can be installed with Synaptic, or with sudo aptitude install tightvncserver.

This VNC server has excellent compatibility with clients, and provides reasonable compression for slow networks.

In this case, my server runs MythTV on the normal X server connected to my TV, but starts up Azureus and K3B in a VNC session so I can access them without bothering those watching TV. This is especially handy if you are running a headless server, or are using the primary display for other purposes. The only problem is that to get the VNC server running, you have to be logged in! Luckily, it's not too difficult to create a script which starts up the server as soon as your system boots.

For example, with Gnome, it's very simple to set up remote access to your desktop with the included Vino application.

Tightvnc server ubuntu