Need help getting x11vnc to work at boot on iohyve guest

[melbournemac]

Hi,

Got caught out with the demise of phpvirtualbox in FreeNas. I have commenced rebuilding the VMs using the iohyve hypervisor. VMs are running OK, but I am having issues configuring x11vnc to load at boot of the VM. I have created another VM & am trying to get it to work before "fixing" or rebuilding the existing ones

I do not have much experience with linux & am struggling to get my head around what I need to do

Goal: On boot of the VM, I can access the VM from a VNC client

Guest details: Debian 8 64bit VM. Desktop installed during build was xfce, ssh enabled

iohyve properties for the VM

Code:

[root@freenas] ~# iohyve getall deb64vm004
Getting deb64vm004 iohyve properties...
bargs		  -A_-H_-P
boot		   0
con			nmdm1
cpu			2
description	Wed Jan 25 08:37:29 AEDT 2017
install		no
loader		 grub-bhyve
name		   deb64vm004
os			 debian
persist		1
ram			2048
size		   24G
tap			tap1
template	   NO
vnc			NO
vnc_h		  600
vnc_ip		 127.0.0.1
vnc_tablet	 NO
vnc_w		  800
vnc_wait	   NO
[root@freenas] ~#

x11vnc has been installed on the vm and the password stored OK. service created to start it


I am guessing it has trouble with no physical display. Due to my lack of knowledge I don't understand how to best fix this

Boot

Code:

Loading Linux 3.16.0-4-amd64 ...
Loading initial ramdisk ...

Loading, please wait...
/dev/sda1: clean, 95002/1507328 files, 794184/6023168 blocks
[FAILED] Failed to start x11vnc.
See 'systemctl status x11vnc.service' for details.
		 Starting Network Manager Script Dispatcher Service...
[  OK  ] Started Network Manager Script Dispatcher Service.
[  OK  ] Started Light Display Manager.
[  OK  ] Reached target Graphical Interface.
		 Starting Update UTMP about System Runlevel Changes...
[  OK  ] Started Update UTMP about System Runlevel Changes.

Debian GNU/Linux 8 deb64vm004 ttyS0

deb64vm004 login:

systemctl status x11vnc.service

Code:

jriver@deb64vm004:~$ systemctl status x11vnc.service
 x11vnc.service - x11vnc
   Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/x11vnc.service; enabled)
   Active: activating (auto-restart) (Result: exit-code) since Thu 2017-01-26 22:37:46 AEDT; 6s ago
  Process: 1326 ExecStart=/usr/bin/x11vnc -rfbauth /home/jriver/.vnc/passwd -display :0 -geometry 1920x1080 -auth guess -forever -bg (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
jriver@deb64vm004:~$

service for starting x11vnc

Code:

jriver@deb64vm004:~$ cat /etc/systemd/system/x11vnc.service
[Unit]
	 Description=x11vnc
	 After=display-manager.service

  [Service]
	 Type=forking
	 Environment=DISPLAY=:0
	 User=jriver
	 ExecStart=/usr/bin/x11vnc -rfbauth /home/jriver/.vnc/passwd -display :0 -geometry 1920x1080 -auth guess -forever -bg
	 Restart=always
	 RestartSec=10

  [Install]
	 WantedBy=graphical.target
jriver@deb64vm004:~$

Anyone able to point me (or give me exact setup) in the right direction to

• get x11vnc to work without a physical display
• get x11vnc to load at boot

Also - what are the vnc references in the VM properties for?

I have x-posted in the Jriver forum as primary reason for this to to have JRiver's MediaCenter running & accessible

thanks,

Steve

 

[melbournemac]

OK - think I have got it working. Will test further, replicate and post instructions here