I have occasionally encountered the issue that the DisplayID was not "0". To resolve this issue, I modified the 'vnc_startup.sh' script. Now, it always retrieves and uses the current ID.

• vnc_startup.sh

#!/bin/bash
display_id=$(who | grep "pts/0" | sed -n 's/.*(\(:[0-9]\)).*/\1/p' | tr -d ':')
x11vnc -noxdamage -usepw -display :$display_id -no6 -forever -bg

@ch4d1 Nice

Outside of the script I had to run

sudo steamos-readonly disable
sudo pacman-key --populate holo
sudo steamos-readonly enable

And then ran the script again. I also ran this, but am not sure if it helped or not

sudo rm -rf /etc/pacman.d/gnupg

Been trying everything to get x11vnc installed but always end up with

:: Synchronizing package databases...
error: failed to synchronize all databases (unable to lock database)
Re-enabling readonly filesystem

Any fixes for Sept 2024?

Thanks @edasque I was facing the same error and sudo pacman-key --populate holo resolved it for me 👍

this was sufficient for me to install VNC today. thank you!

please replace some of the above, from xone_install_or_update.sh(I fixed up some things, though), with...

# Check if the user has sudo privileges
# If not, prompt the user for a password
if ! sudo -n true 2>/dev/null; then
    if ! zenity --password --title="Sudo password" | eval sudo -S echo "" "$REDIRECT"; then
        zenity --error --text="Sorry, you need to have sudo privileges to run this script." --title="Error"
        exit 1
    fi
fi

# If output of `sudo steamos-readonly status` is "enabled", disable it
if [[ "$(sudo steamos-readonly status)" = "enabled" ]]; then
    sudo steamos-readonly disable
    KEEP_READ_ONLY="true"
fi

# If pacman-key is not initialised, initialise it
if ! eval pacman-key --list-keys >/dev/null 2>&1; then
    echo -e "\e[1mInitialising pacman...\e[0m"
    echo ""
    sudo pacman-key --init
fi

echo "Refreshing pacman keys..."
# Always populate archlinux and holo keys, quick enough to do every time
# TODO: Only populate if not already populated
sudo pacman-key --populate archlinux holo >/dev/null 2>&1

# Re enable steamos-readonly if it was enabled before
if [[ $KEEP_READ_ONLY = "true" ]]; then
    sudo steamos-readonly enable
fi

For those running into the issue of the script throwing XOpenDisplay(":0") failed. error

I ran into this issue when running the script via ssh. The script initializes VNC & needs to communicate with the physical display in the current shell session, so running this via ssh will fail.

I ran the script directly on the deck and it ran w/ no issues.

This script is really broken. Firstly even though == does seem to work everywhere, it's not documented anywhere. [ in an alias for /bin/test and the shell runs a command and it wouldn't be out of the question for a rust rewrite of test to not have == and make it's way onto the steamdeck, while in bash [[ is a shell builtin and mainly does the same things... Bash's [[ doesn't document =, but the test builtin does. However if you look at line 21, that should be -eq and not the "documented" = as these are for numbers and strings respectively, see the test man page and help [[ from bash.

I tried my best to suggest fixes to this script, but I think the author is AFK.

Strange... I needed to quickly spin up a vnc server on my Steam Deck and came across this gist from a google search and installed it with no issues whatsoever. Nothing modified in anyway. Just uninstalled everything and re-ran it again from scratch just to be sure.

PGP Key Prep

sudo steamos-readonly disable
sudo pacman-key --populate holo

Pull gist

sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://gist.githubusercontent.com/x43x61x69/9a5a231a25426e8a2cc0f7c24cfdaed9/raw/vnc_install.sh?$RANDOM)"

Then on Steam Deck in desktop mode, run script in Konsole. Running script via ssh will fail. Script reads active display from current shell session

./vnc_startup.sh

My Steam Deck is more or less stock with the exception of some utilities like Tailscale or Decky Loader. I just installed the latest update and even confirmed that vnc persists even after updates are installed.

Sorry all, I sold my SteamDeck long ago thus unable to maintain this script anymore. Glad to see the community keeps improving it and make it working for newer SteamOS versions.

This script is really broken. Firstly even though == does seem to work everywhere, it's not documented anywhere. [ in an alias for /bin/test and the shell runs a command and it wouldn't be out of the question for a rust rewrite of test to not have == and make it's way onto the steamdeck, while in bash [[ is a shell builtin and mainly does the same things... Bash's [[ doesn't document =, but the test builtin does. However if you look at line 21, that should be -eq and not the "documented" = as these are for numbers and strings respectively, see the test man page and help [[ from bash.

I tried my best to suggest fixes to this script, but I think the author is AFK.

Sorry y’all, I sold my SteamDeck long ago thus unable to maintain this script anymore. Glad to see the community keeps improving it and make it working for newer SteamOS versions.