X11vnc as a service not working

Support Software & Applications
1

Manjaro 20.3 Xfce. Installed x11vnc and created the following service:
[Unit]
Description=x11vnc VNC Server for X11
Requires=lightdm.service
After=lightdm.service

[Service]
#Type=forking
ExecStart=
ExecStart=/usr/bin/x11vnc -auth /var/run/lightdm/root/:0 -display WAIT:0 -many -nevershared -bg -o /var/log/x11vnc.log -rfbauth /etc/x11vnc.pass -rfbport 5900 -xkb -norc -noxrecord -noxdamage -nomodtweak 
ExecStop=/usr/bin/x11vnc -R stop
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=2

[Install]
WantedBy=graphical.target

For some reason that escapes me, I can only connect to the vnc after I’ve entered the password on the greeter in physical machine, what kind of defeats the purpose of setting the service.
What am I missing?

EDIT: so it seems ALL services I enable with systemctl are only available once I log in in the greeter of the local host. I can only ssh the machine after I log into it locally! :frowning:

2

Try to set an earlier target here.

3

I changed those targets to multi-user.target.
Still no fun.
As a subpar workaround, I’ve set lightdm to auto-login and it allowed me to make one further discovery:
If the computer screen locks, the physical machine displays the lightdm greeter, and the vnc client, while still connected, displays black and input has no effect.
If I unlock the physical machine, the vnc resumes as nothing has happened.

I’ve confirmed through htop the vnc service belongs to root.

4

My guess is that lightdm locks you out from the display. You can try to install tigervnc and use x0vncserver instead. As an alternative, you also have NoMachine, but that’s a different beast.