localhost port 5900 enabled. A vncviewer can then connect to localhost to get remote control over the server. ssh -N -T -L 5900:localhost:5900 user@remotehost & vncviewer -encodings 'copyrect tight zrle hextile' localhost:5900 x11vnc's man page also contains instructions. Xvnc (not to be confused with x11vnc) is very similar to Xvfb. See also X11vnc headless software References External links Xvfb manual page Xvfb + Firefox – making automatic screenshots of web pages, using Xvfb and Mozilla Firefox Xdummy an alternative to Xvfb using a plain X11 server with dummy drivers X servers