Automatically start VNC server on startup

I found these instructions by searching Google for "ubuntu launch vnc server on startup".

1. Install the VNC server.
2. Launch vncserver for the first time to set up a password.
3. Add the following file as /etc/init.d/vncserver (be sure to modify the USER, GEOMETRY, NAME, etc. to your liking).
4. sudo chmod +x /etc/init.d/vncserver
5. sudo update-rc.d vncserver defaults

/etc/init.d/vncserver

#!/bin/sh -e
### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides:          vncserver
# Required-Start:    networking
# Default-Start:     S
# Default-Stop:      0 6
### END INIT INFO

PATH="$PATH:/usr/X11R6/bin/"

# The Username:Group that will run VNC
export USER="mythtv"
#${RUNAS}

# The display that VNC will use
DISPLAY="1"

# Color depth (between 8 and 32)
DEPTH="16"

# The Desktop geometry to use.
#GEOMETRY="<WIDTH>x<HEIGHT>"
#GEOMETRY="800x600"
GEOMETRY="1024x768"
#GEOMETRY="1280x1024"

# The name that the VNC Desktop will have.
NAME="my-vnc-server"

OPTIONS="-name ${NAME} -depth ${DEPTH} -geometry ${GEOMETRY} :${DISPLAY}"

. /lib/lsb/init-functions

case "$1" in
start)
log_action_begin_msg "Starting vncserver for user '${USER}' on localhost:${DISPLAY}"
su ${USER} -c "/usr/bin/vncserver ${OPTIONS}"
;;

stop)
log_action_begin_msg "Stoping vncserver for user '${USER}' on localhost:${DISPLAY}"
su ${USER} -c "/usr/bin/vncserver -kill :${DISPLAY}"
;;

restart)
$0 stop
$0 start
;;
esac

exit 0

If you want a more dynamic configuration and the ability to connect for multiple users then there is a better way to do this. As root create the file (and directory if it doesn't exist) /etc/sysconfig/vncservers i.e. do:

mkdir -p /etc/vncserver
touch /etc/vncserver/vncservers.conf

Add servers as needed for each user by adding something like the following to the vncservers.conf file you just created:

VNCSERVERS="1:justin 2:bob"
VNCSERVERARGS[1]="-geometry 1920x1080 -depth 24"
VNCSERVERARGS[2]="-geometry 800x600 -depth 8"

next create an empty init script and make it executable:

touch /etc/init.d/vncserver
chmod +x /etc/init.d/vncserver

add the following to /etc/init.d/vncserver:

#!/bin/bash

unset VNCSERVERARGS
VNCSERVERS=""
[ -f /etc/vncserver/vncservers.conf ] && . /etc/vncserver/vncservers.conf
prog=$"VNC server"

start() {
        . /lib/lsb/init-functions
        REQ_USER=$2
        echo -n $"Starting $prog: "
        ulimit -S -c 0 >/dev/null 2>&1
        RETVAL=0
        for display in ${VNCSERVERS}
        do
                export USER="${display##*:}"
                if test -z "${REQ_USER}" -o "${REQ_USER}" == ${USER} ; then
                        echo -n "${display} "
                        unset BASH_ENV ENV
                        DISP="${display%%:*}"
                        export VNCUSERARGS="${VNCSERVERARGS[${DISP}]}"
                        su ${USER} -c "cd ~${USER} && [ -f .vnc/passwd ] && vncserver :${DISP} ${VNCUSERARGS}"
                fi
        done
}

stop() {
        . /lib/lsb/init-functions
        REQ_USER=$2
        echo -n $"Shutting down VNCServer: "
        for display in ${VNCSERVERS}
        do
                export USER="${display##*:}"
                if test -z "${REQ_USER}" -o "${REQ_USER}" == ${USER} ; then
                        echo -n "${display} "
                        unset BASH_ENV ENV
                        export USER="${display##*:}"
                        su ${USER} -c "vncserver -kill :${display%%:*}" >/dev/null 2>&1
                fi
        done
        echo -e "\n"
        echo "VNCServer Stopped"
}

case "$1" in
start)
start $@
;;
stop)
stop $@
;;
restart|reload)
stop $@
sleep 3
start $@
;;
condrestart)
if [ -f /var/lock/subsys/vncserver ]; then
stop $@
sleep 3
start $@
fi
;;
status)
status Xvnc
;;
*)
echo $"Usage: $0 {start|stop|restart|condrestart|status}"
exit 1
esac

As Stephen mentioned in his answer you'll need to run vncserver AT LEAST ONCE AS EACH USER you want to login as. I put that in caps because if you skip that step none of it will work. So as root you could do:

su justin -c vncserver
su bob -c vncserver

This will create a .vnc directory in each users home dir with the appropriate startup scripts.

Finally, do the following:

update-rc.d vncserver defaults 99

now you can either reboot or start the service manually by typing:

service vncserver start