Is there a guide to running headless on Linux?

Question

When I run the following build:
<target name="compile.client.test" depends="setup.test">
     <mxmlc file="${client.test.src.file}" output="${client.test.bin.file}"
               fork="true" maxmemory="256m" debug="true" optimize="true"
               incremental="true">
          <default-size width="800" height="600"/>
          <load-config filename="${FLEX_HOME}/frameworks/flex-config.xml"/>
          <source-path path-element="${client.main.src.dir}"/>
          <source-path path-element="${client.test.src.dir}"/>
          <library-path dir="${client.main.lib.dir}" append="true" includes="*.swc"/>
          <library-path dir="${client.test.lib.dir}" append="true" includes="*.swc"/>
          <compiler.verbose-stacktraces>true</compiler.verbose-stacktraces>
          <compiler.headless-server>true</compiler.headless-server>
          <static-link-runtime-shared-libraries>true</static-link-runtime-shared-libraries>
     </mxmlc>
</target>
<target name="test.client" depends="compile.client.test">
     <flexunit swf="${client.test.bin.file}"
          haltonfailure="true" verbose="false" localtrusted="true"
          headless="true" todir="${client.flexunit.bin.dir}"/>
</target>
I get the following error:
Buildfile: /home/rfkrocktk/Documents/Helios/activeinterview/build.xml
setup:
setup.main:
setup.test:
compile.client.test:
    [mxmlc] Loading configuration file /opt/adobe/flex/4.1.0.16076/frameworks/flex-config.xml
    [mxmlc] /home/rfkrocktk/Documents/Helios/activeinterview/activeinterview-client/build/test/test.application.swf is up-to-date and does not have to be rebuilt.
test.client:
[flexunit] Starting xvnc
BUILD FAILED
/home/rfkrocktk/Documents/Helios/activeinterview/build.xml:84: java.io.IOException: Cannot run program "vncserver": java.io.IOException: error=2, No such file or directory
Total time: 3 seconds
I assumed that this means that I don't have a VNC server implementation installed, so I installed one:
sudo apt-get install vnc4server
Now the error I'm getting is this:
Buildfile: /home/rfkrocktk/Documents/Helios/activeinterview/build.xml
setup:
setup.main:
setup.test:
compile.client.test:
    [mxmlc] Loading configuration file /opt/adobe/flex/4.1.0.16076/frameworks/flex-config.xml
    [mxmlc] /home/rfkrocktk/Documents/Helios/activeinterview/activeinterview-client/build/test/test.application.swf is up-to-date and does not have to be rebuilt.
test.client:
[flexunit] Starting xvnc
[flexunit] You will require a password to access your desktops.
[flexunit] Password:
[flexunit] getpassword error: Invalid argument
[flexunit] You will require a password to access your desktops.
[flexunit] getpassword error: Invalid argument
[flexunit] Password:
[flexunit] You will require a password to access your desktops.
[flexunit] getpassword error: Invalid argument
[flexunit] Password:
BUILD FAILED
/home/rfkrocktk/Documents/Helios/activeinterview/build.xml:84: java.io.IOException: org.flexunit.ant.launcher.commands.headless.XvncException: Could not start xvnc using displays 99-101; Consider adding to your launch script: killall Xvnc Xrealvnc; rm -fv /tmp/.X*-lock /tmp/.X11-unix/X*
Total time: 3 seconds
What does this mean? Do I need my Linux user password in order to start a vnc screen?
I have checked and the VNC server doesn't seem to be running, and I have run the scripts that it recommends. Any ideas? (I'm running Ubuntu 9.10 64bit if that helps any.)

Answer 1

Thanks so much for your response, it completely solved my problem.
Basically, for the future's sake, here is the whole process I went through on Ubuntu.
First, install a VNC server:
sudo apt-get install vnc4server
Next, start and configure the server:
vncserver
At this point, it should ask you to create a password for VNC. Do so, then continue.
Start a VNC screen on screen 99:
vncserver :99
If that goes through alright, then kill the screens created. (For me, when I ran vncserver for the first time, it created a screen at :1, so we'll kill both of the screens created)
vncserver -kill :99
vncserver -kill :1
Done. Now, it "just works."