Guide: Enabling WayVNC Autostart

[MuNeNICK]

Background

When running Omarchy on a remote server, it is often desirable to access a graphical desktop.
Omarchy is based on Hyprland, which allows creating a headless display that can be streamed over VNC.
By configuring autostart, WayVNC can be launched automatically whenever the Hyprland session starts.

How to Enable WayVNC Autostart

# Install WayVNC
sudo pacman -S wayvnc

# Edit autostart config
n ~/.config/hypr/autostart.conf

Add:

exec-once = bash -lc 'hyprctl output create headless VNC-1; \
  sleep 0.2; \
  hyprctl keyword monitor "VNC-1,1920x1080@60,auto,1"; \
  wayvnc -o VNC-1 0.0.0.0 5900'

After relaunching Hyprland, WayVNC will automatically start with the session,
exposing the VNC display on port 5900. Connect with:

{Omarchy server IP}:5900

[MuNeNICK]

By the way, when I operate Omarchy through WayVNC, sometimes workspace switching does not work as expected.
I suspect this happens because both a physical monitor and the headless Hyprland monitor exist at the same time,
but I’m not sure how to resolve it.

If anyone has a solution, please let me know.

[ghzghz]

thanks for the info.
using this I was able to connect from my mac. I had to use VNCViewer, as the default mac VNC client would not connect without authentication.
Keyboard setting isn't correct yet, but I'll play around with that.

However one small niggle is that when changing themes, the resolution gets messed up.
Restarting Hyprland fixes the issue.

[MuNeNICK]

I hope this was helpful.
Regarding the keyboard issue—are you copying and pasting the code below as is?

wayvnc -o VNC-1 -k jp 0.0.0.0 5900

If you specify a wayvnc option like -k jp, it will change the keyboard layout.
Setting it to your language might solve the problem.

https://man.archlinux.org/man/wayvnc.1

[ghzghz]

yes I had just cut paste with -k jp
that was the issue. Thanks.

still have the other issue now when 'hyprctl reload' messes up the resolution and input in the VNC session.
and I need to restart Hyprland.

but that's not a big thing.

[acrogenesis]

This helped me get started. In my use case when I need to connect through vnc I need to keep working on what was already on the screen so a virtual screen didn't apply. This is how I start wayvnc wayvnc -o DP-3 0.0.0.0 5900 then I also created this script to toggle my monitor resolution and the mac resolution.

toggle-resolution.sh

#!/bin/bash

MONITOR="DP-3"

# Grab the current resolution string (first field after the monitor header)
CURRENT=$(hyprctl monitors | awk -v mon="$MONITOR" '
    $2 == mon {getline; print $1}' )

if [[ "$CURRENT" == 5120x1440* ]]; then
    echo "Switching to MacBook-friendly resolution (2560x1600@60)..."
    hyprctl keyword monitor "$MONITOR,2560x1600@60,0x0,1"
elif [[ "$CURRENT" == 2560x1600* ]]; then
    echo "Switching back to Odyssey G9 native resolution (5120x1440@240)..."
    hyprctl keyword monitor "$MONITOR,5120x1440@240,0x0,1"
else
    echo "Current mode is $CURRENT — defaulting to Odyssey G9 native."
    hyprctl keyword monitor "$MONITOR,5120x1440@240,0x0,1"
fi

[acrogenesis]

I also added a binding bindd = SUPER SHIFT, R, Toggle Resolution, exec, /home/archogenesis/toggle-resolution.sh

[acrogenesis]

I created a small how-to https://acrogenesis.com/remote-access-to-omarchy-with-wayvnc-and-tailscale/

[arau-j]

How do you handle the disk encryption when using vnc? Is there a way to bypass need for physical usb keyboard on reboot?

[zigmoo]

Is there a way to use Apple's vanilla Screen Sharing app to connect to wayvnc?