Running Bisq on Linux using VNC

Install Debian 10 Linux with bare minimal packages, then run:

apt-get update
apt-get install -y sudo psmisc tightvncserver awesome autocutsel`
curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/bisq-network/bisq/master/seednode/install_seednode_debian.sh | sed -e 's/#BITCOIN_INSTALL=false/BITCOIN_INSTALL=false/'
chmod 700 install_seednode_debian.sh
./install_seednode_debian.sh
systemctl disable bisq

Then open /bisq/.vnc/xstartup in a text editor and use this as an example startup script:

#!/bin/bash

xrdb $HOME/.Xresources
xsetroot -solid black
autocutsel -fork

export GDK_SCALE=2

awesome &

sleep 2

export JAVA_OPTS="-Xms2048M -Xmx2048M"

name=bisqvnc

/bisq/bisq/bisq-desktop \
	--appName=${name} \
	--appDataDir=${name} \
	--maxConnections=16 \
	--useTorForBtc=false \
	--ignoreLocalBtcNode=true \
	--btcNodes=103.99.170.210,103.99.170.220

Next open /etc/systemd/system/vncserver@.service in a text editor and use this as an example:

[Unit]
Description=Start TightVNC server at startup
After=syslog.target network.target

[Service]
Type=forking
User=bisq
Group=bisq
WorkingDirectory=/bisq

PIDFile=/bisq/.vnc/%H:%i.pid
ExecStartPre=-/usr/bin/vncserver -kill :%i > /dev/null 2>&1
ExecStart=/usr/bin/vncserver -localhost -nolisten tcp -depth 24 -geometry 2550x1400 :%i
ExecStop=/usr/bin/vncserver -kill :%i
ExecStartPre=/bin/sleep %i

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

After you have the 2 files in place:

chmod 700 /bisq/.vnc/xstartup
systemctl daemon-reload
systemctl enable vncserver@1
sed -i -e 's/awful.layout.suit.floating/-- awful.layout.suit.floating/' /etc/xdg/awesome/rc.lua
su - bisq
vncpasswd # set a 8 character password for the VNC server

Reboot and Bisq should start within a virtual X session inside a VNC server session. SSH to the server using VNC port forwarding:

ssh user@1.2.3.4 -L 5901:127.0.0.1:5901

Then on your home PC, start a VNC session like this:

vncviewer -depth 16 -encodings tight -compresslevel 9 -quality 4 127.0.0.1:1

Use the 8 character password you set earlier to authenticate, and then you should see Bisq inside X windows over VNC.