QEMU-VNC(1)

💖 QEMU-VNC(1) 💖

okay so welcome to the QEMU-VNC(1) page from the QEMU manual, bestie. this is the whole vibe, and yes, we’re keeping every single flag, default, path, and caveat because that’s just how we do it. 🫶

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🌸 NAME 🌸

qemu-vnc — QEMU standalone VNC server. literally the little VNC server that could. 💅

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

qemu-vnc [OPTION]...

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💅 DESCRIPTION 💅

qemu-vnc is a standalone VNC server that connects to a running QEMU instance via the D-Bus display interface (D-Bus display <#dbus-display>). it serves the guest display, input, audio, clipboard, and serial console chardevs over the VNC protocol, allowing VNC clients to interact with the virtual machine without QEMU itself binding a VNC socket. iconic behavior, no cap. 👑

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🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

• -h, --help — display help and exit. your “wait what does this do again” button. 🎀
• -V, --version — print version information and exit. lil identity check. ✨
• -a ADDRESS, --dbus-address=ADDRESS — D-Bus address to connect to. when not specified, qemu-vnc connects to the session bus. default behavior stays defaulting. 🦋
• -p FD, --dbus-p2p-fd=FD — file descriptor of an inherited Unix socket for a peer-to-peer D-Bus connection to QEMU. this is mutually exclusive with --dbus-address and --bus-name. pick your lane, bestie. 💀
• -n NAME, --bus-name=NAME — D-Bus bus name of the QEMU instance to connect to. the default is org.qemu. when a custom --dbus-address is given without a bus name, peer-to-peer D-Bus is used. 👑
• -W, --wait — wait for the D-Bus bus name to appear. only for bus connections. patient queen behavior. ⏳
• --password — require VNC password authentication from connecting clients. the password is set at runtime via the D-Bus SetPassword method (see D-Bus VNC <>). clients will not be able to connect until a password has been set. no password, no entry, periodt. 🔐

this option is ignored when a systemd credential password is present, since password authentication is already enabled via password-secret in that case.

• -l ADDR, --vnc-addr=ADDR — VNC listen address in the same format as the QEMU -vnc option (default localhost:0, i.e. TCP port 5900). yes, the classic. 🌈
• -w ADDR, --websocket=ADDR — enable WebSocket transport on the given address. ADDR can be a port number or an address:port pair. websocket era. 🦋
• -O OBJDEF, --object=OBJDEF — create a QEMU user-creatable object. OBJDEF uses the same key=value syntax as the QEMU -object option. this option may be given multiple times. it is needed, for example, to create authorization objects referenced by --tls-authz. stack those objects, bestie. 🧚
• -t DIR, --tls-creds=DIR — directory containing TLS x509 credentials (ca-cert.pem, server-cert.pem, server-key.pem). when specified, the VNC server requires TLS from connecting clients. secure the bag. 🔥
• --tls-authz=ID — ID of a QAuthZ object previously created with --object for TLS client certificate authorization. when specified, the TLS credentials are created with verify-peer=yes so connecting clients must present a valid certificate. after the TLS handshake, the client certificate Distinguished Name is checked against the authorization object. this option requires --tls-creds. no cert, no chat. 💅
• --sasl — require that the client use SASL to authenticate with the VNC server. the exact choice of authentication method used is controlled from the system / user’s SASL configuration file for the 'qemu' service. this is typically found in /etc/sasl2/qemu.conf. if running QEMU as an unprivileged user, an environment variable SASL_CONF_PATH can be used to make it search alternate locations for the service config. while some SASL auth methods can also provide data encryption (eg GSSAPI), it is recommended that SASL always be combined with the 'tls' and 'x509' settings to enable use of SSL and server certificates. this ensures a data encryption preventing compromise of authentication credentials. see the VNC security <#vnc-security> section in the System Emulation Users Guide for details on using SASL authentication. auth but make it fashion. 🎀
• --sasl-authz=ID — ID of a QAuthZ object previously created with --object for SASL username authorization. after successful SASL authentication, the authenticated username is checked against the authorization object. if the check fails, the client is disconnected. this option requires --sasl. check the username, then yeet the connection if it fails. 💀
• -s POLICY, --share=POLICY — set display sharing policy. POLICY is one of allow-exclusive, force-shared, or ignore.
  • allow-exclusive — allows clients to ask for exclusive access. as suggested by the RFB spec this is implemented by dropping other connections. connecting multiple clients in parallel requires all clients asking for a shared session (vncviewer: -shared switch). this is the default. 👑
  • force-shared — disables exclusive client access. useful for shared desktop sessions, where you don’t want someone forgetting to specify -shared disconnect everybody else. group project but make it VNC. 🫶
  • ignore — completely ignores the shared flag and allows everybody to connect unconditionally. doesn’t conform to the RFB spec but is traditional QEMU behavior. chaotic old-school energy, honestly. 💀
• -C NAME, --vt-chardev=NAME — chardev type name to expose as a VNC text console. this option may be given multiple times to expose several chardevs. when not specified, the defaults org.qemu.console.serial.0 and org.qemu.monitor.hmp.0 are used. default console besties stay winning. 🦋
• -N, --no-vt — do not expose any chardevs as text consoles. this overrides the default chardev list and any --vt-chardev options. no text console, no problem. 🙈
• -k LAYOUT, --keyboard-layout=LAYOUT — keyboard layout (e.g. en-us). passed through to the VNC server for key-code translation. your keys, translated. ⌨️✨
• --lossy — enable lossy compression methods (gradient, JPEG, ...). if this option is set, VNC client may receive lossy framebuffer updates depending on its encoding settings. enabling this option can save a lot of bandwidth at the expense of quality. beauty is pain, bandwidth is bandwidth. 🌸
• --non-adaptive — disable adaptive encodings. adaptive encodings are enabled by default. an adaptive encoding will try to detect frequently updated screen regions, and send updates in these regions using a lossy encoding (like JPEG). this can be really helpful to save bandwidth when playing videos. disabling adaptive encodings restores the original static behavior of encodings like Tight. turn it off and go back to the old reliable vibe. 🎀
• -T, --trace [[enable=]PATTERN][,events=FILE][,file=FILE] — specify tracing options. detective mode: activated. 🔍
  • [enable=]PATTERN — immediately enable events matching PATTERN (either event name or a globbing pattern). this option is only available if QEMU has been compiled with the simple, log or ftrace tracing backend. to specify multiple events or patterns, specify the -trace option multiple times. use -trace help to print a list of names of trace points. trace all the things, bestie. ✨
  • events=FILE — immediately enable events listed in FILE. the file must contain one event name (as listed in the trace-events-all file) per line; globbing patterns are accepted too. this option is only available if QEMU has been compiled with the simple, log or ftrace tracing backend. list ‘em, load ‘em, trace ‘em. 🦋
  • file=FILE — log output traces to FILE. this option is only available if QEMU has been compiled with the simple tracing backend. put the trace tea in this file. 🍵

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🦋 EXAMPLES 🦋

start QEMU with the D-Bus display backend:

qemu-system-x86_64 -display dbus ...

then attach qemu-vnc:

qemu-vnc

a VNC client can now connect to localhost:5900. slay. 💅

to listen on a different port with TLS:

qemu-vnc --vnc-addr localhost:1 --tls-creds /etc/pki/qemu-vnc

to require TLS with client certificate authorization:

qemu-vnc --object authz-list-file,id=auth0,filename=/etc/qemu/vnc.acl,refresh=on \
         --tls-creds /etc/pki/qemu-vnc --tls-authz auth0

to enable SASL authentication with TLS:

qemu-vnc --tls-creds /etc/pki/qemu-vnc --sasl

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🔐 VNC PASSWORD AUTHENTICATION 🔐

there are two ways to enable VNC password authentication:

1. --password flag — start qemu-vnc with --password and then set the password at runtime using the D-Bus SetPassword method. clients will be rejected until a password is set. no password yet? no connection yet, bestie. 😭
2. systemd credentials — if the CREDENTIALS_DIRECTORY environment variable is set (see systemd.exec(5)) and contains a file named vnc-password, the VNC server will use that file’s contents as the password automatically. the --password flag is not needed in this case. systemd said “I got you.” 🫶

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🌈 D-BUS INTERFACE 🌈

qemu-vnc exposes a D-Bus interface for management and monitoring of VNC connections. see D-Bus VNC <> for the full interface reference. management era. 👑

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🌟 SEE ALSO 🌟

• qemu(1)
• D-Bus display <>
• D-Bus VNC <>
• The RFB Protocol <https://github.com/rfbproto/rfbproto>

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🫶 Copyright 🫶

2026, The QEMU Project Developers

okay that’s the whole page bestie — this was QEMU-VNC(1) from the QEMU manual, version 11.1.3, dated Oct 29, 2026. now go slay some VNC connections 💅✨