Why can I only run vncserver/Xvnc as root?
The most likely reason for this is that Xvnc can’t create the unix domain socket (the path for this unix domain socket is usually /tmp/.X11-unix/Xn). Try making sure that users can write to this directory by making it world-writable, i.e. “chmod a+w /tmp/.X11-unix”. Note that to avoid a security loophole the “sticky bit” should also be set on the directory by doing “chmod o+t /tmp/.X11-unix”. If you don’t do this then someone else logged in to the same machine may be able to intercept the X protocol and thereby access your desktop and snoop on it, etc.
