Run HitLeap Viewer on DigitalOcean Droplet: Quick Step-by-step Guide

I created this easy “copy/paste” guide on setting up a cheap DO droplet that you can connect to via VNC and run Hitleap on, as quickly as possible.

This is not a very secure method (VNC password sent unencrypted) and I don’t recommend doing much anything else on the VPS server. Also, I’m running VNC via command line without having to set up a daemon for automatic startup.

This way it’s quicker and works for as long as the droplet stays up.

So let’s get started.

First create the DigitalOcean droplet:

1. Go to create droplet “direct link here“.
2. Choose Ubuntu 16.04.4 or whatever is ready selected.
3. Choose the cheapest 1GB droplet at $5/month.
4. Choose any datacenter region.
5. Choose any “hostname”.
6. Click on “create”
7. Login to shell via SSH as root (connection details in email).
8. Create new root password

Then go through each command in order:

apt-get update

Update package lists.

apt install xfce4 xfce4-goodies tightvncserver

Install lightweight xfce4 desktop environment and VNC server.

adduser hitleap

Add a regular user named hitleap.

su hitleap
vncpasswd

Create a password for VNC (max 8 chars). No need for view-only pass.

mkdir /home/hitleap/Desktop/

cd /home/hitleap/Desktop/

wget -O /home/hitleap/Desktop/HitLeap.tar.xz https://hitleap.com/viewer/download?platform=Linux

tar xf HitLeap.tar.xz

exit

wget -O /etc/init.d/vncserver https://www.elftronix.com/wp-content/uploads/vncserver.hitleap

Download VNC configuration. Edit this if username is other than ‘hitleap‘.

chmod +x /etc/init.d/vncserver

Make it executable.

systemctl daemon-reload

Reload systemctl so it can find the script.

/etc/init.d/vncserver start

Run VNC server.

Please note:

If you run VNC on the default port, it’s likely that bots will try and knock on your door which can result to this error message when trying to connect;

Too many authentication failures

One solution is to only allow connections to the VNC port with your IP address. Just run this line of code as root (change IP to yours);

iptables -I INPUT -p tcp ! -s 10.10.10.10. --dport 5901 -j DROP

Or try and change the port to something difficult to guess.

Connecting to VNC server:

Next all you need is to connect to IP:5901 with your favorite VNC client.

Password is sent in plain text. So use this at your own risk.

Remember to choose “use default config” at first xfce4 startup.

Just double clik on the “HitLeap Viewer” icon on your desktop and you are ready to go. Obviously you’ll need to have create an account previously.

I’m happy to answer any questions you might have?
Or leave a comment if you found this helpful.

Thanks for stopping by, David.