How do I run teamviewer in a headless system?

Question

I'm really new to Ubuntu 12.04 and I've been trying to get remote desktop services between me and my server. I don't have any spare monitors, keyboards or mice. I did connect said items too the server and got teamviewer running and connected, but I can't use those components every time I want to go remote desktop. I have ssh but I want a GUI on hand for annoying stressful situations.

I read somewhere that ubuntu doesn't start a GUI if there is no monitor connected, and tried those xorg.conf setups to no avail. I believe this is the reason why my headless setup isn't working.

How can I get my GUI to startup while headless?

Solution

If you want to use a nice and light desktop for just the remote sessions, I could recommend you xvnc + xfce or lxde.

sudo apt-get install vncserver xfce4

or

sudo apt-get install vncserver lxde-core

Then configure your desktop to start lxdm or lightdm to start at boot:

sudo vim /etc/default/ligthdm
## OR
sudo vim /etc/lxdm/lxdm.conf

Then configure your ssh + vnc tunneling using the fine answer provided by Oli, and you are all set.