VNC Server

Have a look at http://linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=5499

thnaks i looked at that page - however since it refers to redhat 7.1 much of the files it talks about are different from redhat 9.

Any other links would be welcome though

http://www.fedoraforum.org/forum/archive/index.php/t-1606.html

sorry that link wasn't of much help....

I'm increasing the points for this....

http://linuxreviews.org/howtos/xvnc/

ok,

So my vnc session is working ok - ish.

i created a user called vncuser, and start a avnc session with vncserver. ON the windows client i can log in.....but

I'm logging in as vncuser....I'd ideally like to be presented with the login screen and log on as another system user - is this possible???????

My xstartup file now simply contains the following......
unset SESSION_MANAGER
exec gnome-session &

I would have thought you could repeat the proceedure for any user.

but that requires me to log in that user and type "vncserver" from the remote host machine... surely there must be a more elegant solution?

Standard vnc server installations on linux (or unix) don't serve display :0.  In the configuration file (/etc/sysconfig/vncservers) you can let each user have his own X desktop (VNCSERVERS="1:user1 2:user2").  But regardless of how many displays the server is running, they all share the same password.  This is only good for multiple users if perhaps you are talking about a tight family group where trust between members is never in question. It has the advantage of allowing users to simultaneously use different desktops without interfering with one another.

It seems that the only way you might be able to serve display :0 would be to use RealVNC with some non-standard modifications (http://www.realvnc.com/v4/x0.html).  This will allow users to access the login screen on the native display.  But has the disadvantage that different users could not simultaneously work on different desktops.  (In this case you wouldn't serve on any other displays and all users still use the same vnc password.)

interesting and useful post Poush.

I am actually using realvnc....

It doesn't seem like i can setup a few thin client machines which access the applications on the more powerful server and still use individual linux logins and accounts for each of the users on teh thin clients? Is that correct?

You could conceivably run several virtual machines (i.e. vmware workstation:  http://www.vmware.com/products/desktop/ws_features.html) from within the Linux system, each with its own desktop and vncserver, all capable of being used simultaneously.  But there are drawbacks to that too of  course being that each vm will use resources (most notably ram and hard drive space).  But if you have 2 GB of RAM and only perhaps 3 users that would each have a vm using 512MB of RAM (or 6 users, each with a vm using 256mb) its quite doable.  Keep in mind that you would need to purchase one vmware workstation license and OS licenses for the appropriate number of user vms.

ok thanks - i'm really looking for a free or very very low ocst solution - it appears it doesn't exist

http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=7109 ..... can it be done????

It certainly appears doable.  I expect it would take at least 40 hours to get it working.  If you go that route, use symantec ghost to make an image of the server that can be restored quickly in the event of hard drive failure.  This kind of setup is not one that you would really want to be forced to recreate from scratch.  One change I would make would be not to use boot floppies since a) floppies are slow  b) the space on a floppy is very small  c) its quite easy to make a bootable cd using isolinux  d) all pcs made in the last several years have a bios setting that will allow booting from cd drive.  Another change would be to enable the local hard drives on the thin clients and have user files automatically backed up (hourly or more often) from the server to the respective clients.  It's always good to have backups and the users still have access to their data even if network or server were to go down.  Don't use NFS, but use secure copy (over ssh) for this.  If any of your clients will be remoting in from outside then you need  to run ssh server anyway since vnc is unencrypted.

If you want to use a virtual machine, user model linux is worth a look. Its gpl.
http://user-mode-linux.sourceforge.net/

Poush, i think that was an interesting website article - i certainly dont intend going to the extreme of using floppy drive based distribuations. I have old, yet still relatively powerful pc's (P3 500mhz etc) as the thin clients. So in theory at least it should be a simplier problem.

But the issues still remains as regard how exactly to setup realvnc to support such a structure.

wow thanks for that!

so in my case, if i want an even simpler setup (doesn't automatically launch the vnc viewer), all i'd need to do is provide the link to the vnc client (realvnc client)von the windows desktop. What desktop will they connect to - ie IP_ADDRESSS:X, whats the value of X? from the above it seem to be dependant on  which resolution you want - am i correct?

After connecting via the vnc client, will each user have their own area (eg home area etc) - or are they just sharing an account?

thanks again for the great post above

incidently i followed your instructions above, reboot the machine, logged in as normal (non-root user) and then tried to connect to this machine via a windows client using realvnc viewer and the ip address of the server machine - i couldn't establish a connection saying: uable to connect to host.

I tried from another linux based machine and tried to connect to the server, but also couldn't - again using realvnc vncviewer.

any thoughts?

try connecting server to itself  (i.e. localhost:1)

I remembered the pw on my original account and switched back to it.  If you ever decide to award any points (hint hint), please do it on this account.  Thanks.

Hi, sorry for the delay in getting back to this question, i've been away.

Poushag - i will defintely award you the points - but i've a few niggling issues to sort out first.

I still cant connect to the server machine....I tried (on the server) vncviewer localhost:1 .... and the connection is refused.

I've setup the server as you outlined above - so once i sort out the niggling problem with the client the points are yours!

let me update that - once i start the vncserver on the server and i can then connection with the vncviewer (on both server and client) ...however this is not giving me a login screen? (this is the inital question i asked)

Well I have an idea - lets open a new question (that references this one) and then close this one.  I suggest this because I don't think your problem is vnc related at all  Post a link to the new question in this one right before you close it.

ok fair enough - but what question will i ask!?

Ask why theres no login screen when you run vnc thru XDMCP and xinetd (and make sure theres a link to this question).

Follow up question posted here:

https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/21170908/VNC-login-Screen-problem.html