Re: [gentoo-amd64] Can I run a complete desktop remotely?

[YoYo Siska <yoyo@gl.ksp.sk>]

Mark Knecht wrote:
> 
> Olivier and all others who responded:
> 
> Thanks for the info. As always I appreciate it. I have looked at the
> links everyone provided but I think they are way over my head. I'm
> looking for an end-user sort of solution here. Thanks in advance for
> helping me.
> 
> The issue here, for me, is not running X apps on the remote machine. I
> do that already. My dad, who is now 78 and happily running Gentoo
> Linux for over 4 years now, gets by when he has an application problem
> by asking me to log in and fix things with the app. For instance, when
> I update Evolution or when he changed ISPs recently I often need to go
> fix individual configuration items. I do that just running the app
> over an SSH tunnel with X forwarding turned on. No problems other than
> the speed.
> 

Hi,
just another hint beside the  others:

I use x11vnc for such scenarios: I ssh into the machine as the user
running the X session, start up  x11vnc -display :0, and then just run
vncviewer remote_host:0  on my computer

There are a few things to note however: the x11vnc must be able to
connect to the xserver (I mean authentication through XAUTH)
with KDM (regardless of the session you choose, just the display
manager) it just worked for me, gdm may be worse and you may have to set
up correct XAUTHORITY

If the user has not logged in already  (there's the kdm/gdm login screen
on the remote computer still) you _have_ to set the XAUTH. With kdm the
xauth file is  /var/run/xauth/A:${DISPLAY}-some_random_chars, accesible
only from root. You have to run the x11vnc as root with the xauth file,
for example:
x11vnc -display :0 -auth /var/run/xauth/A:0-crR0kF


There also used to be directly a module for the X server that you could
load and just connect to the screen anytime with vncviewer without the
need to run x11vnc a to play with xauth...  But I played with it a long
time ago, it was a seperate module etc... I remember vaguely that it was
either included in standard xorg or something.. but I don't really know



OK, after I wrote this I found
http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Use_VNC_to_connect_to_existing_X_Sessions
;)))

there's the x11vnc way (with a way to set up kde to always start it, and
the locations of xauth files for gdm, ... ;), and also  the X extension
way (you just need to emerge vnc with server use flag, and it should
install the vnc module for Xserver, configuration is on the wiki page)


yoyo
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