[gentoo-user] [OT] Screen sharing software or similar

[gentoo-user] [OT] Screen sharing software or similar

[Renat Golubchyk]

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Hi all!

I'm looking for a solution to the following problem.

My relatives live 200 km away. They have a daughter, and I need to help
her out with school homework etc. At the moment we cannot do it on a
regular basis, because doing it over the phone is really difficult and
time consuming. I thought some screen sharing software would solve
this. A video conferencing or a VoIP feature would be a nice bonus,
too. For easy writing I would probably buy graphics tablets since
writing math formulas or drawing isn't particularly fast or easy with
keyboard and mouse.

So, is there some easy-to-use Linux program? I have Linux desktops on
both ends (Ubuntu and Gentoo), so portability or OS-independence is not
a requirement.

Do you have any other ideas? For the record, we have a 2 Mbit DSL line
on one end and a 6 Mbit on the other. Those are, of course, downstream 
bandwidth rates.


Best wishes,
Renat

-- 
Probleme kann man niemals mit derselben Denkweise loesen,
durch die sie entstanden sind.
                                              (Einstein)

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Re: [gentoo-user] [OT] Screen sharing software or similar

[Alan McKinnon]

On Thursday 18 February 2010 15:15:52 Renat Golubchyk wrote:
> Hi all!
> 
> I'm looking for a solution to the following problem.
> 
> My relatives live 200 km away. They have a daughter, and I need to help
> her out with school homework etc. At the moment we cannot do it on a
> regular basis, because doing it over the phone is really difficult and
> time consuming. I thought some screen sharing software would solve
> this. A video conferencing or a VoIP feature would be a nice bonus,
> too. For easy writing I would probably buy graphics tablets since
> writing math formulas or drawing isn't particularly fast or easy with
> keyboard and mouse.
> 
> So, is there some easy-to-use Linux program? I have Linux desktops on
> both ends (Ubuntu and Gentoo), so portability or OS-independence is not
> a requirement.
> 
> Do you have any other ideas? For the record, we have a 2 Mbit DSL line
> on one end and a 6 Mbit on the other. Those are, of course, downstream
> bandwidth rates.
> 
> 
> Best wishes,
> Renat

remote desktop would be ideal except you can't usually share desktops with it.

Investigate tightvnc - the data stream can be compressed and it's very 
efficient.
You could use skype for the human-to-human communication. There are of course 
tons of alternatives but I imagine a girl at school is already very familiar 
with skype.


-- 
alan dot mckinnon at gmail dot com

[gentoo-user] Re: [OT] Screen sharing software or similar

[James]

Renat Golubchyk <ragermany <at> gmx.net> writes:


> too. For easy writing I would probably buy graphics tablets since
> writing math formulas or drawing isn't particularly fast or easy with
> keyboard and mouse.


If my old (weak) memory serves me correctly,
some time back several folks where discussing getting writing tablets to
work with Gentoo. Once you get working, I'd think there are several
approaches to an interactive desktop to use with the tablet. So a search 
of this subject on this list might be a good place to start?


You could check on the embedded-gentoo user group to see if any
of those guys have some working hardware for a tablet or such.

hth,
James

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: [OT] Screen sharing software or similar

[Roger Mason]

James <wireless@tampabay.rr.com> writes:

> Renat Golubchyk <ragermany <at> gmx.net> writes:
>
>
>> too. For easy writing I would probably buy graphics tablets since
>> writing math formulas or drawing isn't particularly fast or easy with
>> keyboard and mouse.
>
>
> If my old (weak) memory serves me correctly,
> some time back several folks where discussing getting writing tablets to
> work with Gentoo.

Tha tablet part of this ought to be straightforward.  I have a Wacom
Graphire USB tablet working with several machines including PPC,
Core2duo & x86.  I have the tablet configured in xorg.conf (have not
tried with hal).  There is info on the wiki:
http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/Wacom_Tablet

Roger

Re: [gentoo-user] [OT] Screen sharing software or similar

[Willie Wong]

On Thu, Feb 18, 2010 at 02:15:52PM +0100, Renat Golubchyk wrote:
> My relatives live 200 km away. They have a daughter, and I need to help
> her out with school homework etc. At the moment we cannot do it on a
> regular basis, because doing it over the phone is really difficult and
> time consuming. I thought some screen sharing software would solve
> this. A video conferencing or a VoIP feature would be a nice bonus,
> too. For easy writing I would probably buy graphics tablets since
> writing math formulas or drawing isn't particularly fast or easy with
> keyboard and mouse.
> 
> So, is there some easy-to-use Linux program? I have Linux desktops on
> both ends (Ubuntu and Gentoo), so portability or OS-independence is not
> a requirement.

Skype + gimp/inkscape ?

Use your tablet to draw in any image editing program. Save to file.
Skype has the ability to send file on demand. It will be slightly
slower, but still faster than just talking. I know Skype has a lot of
"Whiteboard" plugins, but they look like they only work for Windows
clients. (Back in the 90s my father and I used to use this internet
voice chat software called Aloha that has whiteboards built-in.) 

Or maybe Coccinella?
http://packages.gentoo.org/package/net-im/coccinella
Its package description says "Jabber Client with Built-in Whiteboard
and VoIP". I've never used it myself. You can probably grok through
the net-im category yourself to find others. 

Cheers, 

W

-- 
Willie W. Wong                                     wwong@math.princeton.edu
Data aequatione quotcunque fluentes quantitae involvente fluxiones invenire 
         et vice versa   ~~~  I. Newton

Re: [gentoo-user] [OT] Screen sharing software or similar

[Alex Schuster]

Renat Golubchyk writes:

> My relatives live 200 km away. They have a daughter, and I need to help
> her out with school homework etc. At the moment we cannot do it on a
> regular basis, because doing it over the phone is really difficult and
> time consuming. I thought some screen sharing software would solve
> this. A video conferencing or a VoIP feature would be a nice bonus,
> too. For easy writing I would probably buy graphics tablets since
> writing math formulas or drawing isn't particularly fast or easy with
> keyboard and mouse.
> 
> So, is there some easy-to-use Linux program? I have Linux desktops on
> both ends (Ubuntu and Gentoo), so portability or OS-independence is not
> a requirement.
> 
> Do you have any other ideas? For the record, we have a 2 Mbit DSL line
> on one end and a 6 Mbit on the other. Those are, of course, downstream
> bandwidth rates.

You could use Skype to replace your phone communication, if you don't mind 
its spookiness (I do). It also does video conferencing. If plain audio is 
enough, I'd use TeamSpeak.

Some jabber client for text conversations would be fine. Also works for 
formulas, if you know some LaTeX...

And then VNC (epecially TightVNC) to share your drawings on the tablet.

For ultimate performance, you could install NX, which makes X forwarding 
amazingly fast. One party connects to the remote NX server and opens a KDE 
3.5 session, which will work nearly as fast if it were opened locally. And 
the other connects via VNC to that KDE session, which is also very fast 
then because it runs locally, not over DSL. I do not know if other window 
managers than KDE 3.5 have the VNC sharing feature, I have not found it in 
KDE4.

You might need some port forwarding if you both are NATed behind a router.

	Wonko

Re: [gentoo-user] [OT] Screen sharing software or similar

[Iain Buchanan]

On Thu, 2010-02-18 at 14:15 +0100, Renat Golubchyk wrote:
> Hi all!
> 
> I'm looking for a solution to the following problem.

A lot of people have answered already, but you may be interested to know
the current linux release of skype 2.1.0.81 lets you share part or all
of your desktop.  It's view only, and it replaces the webcam stream with
your desktop - pretty neat.

For 2-way desktop interaction we often use vnc.  Use a vnc server and
client capable of the tight extensions, and don't forget to use them:
vncviewer -encodings tight host
or
vncviewer -via somehost -encodings tight localhost
would ssh via somehost.  Use localhost if you can ssh directly to the
box, or the actual hostname accessible via 'somehost' if you have to go
via a gateway.

I use net-misc/tightvnc.  If you can ssh to the box, you can vnc to it.
You could run skype as well just for the audio.

HTH,
-- 
Iain Buchanan <iaindb at netspace dot net dot au>

While it may be true that a watched pot never boils, the one you don't
keep an eye on can make an awful mess of your stove.
		-- Edward Stevenson