Remote Desktop

[Peter Garrett]

On Sat, 03 Jun 2006 02:16:12 -0400
R S Gill <rsgill at purdue.edu> wrote:


> I need a way to setup remote desktop such that when I access my server,
> no one who is in the server room can watch what I am doing on the
> server. Right now, anyone who has access to the server can view
> everything that is going on when the server is accessed remotely.
> 
> And yes I am aware that VNC is slower and is not encrypted. I'll deal
> with the slowness and I use an SSH tunnel the VNC connection to VNC.
> 
> I just need some help blanking the remote screen while the machine is
> being connected to with VNC. And once the VNC session is ended, the
> remote machine needs to have the screen lock activated.

You can set up a session on display :1 and use Xtightvnc.

For instance, 

1)  Edit the file ~/.vnc/xstartup  Mine looks like this:

#!/bin/sh

xrdb $HOME/.Xresources
xsetroot -solid grey
x-terminal-emulator -geometry 80x24+10+10 -ls -title "$VNCDESKTOP Desktop"
& ~/.xsession.vnc &

2) Make a file ( ~/.xsession.vnc in the case above) that is like a
~/.xsession file , containing the things you want to start and the DE/
Window manager. It could be as simple as

!#/bin/bash

fluxbox 

for example, although mine contains various bits that I like to start by
default like gkrellm. These would just go above the window manager entry
as usual , with an & after them, of course...

3) Start vncserver from the server machine on display :1

vncserver :1

Now, that fluxbox session, or whatever session you configure, should just
sit there waiting for you to connect, for instance using 

vncviewer <IP address :1 >  from a remote machine 

I configured this using the KDE krfb tool to set the server password etc,
but no doubt it can be done by editing the relevant config file for the
Xtightvnc server.

Even with fluxbox, which does not have its own session management, the
apps you have opened will remain open and be there when you next connect.

Hope this helps, and all that...

Peter



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