[plug] VNC access to an Ubuntu machine (or perhaps XDMCP)

[Shanon Loughton]

I use x11vnc as the vnc server, although I cant remember config and
cant test login / greeter screen right now.  I know it has some level
of login support.

TO use, you'll need to disable the gnome remote desktop and install x11vnc.

>From the console thats
$sudo apt-get install x11vnc

The rest of the setup here & some good discussions:
http://foo-gr.blogspot.com/2009/05/remote-login-using-x11vnc-for-jaunty.html

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=965695&highlight=x11vnc+intrepid

And homepage FAQ:
http://www.karlrunge.com/x11vnc/faq.html#faq-userlogin

Cheers
Shanon


On Thu, Oct 1, 2009 at 3:18 PM, Gregory Orange
<gregory.orange at rpsmetocean.com> wrote:
> Hi all,
> I'm dancing around a solution to this, but I'd like some advice from those
> who know more than I - probably most of you :P
>
> At the other end of a VPN connection we have an Ubuntu virtual machine we'd
> like to access, preferably (due to my colleague's discomfort with command
> line) straight to a Gnome session. The 'source' machine is running Windows.
> Three options jump out:
>
> (1) Use Ubuntu's System -> Preferences -> Remote Desktop tool plus any old
> VNC viewer on the local machine. Works fine. Drawback: Must leave the system
> logged in.
>
>
> (2) XDMCP (System -> Administration -> Login Window -> Remote) plus XMing's
> XLaunch. Sort of works:
>
> (2a) Using 'one window' and 'start an XDMCP session' I get a wallpaper-only
> blank screen for a few minutes then "GNOME Settings Daemon failed to start".
> Removing .gconf* and .metacity etc then starting again doesn't help, and
> neither did updating gnome-settings-daemon past a bug which may have
> affected it.
>
> (2b) Using 'multiple window' and entering gnome-session as the command to
> run upon XLaunch connecting, the resulting Gnome desktop is blocky and
> unwieldy and bigger than my monitor. Resizing or other such interaction
> doesn't work.
>
>
> (3) VNC. A few ways to do this, but one partly successful method we used was
> to run tightvncserver on the remote machine, then connect to it with any old
> VNC viewer on the local machine. In ~/.vnc/xstartup I told it to run
> gnome-session, and it seems pretty good. Logging out leaves a 'stale'
> session which seems to require restarting the vncserver to get it going
> again.
>
>
> Option 3 seems the most promising so far. I'm looking for either
> troubleshooting tips on (2) (and possible the stale session in (3)), and
> advice on whether I'm going about this in totally the wrong way.
>
> Cheers,
> Greg.
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