Joe Terranova on 6 Apr 2008 15:02:18 -0700 |
Yeah, I used to use x11vnc Back In The Day (tm), before I had completely dropped the windows mindset and started using a server for my important stuff (ie torrents, irc, im, etc). Since my family and relatives haven't dropped Windows yet, I haven't used it for remote help. Here's a how-to on how to use it: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=45565 Probably a bit dated by now, but still gives the gist. Joe Terranova On Sun, Apr 6, 2008 at 2:57 PM, JP Vossen <jp@jpsdomain.org> wrote: > I've been testing Xubuntu Hardy beta, but one of my killer apps is > trivial "remote desktop." As many of you probably know, that's built-in > to the Gnome Ubuntu as (wait for it) "System, Preferences, Remote > Desktop". But vino is a Gnome app, which a) doesn't work under Xfce and > b) would kind of defeat the purpose of running Xfce if it did work and > had to load all the Gnome libs anyway. > > There are a lot of really hairy gazillion-step HOWTOs out there when you > Google for xfce remote desktop, but there are some problems with them. > First, while I'm capable of implementing them, I don't feel like it. I > use Ubuntu because I want it to Just Work without messing around with > it. If I wanted to do that kind of thing I'd be using Gentoo. Second, > most of the "solutions" I found don't actually give you the current, > console session (:0), they give you a new X session (:1 +). The > *entire* point of this is to get the existing console desktop, for > remote control or t-shooting. I finally grew a brain and went down the > output from "aptitude search vnc" line by line, doing an "aptitude show > <package>" for likely looking ones. > > Enter x11vnc [1], which I'd not known about. Not only does it do > *exactly* what I wanted on Xubuntu, not only does it mostly Just Work, > but it has a 4K+ line man page with an amazing number of options clearly > spelled out, in depth, with examples. I'm really impressed with this > package. (Can you tell?) > > The only thing it doesn't do is add a menu item, which is not going to > be an issue for the folks on this list. Especially check out the > -timeout 300 -unixpw -gui options. For anyone who has to do remote > support of X desktops, you might even consider this over vino. I say > that because you can set it up to be extra secure by creating a menu > item that the user must execute for the remote person to be able access > the machine, you can have it timeout and go away, and it has all kinds > of different passwd/authentication support. That's as opposed to the > vino/Gnome setup where it's on or off as a daemon (more or less), with a > static passwd. Of course, you can also tunnel it over SSH, stunnel or > SSL (see the man page). > > See also: > Bug #56670, first reported on 2006-08-17 by Caroline Ford > Xubuntu needs a VNC server like vino is to Gnome > https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xubuntu-meta/+bug/56670 > > Bug #212704, first reported 10 hours ago by JP Vossen > x11vnc should create a menu item > https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/libvncserver/+bug/212704 > > Check it out, > JP > > [1] $ aptitude show x11vnc > Package: x11vnc > State: installed > Automatically installed: yes > Version: 0.9.3.dfsg.1-1ubuntu1 > Priority: optional > Section: universe/x11 > Maintainer: Ubuntu Core developers <ubuntu-devel-discuss@lists.ubuntu.com> > Uncompressed Size: 1593k > Depends: libavahi-client3 (>= 0.6.13), libavahi-common3 (>= 0.6.10), > libc6 (>= 2.6.1-1), libjpeg62, libssl0.9.8 (>= 0.9.8e-1), libvncserver0, > libx11-6, libxdamage1 (>= 1:1.1), libxext6, libxfixes3 (>= 1:4.0.1), > libxinerama1, libxrandr2 (>= 2:1.2.0), libxtst6, zlib1g (>= > 1:1.2.3.3.dfsg-1) > Description: VNC server to allow remote access to an existing X session > > x11vnc allows one to view remotely and interact with real X displays > (i.e. a display corresponding to a physical monitor, keyboard, and > mouse) with any VNC viewer. It has built-in SSL encryption and > authentication, UNIX account and password support, server-side scaling, > single port HTTPS and VNC, mDNS service advertising, and TightVNC and > ultraVNC file-transfer. > ----------------------------|:::======|------------------------------- > JP Vossen, CISSP |:::======| jp{at}jpsdomain{dot}org > My Account, My Opinions |=========| http://www.jpsdomain.org/ > ----------------------------|=========|------------------------------- > "Microsoft Tax" = the additional hardware & yearly fees for the add-on > software required to protect Windows from its own poorly designed and > implemented self, while the overhead incidentally flattens Moore's Law. > ___________________________________________________________________________ > Philadelphia Linux Users Group -- http://www.phillylinux.org > Announcements - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce > General Discussion -- http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug > ___________________________________________________________________________ Philadelphia Linux Users Group -- http://www.phillylinux.org Announcements - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce General Discussion -- http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
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