Remote Desktop (xrdp, vnc options, other) [Solved]

[Faraclas]

I would like to install the required servers on mt system so that I can "remote desktop" into them. I guess RDP is not a requirement, but I want it to work like remote desktop does. Basically I have a few windows sytems that I remote desktop into from Linux (the client works fine), OSX, and other windows systems. It looks great (even on my Thunderbolt monitor rescaled up to 2560x1440) weather full screen or windowed.

What is the best way to do this? There are several articles and Wiki's written, but all the ones I have found are from a few years ago and dont seem to be a) simple or b) complete.

Can anyone suggest
a) What solution should I pursue
b) Complete up to date Wiki or tutorial for this?

[NeddySeagoon]

Faraclas,

Do you really mean remote desktop as in view the GUI on the screen at the remote Linux system.
VNC works, sort of, but you would need to set it up in 'screen scraper' mode.

Normally, any user can start a VNC server on a Linux host and none of them will get what is on the screen.
If you want to use it over the internet, be aware that its horribly insecure too. You will need to tunnel it over ssh.

Is tunneling X over ssh any use?
You can run an X Server on windows if you need to.
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

[Faraclas]

[NeddySeagoon]

Faraclas,

I haven't had Windows at home in about 12 years, so I don't have any corrent experience.
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

[gigel]

i haven't use the remote desktop thing in my life, but you might try teamviewer (it is in portage) - it works in windows also.
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$emerge sux

[Faraclas]

For now I settled on x11vnc because it is quick and seems to suit my needs for now. However, the limitations of the existing xserver are not ideal so perhaps I will try a different type of virtual VNC in the future. Specifically, my laptop [Gentoo] is running 1920x1080 resolution. But wh.en I remote into it, I would like a full screen on my 2560 x 1440 thunderbolt monitor.

I guess audio forwarding is possible via jumping through PulseAudio hoops. I will probably never do this.

I must hand it to Microsoft though. Remote Desktop is something windows users take for granted. And its pretty awesome!

[Jaglover]

Running apps remotely is a native feature of X, and to manage remote systems SSH works even over slow connections. I think this is awesome. I cannot think of any reason why I should want to run entire desktop remotely, that would also require X installed in remote box. Which is not required to run X apps remotely.
_________________
My Gentoo installation notes.
Please learn how to denote units correctly!

[Faraclas]

[Jaglover]

X is network aware server-client system. You need to specify what display you want to use and it will pretty much work out of box, it defaults to local. Maybe I confused you. Here is the example. I almost never use the most powerful PC in my house, it is a quad-core. I use low power nettop class PC's instead. If I need computing power I fire up that 4-core over network (it is headless) and run Avidemux from there, the display will be on my desktop. The headless box has no X installed, just Avidemux with supporting libraries.
NeddySeagoon said above you can install X on Windows. I haven't used Windows at home since 2003 so I really do not know much about it.
_________________
My Gentoo installation notes.
Please learn how to denote units correctly!

[NeddySeagoon]

Faraclas,

X is in two pieces, a client and a server. Its the other way round from currunt convention.
The server is on the local PC and displays the graphics. This piece is not needed on the remote system that generates the graphics.
Also, the client is not a single piece of software, its any program that tells an X server to draw things.

The protcol between clients and the X server is not secure, so its usual to tunnel it over ssh.

At the server end, you need to start X without the --nolisten option, which is the default in Gentoo.
Now start ssh with the X forwarding option. Once you get your ssh prompt, start a graphical program. startxfce4 maybe.

Enjoy the remote application drawing on your local desktop.
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

[szatox]

You might be interested in:
* mingw - you are obviously going to need xserver on windows.
* xterminal/thin client guides/howtos. This one for example looks promissing
http://www.google.pl/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&ved=0CDAQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tldp.org%2FHOWTO%2Fpdf%2FXDM-Xterm.pdf&ei=HkOoVNPKBIXIyAPAl4K4Dg&usg=AFQjCNGlBUiE7Ahp0rnVoR_EMxJ4-v5Dng&bvm=bv.82001339,d.bGQ&cad=rja
* ssh - I suggest using X-forwarding so you pierce a firewall in relatively secure manner.. I think on windows I was using putty to get this done. Also, enabling compression on ssh level can speed up transmission over slow network by a huge factor. Really.

So, you can tunel a single app or entire desktop. PDF I linked aims at the latter, which seems to match your needs. It is NOT written for windows though, so you will have some fun figuring it out anyway

[Faraclas]

Great feedback guys! I will look into Xming for windows. Or, since this is probably easier in OSX, it's a good excuse to get a Macbook Pro (currently I have a macbook air with only 4GB ram) so I can go back to running windows as the virtual machine it was meant to be.

So my end goal will be to have OSX as my primary (for the thunderbolt port and enterprise connectivity) running a XServer that I can display my Gentoo system up on the big screen while firing up the windows VM (for mandatory windows development on the macbook) and then have N-RemoteDesktop connections open to my embedded windows (mandatory) instruments.

I'm excited!

Edit: The real end-goal is to use Gentoo as my primary. But a) I don't think that I am there yet and b) I'm not sure how stable the new Apple Thunderbolt drivers are in the new kernel yet. For reference, Gentoo is running on a Sony Vaio.

[Faraclas]

Ok, so I got Xming server running on windows and can launch applications running on my Gentoo system which show up on my windows desktop. In general, it is pretty cool. However, it is SLOW SLOW SLOW.

Using VNC, I can work on my remote desktop in realtime with almost imperceptible lag. However, using the Xming and launching apps via the Putty SSH terminal, the apps have tremendous lag. Its pretty much unusable.

Anyway to speed this up????

[Faraclas]

Update for other noobs like me. I didn't not have compression enabled in putty. With compression enabled, it is much much faster. Very usable. Between x11vnc and this solution, I should have my needs covered.

However, I must say that the blistering fast speed of working on the gentoo system itself is pretty addictive. Remitting works, but not as satisfying!

Thanks again to everyone for the help and comments.

[Jaglover]

Glad you got it sorted. I personally am not brave enough to use Windows for any of my needs (after being an IT manager for 7+ years managing a corporate Windows network).
_________________
My Gentoo installation notes.
Please learn how to denote units correctly!