How to turn your box into a Xvnc Terminal Server

gen2newB · Posted: Fri Nov 14, 2003 12:28 pm Post subject:

hey, i just want to say great work on the tutorial. I use my server at home from work now and it works like a charm, except for one thing. I have been having trouble getting games to work. FOr some reason it is telling me the remote machine does not have permission to have it forwarded from the local machine, that is not verbatim, but is a close description of the problem. Anyone have any idea's? I really wanna play dope wars from work ;].

Boris27 · Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2003 11:31 pm Post subject:

Great tutorial! Had to do some searching for my kdmrc file, but locate quickly found it

SSH's encryption really helping keeping the bandwith down

Mickys21 · n00b Joined: 22 Jul 2003 Posts: 61 Location: Ipswich, UK

I have 3 NIC's in my machine.

If I do a nmap -sU (UDP Scan) on all my IP addresses it shows port 177 (XDMCP) open on all 3 IP addresses.
What I'd like to do is for port 177 to be open on just one of my ip addresses and it closed on the other 2 ip addresses is this possible and how is this acheived?

thanks in advance

karwoski · n00b Joined: 30 Jun 2002 Posts: 16 Location: Columbia, MO

OK. I've read through this thread and it sounds like several people are having (including me) or have had the grey screen problem. I've seen a few things mentioned in passing but didn't feel like there were solid answers for some of it so if someone could recap, I'd really appreciate it.

1) Should port 177 be open and listening? Mine's not although I've double checked the config file settings mentioned in the tutorial. Is this the cause of the grey screen on connect?

2) When I connect and get the grey X screen my vncviwer window says nobody's desktop. I've seen tips on creating a ~/.vnc/xstartup file. Which users's '~' does this need to be in?

Thanks for the help!

karan · Posted: Sun Nov 23, 2003 12:27 pm Post subject:

How would I achieve this w/ ssh tunneling?
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tomc4t · n00b Joined: 06 Jul 2003 Posts: 16

*** gray screen ***

I've the same problem as described before: i can connect with a vncviewer but i only see the gray X-theme with the cross pointer.
I was using XDM as Display Manager. I noticed that after a vncview connect the xdm process explode, using 100& CPU time. I solved using KDM instead of XDM and now it is working. After enlightenment is loaded without any problem.
But i don't wont to install Gnome just for KDM next time so i will try with another login manager (waiting for entrance).

karan · Posted: Tue Nov 25, 2003 2:24 am Post subject:

Don't worry about it, I figured it out. Also, I was getting those grey screens when I was using GDM, but all I did was restart GDM and it worked like a charm.
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karwoski · n00b Joined: 30 Jun 2002 Posts: 16 Location: Columbia, MO

Got mine working too. XDM wasn't working but I launched kdm (which there wasn't an init script for and I thought there would be) and all seems to be well.

malloc · l33t Joined: 19 Sep 2003 Posts: 762

Ok i have this working real good and through an ssh tunnel, my problem is this, i know that VNC is a stateless server so i should be able to close the vnc window and still have any X apps i launched from it running in the server, much like using nohup when launching a CLI app. My problem is that even if i just close the window and don't do a logout when e re-connect to the session it will simply give me a new session and my old one whent bye bye.
I was thinking about using VNC to launch mainly some p2p progs (dc4linux, xmule) and let them download away while i'm at my university. Because of this problem i can't do that

So can anyone shed a few lights on this so i know what i can do about it?
Thaks in advance

lines · n00b Joined: 29 Jul 2003 Posts: 20

malloc,

the way my tutorial works is not like a regular vncserver. It closes the door behind your back.

I think i maybe can fix this with vncreflector, but I don't know that yet.

Stay tuned...

Mickys21 · n00b Joined: 22 Jul 2003 Posts: 61 Location: Ipswich, UK

Got this working a charm!, in gdm & gnome and xdm & enlightenment... but problems in kdm & kde, I get the login screen no probs but as soon as I enter a username and password and click the button to proceed the vnc client just closes down automatically, its the same for both root and other users, (i have done the necessary with port 177) Also I have done 2 builds and exactly the same happens on both. Happily using Gnome but just wondering if anybody had come across this and if so how did they solve it.

Many thanks.
===============================================
Also I had the grey screens for ages wondering what was wrong if you have the USE flag ipv6, be sure to include support for ipv6 in the kernel

Stumbles · n00b Joined: 17 May 2002 Posts: 4

What is the syntax to add the port in this file? Here is what's in there for Xdmcp;

[Xdmcp]
Enable=true
Willing=/usr/share/config/kdm/Xwilling
Xaccess=/usr/share/config/kdm/Xaccess

Stumbles · n00b Joined: 17 May 2002 Posts: 4

Random Task · Apprentice Joined: 31 Mar 2003 Posts: 171 Location: Canada

Hey everyone
I would like to say that this howto is very easy to follow!

However I have a problem, I am unable to connect to my computer remotely or locally

I downloaded the windoze vncviewer so I could use it at work and every time I get 'Failed to connect to server'

In a telnet session I get unable to open display (that's probably because its telnet)
But this tells me that things should be set up properly

Can anyone help me with this problem?

I have forwarded the required ports on my router

I have started (and tried) both xdm and kdm

I edited the files as per the instructions

and yet no luck!

Do I have to start the vnc server or something? I do not see that in the instructions anywhere!?!

UPDATE:
When I try to issue the command

djs · Last edited by djs on Fri Dec 12, 2003 6:16 pm; edited 1 time in total

and you just want to connect to your remote Xsession, rather than spawn a new desktop. Don't you like to leave your evo and other apps running so when you sit down locally again, everything's as you left it? I do.

(Of course this only works in you're already logged in on an X display at the remote machine.)

Here's what I do to get to my linux machines at work or home (over ssh!):

1. emerge libvncserver; emerge tightvnc
2. create this shell script:

#!/bin/bash
# usage: x11vnc_ssh <user>@<host>:<xdisplay>

host=`echo $1 | awk -F: '{print $1}'`
disp=`echo $1 | awk -F: '{print $2}'`
ruser=`echo $1 | awk -F@ '{print $1}'`
case "$ruser" in "") u="$USER" ;; *) u="$ruser" ;; esac

cmd="x11vnc -display :$disp -q -nevershared -dontdisconnect -rfbauth .vnc/passwd rbwait 5000"
enc="copyrect tight hextile zlib corre rre raw"

ssh -l $u -f -L 5900:localhost:5900 $host "$cmd"
sleep 2
vncviewer -encodings "$enc" :0; then break; fi
ssh -l $u $host "pkill x11vnc"
#end of script

The second ssh command kills the x11vnc server. According to the man page, the server is by default supposed to die when you disconnect. whatever...

3. add an alias to your .bashrc like:
alias rfb='~/x11vnc_ssh.sh'

then you can do:

rfb user@host:0

/djs

dose · n00b Joined: 01 Sep 2003 Posts: 19 Location: Belgium

nice tutorial but I can't seem to be getting it to work...
I did everything as was said...
BUT...
when I tried to connect from my windoze box I don't get anything...then after a few tries I get "could not connect to server"...
now, when I try this in tightvnc-viewer -> "server: yuna::71" it seems my gentoo box is starting a new instance of xdm

kobejones68 · n00b Joined: 18 Dec 2003 Posts: 1

*****Grey Issue Connect******
With me to fix it was just to start "gdm" and make sure its using it.

schmoli · n00b Joined: 14 Oct 2003 Posts: 8 Location: WA, USA

thanks for the howto, will try this when I get home.

tecknojunky · Posted: Sun Jan 04, 2004 1:59 am Post subject:

Any hints on enabling the java viewer in this fashion?

So far, I've added "vnc-http 5800/tcp" in /etc/services and ...

tecknojunky · Posted: Sun Jan 04, 2004 5:21 pm Post subject:

A couple of good article about vnc on *nix: http://faq.gotomyvnc.com/fom-serve/cache/65.html
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Rosjahh · Posted: Wed Jan 07, 2004 2:36 pm Post subject:

Another good article on connecting to you vncserver (even when it's behind a router) from windows with ssh tunneling:

[url]http:[/url]

EDIT: Removed URL, since its a link to porn ads. Not sure if it always has been. --pjp.

fedekapo · Posted: Wed Jan 07, 2004 11:47 pm Post subject: Port

How can I change the port..? I want to use port 80 instead of 71 because I want to avoid the firewalls...

Sorry for my english..

Bye

fedekapo · Posted: Thu Jan 08, 2004 12:45 am Post subject:

Another question...

I'm using a firewall in my vnc server. I'm using iptables with some help of kmyfirewall... Does anyone know what port should I open and how to use vnc?.. For example port 5980...

Bye

Rosjahh · Posted: Thu Jan 08, 2004 4:16 pm Post subject:

vdboor · Posted: Fri Jan 09, 2004 12:54 pm Post subject:

Great totorial!

It worked out-of-the-box.

I have gdm running, and tightvnc picks up the xdmcp server.

But I want to add a password to my vnc session. Seriously. I don't want people to open my gdm login if they connect.

..is this possible?

edit, there is one other thing that worries me (from the Xvnc manual):