Connecting to VNC hangs my system

[Rick Stevens]

Shane Presley wrote:
> Hello all,
> 
> Using Red Hat ES v3, with all up2date packages. 
> 
> I setup VNC to use my root X desktop....using these changes...
> 
> in  /etc/sysconfig/vncservers	
> VNCSERVERS="1:root"
> 
> in  /etc/X11/XF86Config 
> To section Section "Module" add
>         Load "vnc"
> To section Section "Screen"add
> 	Option "passwordFile" "/root/.vnc/passwd"
> 
> This worked on other RHEL v3 systems.  But on this one in particular,
> when I connect to hostname:0, I get prompted for my password, but then
> when I enter it, I get the VNC window with a blank screen, and it
> crashes my system.  My RedHat box totally freezes, and I have to pull
> the power.  No local console..nothing.
> 
> I have tried connecting from an XP box, another RedHat box, and even
> locally using vncviewer localhost:0.  All results are the same.

In the /etc/sysconfig/vncservers, you've told the system to share
display 1--which also causes another vncserver to be spawned to handle
that display.  You now have essentially two X servers, an X/vnc (on :0)
and a vnc-only (on :1).  Then you tell vnc client to connect to display
:0.  Uh, that's not right.  It shouldn't lock up, but it's not right.

If you wish to share the main display (:0), just use the stuff in
/etc/X11/XF86Config (or /etc/X11/xorg.conf for FC2/FC3/RHEL4).  Leave
the /etc/sysconfig/vncservers stuff commented out and do NOT run the
"/etc/rc.d/rcX.d/Sxxvncserver" startup script (you can use "chkconfig
--levels 2345 vncserver off" to disable it.

It's also a good idea to only permit VNC except as an ssh tunnel.
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- Rick Stevens, Senior Systems Engineer     rstevens at vitalstream.com -
- VitalStream, Inc.                       http://www.vitalstream.com -
-                                                                    -
-       "I'd explain it to you, but your brain might explode."       -
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