remote vnc install - firstboot issues

[Rick Stevens]

On Wed, 2005-10-26 at 14:03 +0100, Darren Birkett wrote:
> When I do a remote vnc install of rhel3 or 4, everything goes fine,
> until firstboot.  On firstboot, the license issues etc are displayed
> *at the console*.  I don't want to have to go back to the console -
> this is why I'm doing a remote vnc install!  Is there some way to
> prevent this happening, or is there a way to access the firstboot
> stuff remotely?  I would have expected the vnc server to start again
> (like it does in SLES) but this doesn't appear to happen.

It rather depends on how you have the VNC stuff set up.  If you're
running a separate VNC server process (it's NOT in the X config files
as "Module vnc"), then vncserver runs as a separate X server (":1") and
since the messages are displaed on the first console (":0"), you can't
get at them remotely.

You can bypass firstboot by editing /etc/sysconfig/firstboot and making
sure you have

	RUN_FIRSTBOOT=NO

as the only line in the file.

As to why vncserver isn't running, you need to check your startup script
directory and verify you have a symlink to the vncserver startup
script.  By default, the link is named "/etc/rc.d/rc5.d/S91vncserver"
and it should link to "../../init.d/vncserver".

If you're going to use vnc as a remote console, I'd recommend you NOT
run the separate vncserver and rather use the vnc module in your X
configuration.  This allows vnc to control the PRIMARY X display.  If
you're unfamiliar with how to to that, edit your X config file.  Add the
line:

	Load	"vnc"

to the "Modules" section.  In the "Screen" section, add a line:

	Option	"passwordfile" "/path/to/your/.vnc/passwd"

Reboot the X system.  You should then be able to "vncviewer" to the
machine and be on the main console screen.  Of course, it may freak
anyone out who's on the main display to see the mouse pointer move
and things happen as though you "have a ghost in the machine"!

----------------------------------------------------------------------
- Rick Stevens, Senior Systems Engineer     rstevens at vitalstream.com -
- VitalStream, Inc.                       http://www.vitalstream.com -
-                                                                    -
-          When all else fails, try reading the instructions.        -
----------------------------------------------------------------------