Making VNC behave like Windoze RDP

Scot L. Harris webid at cfl.rr.com
Wed Feb 9 04:21:20 UTC 2005


On Tue, 2005-02-08 at 22:33, Ben Sheron wrote:
> I am using FC1.  I have gotten the vncserver package to run on it, but I
> am wondering if there is a way to make this behave more like the Windoze
> RDP feature, ie I log myself in with a few programs running, and RDP in
> remotely and have access to my desktop the way I left it.  It seems like
> it should be possible to set vncserver to do this, but I'm not sure
> how.  Also, is there a Gnome applet that I can use to control this and
> that will function on FC1?  (Due to some other apps I cannot upgrade my
> box.)
> 

I suspect at present you get vncserver running by logging in to a shell
and manually starting it.

What you want to do is configure vncserver to start at boot time.  This
instance will continue to run even when you are not connected to it. 
This allows you to connect via vnc, run programs, disconnect, then
reconnect later from the same remote location or from a different
location.

This is setup under /etc/sysconfig/vncservers.  follow the example in
that file to setup a session under your user account.  You will need to
make sure that you have setup a password for vnc for that user, but
since you are already using it that should already be done.

I am not sure about FC1 but I believe in FC2 and FC3 there is even a
startup script that can be used with chkconfig or the
redhat-config-services (for FC1) tool.

I do not know of any gnome applets for this.  But once you have it
configured and working you don't need to touch it normally.

> While I'm on the subject, is anyone aware of a better remote desktop
> alternative for Linux?  VNC has worked OK for me on my local network,
> but going out over my cable modem it lags terribly.  Is there any way to
> maybe emulate the other RDP features, such as the ability to play sound
> from a remote machine locally?  Something cross platform would be nice,
> as I would be accessing my box from a Windoze machine.  I've Googled but
> haven't found much.  Just thought I'd ask.

Personally I use X11 over ssh.  I have my laptop setup with custom
launchers for the applications I want to run on remote systems.  By
using ssh you get a couple of benefits, the login and connection are
encrypted and you can tunnel pretty much anything over ssh.  And
depending on the speed of your computer you can enable compression which
can help the through put in some cases.

And by just sending the windows of the particular programs you want to
run you reduce some of the overhead needed for sending the entire
desktop.  

You can get cgywin for windows which is a free X windows package for
windows.  (it also gives you a unix like environment to work in if you
want.)  I have also used Hummingbird which is a commercial X windows
package for Windows.  

As for sending the sound across I personally don't mess with sound on
the systems that often.  And would be hard pressed to think of any
really good reasons to take up bandwidth with something like that.  But
that is just my tone deaf opinion.  :)

And if you plan on using VNC outside your local LAN please read up on
how to tunnel it via ssh.  VNC is not secure by itself.


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