VNC

Using VNC to use a remote desktop in the HDA (Fedora 12)

Using VNC is useful if:

• You would like a Linux desktop to the HDA remotely
• You run your HDA headless (no monitor) and like to still use a desktop in it
• You would like to use a GUI to configure printer(s) or have a scanner or other device that requires a desktop program to configure and the machine is headless

What you need

• A server
• A client

Client: Installation

Download the client software and install:

• Windows: RealVNC, UltraVNC, TightVNC
• MAC: Chicken of the VNC
• For Linux, you have the vncviewer package, available in most, if not all distros. For Fedora 12, do the following as root user:

yum -y install tigervnc

Server: Installation - Method 1

• To start the server in your HDA, you need install tigervnc-server rpm package:
• From the root user:

yum -y install tigervnc-server
chkconfig vncserver on
service vncserver start

• Edit /etc/sysconfig/vncservers and change lines as follows (username is your linux user for the VNC session):

VNCSERVERS="2:username"
VNCSERVERARGS[2]="-geometry 1024x768 -nolisten tcp -localhost"

• Edit /home/username/.vnc/xstartup and make the end of the file look as follows:

# twm &
startx &

• Stop and start vncserver:

service vncserver stop
service vncserver start

• Start VNC on reboot (do this as your linux user for the VNC session):

crontab -e
@reboot vncserver

• Run your VNC Client and enter hda:1 as the host/IP address. You should now see your HDA Desktop screen.

Server: Installation - Method 2

• To start the server in your HDA, you need install tigervnc-server rpm package:
• From the root user:

yum -y install tigervnc-server xinetd
chkconfig vncserver off
service vncserver stop

• Create /etc/gdm/custom.conf file and add the following:

#GDM configuration storage
[xdmcp]
Enable=true
[chooser]
[security]
DisallowTCP=false
[debug]

• Create /etc/xinetd.d/vnc1024 file and add the following (you can change the screen resolution by changing the geometry setting):

service vnc1024
{
disable = no
socket_type = stream
protocol = tcp
group = tty
wait = no
user = nobody
server = /usr/bin/Xvnc
server_args = -inetd -query localhost -geometry 1024×768 -depth 16 -once -fp /usr/share  /X11/fonts/misc -securitytypes=none
}

• Edit /etc/services and comment out the two lines as listed below:

#vnc-server      5900/tcp                # VNC Server
#vnc-server      5900/udp                # VNC Server

• Add this line below the two lines you commented out and save the changes:

vnc1024         5900/tcp                # VNC and GDM

• Now restart the xinetd service

service xinetd restart

• Run your VNC Client and enter your HDA IP address for host/IP address. You should now see your HDA Desktop login screen. If you don't see the login screen, a reboot of the HDA may be required. This can be done via the dashboard or by executing the following as root user:

reboot now

NOTE: More detailed instructions are available here.

Troubleshooting for Vista

This helpful page has helped with blocking VNC