NOTE: there is now a one-click VNC App

Using VNC to use a remote desktop in the HDA

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 - do not use the internal vnc client because there are some problems
For Linux, you have the vncviewer package, available in most, if not all distros. For Fedora 12, do the following as [Open_Terminal_as_root|root] user:

       yum -y install tigervnc

Server Installation

There are various ways to get the server going in your HDA. All of them require the server software.

VNC: one-click install
Manually as described below (notes may require some revision)

Manual Install

As root, install the server:

       yum -y install tigervnc-server

Method 1

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

       chkconfig vncserver on

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

       VNCSERVERS="0:username"
       VNCSERVERARGS[0]="-geometry 1024x768 -nolisten tcp"

Note you can have users 1-9 and each will connect to their VNC session at port 590n (some VNC clients 'know' the 590 part and only have you enter n)
Add -localhost to options if you are connecting through a ssh tunnel or only locally. More secure
Run vncpasswd for each user in VNCSERVERS= list; this performs the initial user setup.
Start and stop vncserver to initialize vnc for each configured user

       service vncserver start
       service vncserver stop

Edit /home/username/.vnc/xstartup and change the end of the file:

       twm &

To:

       exec gnome-session &

Now finally start vncserver for real!

       service vncserver start

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

Method 2

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

       yum -y install 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

Method 3 (the cpg method)

Every time the HDA is rebooted, when VNC is needed, ssh to the HDA
The first time without do:

     vncserver -geometry 1550x1100

After the first time, I type vncs. I have an alias in ~/.bashrc:

     alias vncs='vncserver -geometry 1550x1100 &> /dev/null &';

Notes:

Why that resolution? That fits my monitors with the VNC window and frame enough to not display scrollbars and move around nicely. Change at will!
It does involve the dreaded CLI.
Since my HDA does not get rebooted often, this is not a huge problem

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