Virtual Network Computing (VNC) is an increasingly popular remote-access protocol. VNC is available for Linux, Windows, Mac OS, and others. (If you’re unfamiliar with VNC or don’t have VNC installed on your Linux system, see this month’s “Tech Support” column on page 62 for instructions on how to install and use VNC.)
Virtual Network Computing (VNC) is an increasingly popular remote-access protocol. VNC is available for Linux, Windows, Mac OS, and others. (If you’re unfamiliar with VNC or don’t have VNC installed on your Linux system, see this month’s “Tech Support” column on page 62 for instructions on how to install and use VNC.)
Unfortunately, VNC’s usual method of operation is clumsy in some ways. VNC users may need to log in via ssh and run the VNC server manually. Although VNC asks for a password, it doesn’t ask for a username, so users need to log on using a specific VNC session number — an awkward restriction.
Fortunately, there’s a solution: you can launch a VNC server in such a way that it uses an X Display Manager Control Protocol (XDMCP) server running on the same computer. Linux systems normally run XDMCP servers to handle local GUI logins — so when somebody uses VNC to connect to a computer that’s configured with VNC and XDMCP, VNC displays a normal Linux GUI login prompt. This enables users to enter a username and password, and perhaps even dispense with the VNC session number.
Before proceeding, you should obtain and install a VNC server. The widely-used AT&T VNC package comes with most Linux distributions or you can download it from http:// www.uk.research.att.com/vnc (or you can use a variant such as TightVNC, found at http://www.tightvnc.com). You’ll also need an XDMCP server, such as the X Display Manager (XDM), KDE…
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