# Remote desktop, what is the best way?

## leosgb

Hi,

I am trying to setup my pc (in the living room connected to my tv set) so that I can use the computer remotely. I use KDE in the remote host.

I tried krdc. I always have to authorize the connection on the remote host. I am also struggling with my iptables rules. Is this enough (plus all other rules I have, of course):

```
-A INPUT -p tcp -m state --state NEW -m tcp --dport 5555 -j ACCEPT
```

I read that there is another option to remote to my pc. Can I use vnc? If so, where can I find a good tutorial explaining how to do it? What are the advantages/disadvantages?

Are there other ways to do it? I need to have full access to the graphical environment of the remote machine. I would like to be able to use it just as if it is my local system.

Thank you for any suggestions!

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## mmoelle1

I rely on NX by nomachines (it is included in the portage tree).

www.nomachine.com

I am running NX-server on my compute at work and connect to it from my laptop/workstation at home.

A KDE session runs smoothly on the remote computer via a standard DLS-6000 line.

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## depontius

 *mmoelle1 wrote:*   

> I rely on NX by nomachines (it is included in the portage tree).
> 
> www.nomachine.com
> 
> I am running NX-server on my compute at work and connect to it from my laptop/workstation at home.
> ...

 

I'd be really careful about doing that.  I used to use dxpc, and NX appears to be the descendant of that.  But if you look at the licenses and offerings, I'd be very leery of using it on an employer-owned machine on the employer's network.

Now that you mention it though, putting it on my own machine on my own network would be a darned convenient thing to do.  I may have to look harder at this.

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## mmoelle1

Ok, I need to clarify things. I use the NX free edition on the linux workstation as well as the NX free edition on my laptop.

That should be ok in terms of licenses?

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## depontius

 *mmoelle1 wrote:*   

> Ok, I need to clarify things. I use the NX free edition on the linux workstation as well as the NX free edition on my laptop.
> 
> That should be ok in terms of licenses?

 

I don't know.  I'd read the license very carefully.  To do the job properly you should probably let the company lawyers read it, but I guess we both know right up-front the answer is, "No!"  I guess I gave up before even starting.  But then, we have a company license for Exceed on Demand, and I'm just getting started with that.

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## leosgb

Looks promising. Can I run it from my tablet PC too?

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## baaann

 *depontius wrote:*   

>  *mmoelle1 wrote:*   Ok, I need to clarify things. I use the NX free edition on the linux workstation as well as the NX free edition on my laptop.
> 
> That should be ok in terms of licenses? 
> 
> I don't know.  I'd read the license very carefully.  To do the job properly you should probably let the company lawyers read it, but I guess we both know right up-front the answer is, "No!"  I guess I gave up before even starting.  But then, we have a company license for Exceed on Demand, and I'm just getting started with that.

 

There is the GPL-2 licenced freenx http://www.gentoo-portage.com/net-misc/nxserver-freenx as an alternative plus a recently released client qtnx http://www.gentoo-portage.com/net-misc/qtnx

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## leosgb

And how about the vnc server/clients? Do you guys know how this works? Can I export the terminal from my KDE to a Gnome based tablet pc?

Thanks!

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## depontius

 *baaann wrote:*   

> There is the GPL-2 licenced freenx http://www.gentoo-portage.com/net-misc/nxserver-freenx as an alternative plus a recently released client qtnx http://www.gentoo-portage.com/net-misc/qtnx

 

I need to check these out, thanks for the pointer.

There's a lot of talk these days about "Who do you trust?" in terms of inter-business relationships, and having someone to sue if things go bad.  In reality, it seems to me that commercial software licenses pretty much absolve the provider of any liability for anything, so that always seemed like a red herring to me.

I trust GPL software because I know it can always be around.  Some people think that the *bsd licenses are freer, but they're also free to be taken commercial, which means that my "cost structure" of running the current and viable version of some particular piece of software can change.  I used dxpc in the past, but it appears to have bit-rot with the latest versions  of X.  Nor was it licensed under GPL, so the free product is subsumed into NX and other commercial products.

This makes a GPL version of NX particularly interesting to me.

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## downer

 *leosgb wrote:*   

> And how about the vnc server/clients? Do you guys know how this works? Can I export the terminal from my KDE to a Gnome based tablet pc?
> 
> Thanks!

 

vnc is a breeze, you can use it on any supported platform - which is just about any. and for extra convenience it has the option of running as a web server which you can connect to with any java enabled browser, making it completely OS independent.

Cheers,

//D

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## leosgb

I was checking tightvnc but it doesnt look like what I want. Apparently it would let me create multiple X sessions remotely and export the screen to the remote machine. But that is not what I need.

What I need is a way to "remote control" my server. The idea is to run the mouse on the servers X session that is on the servers "monitor" (my tv). I want to be able to run my amarok on the server with the audio running through the server's audio card (that is connected to my living room speakers).

My interest is not to spawn a X windows session using applications from the server on my remote machine.

I guess I have to stick with krdc then, huh? Or can I accomplish this with tightvnc too?

Thanks!

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## leosgb

I tried some tips found here and there. Most of the things I have tried are here:

http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Xvnc_terminal_server

But my system only lists as listening on port 5901. Therefore I can only connect to "vncviewer 192.168.1.254:1".

And then I get a gray screen instead of my KDE session.

What can be wrong?

Thanks for any help!

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## slyyls

You need to use the x11vnc package instead.

http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Use_VNC_to_connect_to_existing_X_Sessions

This will allow you to control your main X11 session from another computer (ie: you will see the mouse move on both your screen and the server's screen)

Enjoy,

Sly

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## leosgb

Hey man, this is the answer to my problem! It is perfect! I just go there, browse my music and then play it. If I want a movie I just start it and then log out (or it is super slow which was expected).

Now, I have one problem here with the screen resolution. This time the horizontal/vertical bars (the ones to move around the full screen) didnt show up for me. So I am stuck w/o access to the K menu. Is there any way to adjust this screen to be smaller here on my laptop? It can be much smaller since my intention is to just start stuff and then leave.

Thank you very much for the champion tip. It was the easiest computer setup of my life.

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## slyyls

You will have to experiment a little, the horizontal and vertical bars will only appear if your remote resolution is bigger than your local resolution.  I would suggest setting the remote resolution (the one connected to the TV ) to 800x600.  That should make things easy to manipulate both directly on the tv and remotely.

Good luck,

Sly

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## Erulabs

For anything TO windows, try rdesktop - it rules.

For windows TO anything, try CgiWin or VNCviewer.

For anything TO anything, grow up and stop using a GUI ;-D. /etc/init.d/sshd start

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## leosgb

Hi,

I am back again... after several days fooling around with the nvidia-settings utility I finally decided to give up. The image quality is terrible. It doenst matter the resolution I pick, the number of colors or even if I try to adjust the darn color balance... nothing helps.

I even upgraded to the latest nvidia drivers, w/o success.

What would be a good video card to watch dvds? I dont play games here so I dont need super fast frame rates. Any suggestions are welcome.

Thank you all,

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## Erulabs

If it works it works, the specific card is abstracted a quite a bit from playing DVDs.

For an honest answer though, I have a Nvidia 7600 GT on PCI-E 16x. Runs __anything__ graphics related like a champ.

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## leosgb

Last night I could even notice some horizontal lines. When I play a dvd from my portable player on my tv there are no lines. The image is perfect. I am suspecting that the on board tv output is very low end and wont be able to produce a decent image in my 36 inch tv (not HD). The difference is huge from the computer (ASUS A8N-VM CSM motherboard, using on board graphics) and from my phillips dvd player.

I am going to check out other nvidia cards around here and see if I can get something else to make a test.

Thanks for the suggestion.

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## leosgb

A follow up on my setup: a few weeks ago I did something (I am not sure what but it was during my nvidia settings tests) that broke my vnc server. Basically what happens now is that when I try to launch a session from any computer in my network (including the server itself) my whole X session is restarted.

I cant find any messages in my logs but maybe I am just looking at the wrong place.

I just tried to re-emerge vnc again as per how-to but it didnt help.

Does anyone know what might be causing this? In my clients I get a message saying that the connection was refused (but what acutally happens is that the X was restarted).

I appreciate any help.

Thank you in advance.

---UPDATED----

I just got this:

/var/log/kdm.log

 *Quote:*   

> 
> 
> Wed Apr 16 22:33:52 2008
> 
>  vncext:      VNC extension running!
> ...

 

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