Hello AMMRL,
We use x11vnc. There are a few different OS's out there. I can only share with the AMMRL community what worked for us. Our spectrometer workstations run on RHEL WS 4 or CentOS5.5. All of our spectrometers are on a private, intra-campus network with no access to the outside world, so I don't worry as much about security (though, don't get me wrong, we still endeavor to practice safe computing). Our office computers from which we run the vncviewers use the Ubuntu linux OS.
You can find a lot of info about x11vnc at "
http://www.karlrunge.com/x11vnc/". This site provides a copy of x11vnc and describes how to compile it. However, in our case, I found it much more expedient to use rpm to install a pre-compiled version designated to work with our OS. You can find these at "
http://pkgs.repoforge.org/x11vnc/". 'x11vnc' needs to be installed on the system you are going to vnc into.
Once x11vnc is installed, run 'x11vnc -storepasswd' from a linux shell for each account that will use x11vnc. This will store your vnc password which can and probably should be different from your login passwd. After making sure that you are locally logged into the machine you want to vnc into (i.e. your Desktop gui is displayed), launch x11vnc on this machine by entering the following in a linux shell:
x11vnc -display :0 -rfbauth /home/"username"/.vnc/passwd -bg -scale 0.65 -forever
Of course, the above command needs to be edited to point to where your vnc password is stored. The scale can be adjusted to fit the computer on which you are using a vncviewer. The only way I know to stop x11vnc with the -forever switch employed is to 'ps -ef | grep vnc' from a shell, followed by a kill -9 of the vnc process ID. I had to do this a few times to get the -scale set correctly.
The vncviewer that I use on my office Ubuntu computer is "xtightvncviewer". The viewer that I use from my Ubuntu system at home is 'ssvnc'. Launch one these viewers and enter the IP address (or machine name, if appropriate) of the machine that you want to control remotely and that is already running x11vnc. (note: The xtightvncviewer will generate a small login window that could easily go unseen if you are not looking for it.) I installed these viewers from the "Ubuntu Software Center" found in the Ubuntu desktop menu. I'm sure these viewers or their analogs must be readily available for the other Linux OS's as well.
I have limited linux knowledge, which means I likely can't answer your questions if the above recipe doesn't work. I have no experience with making vnc or vnc-viewers work on a Windows or Mac machine. I also make no claim that the web sites listed above or the software contained therein are safe for your usage - use at your own discretion. It may be a good idea to consult with your IT person before downloading and using any of this software. Finally, I hear from our postdocs that there is a way to get vnc started even if the machine you want to vnc to is at the login window - something else you may want to explore. The latter will save you from having to walk to the spectrometer workstation and login before you can vnc to it.
Best regards,
-Dusty Baber
On Dec 1, 2011, at 2:14 AM, Tatiana Agback wrote:
> Hi
> Would be very nice if somebody can answer for the question of VNC Viewer setup for all AMMRL members! I have this interest as well.
>
> Tatiana Agback, Ph.D.
> Principal Research Scientist NMR
> Medivir AB
> PO Box 1086, SE-141 22 Huddinge, Sweden
James (Dusty) Baber
NIDDK/NIH
5 Memorial Dr, Rm B1-01
Bethesda, MD 20892-0520
ph 301 402 7239
fax 301 496 0825
Received on Thu Dec 01 2011 - 11:45:04 MST