I'm running VNC per someone's suggestion in an earlier post. I have it running and I'm connected to my home linux box from work. I have three questions:

1) Is there any way I can get GNOME running instead of just X?
2) If yes, then how can I have this done by default instead of having to redo it all the time?
3) Is the VNC connection secure (i.e. encrypted)?

Thanks for the help.

1) yes
2) run - "echo exec gnome-session > ~/.vnc/xstartup"
3) don't think so by default, but you can add support no doubt.

Well, I just managed to get GNOME started, kind of. I got an xwindow that was the GNOME desktop, and another that was the GNOME panel (or taskbar). Is there a neater way of doing this? What would be really nice is if I could maximize things. :/

i really don't get what you mean... screenshot?

I mean, each part of the desktop is in its own xwindow, that I have to move around and place within VNC.

The desktop itself is in an xwindow that opens when I run the command you gave me (but I had to omit the echo part). Then the "panel" or taskbar, as I call it, is also in its own window that I can move around freely. And then every application and window I open with GNOME also is an xwindow. I can't screenshot it at the moment, and that's about as good of a description as I can give you.

I did get some error messages when I tried to run GNOME...

Xlib: extension "RENDER" missing on display ":1.0".
Xlib: extension "RENDER" missing on display ":1.0".
Window manager warning: Screen 0 on display ":1.0" already has a window manager
Xlib: extension "RENDER" missing on display ":1.0".
Window manager warning: Screen 0 on display ":1.0" already has a window manager
Xlib: extension "RENDER" missing on display ":1.0".
Window manager warning: Screen 0 on display ":1.0" already has a window manager
Xlib: extension "RENDER" missing on display ":1.0".
...

Ideas?

huh? if you "omitted" the echo part then it's a completely different command.....

Oh, and one other stupid question... how do you start an xterm on the VNC Server if there is nothing but a blank desktop?

Well, if I typed it as you wrote it, there was no response whatsoever. I had been starting GNOME by simply typing gnome-session previoiusly, so I thought I'd see what it did without the echo command, and it started GNOME.

What should it do when I type it in as you said?

I'm a Linux newbie.

ok that command will make gnome load automatically when you start a vnc session, as opposed to laoding kde, something else, or nothing at all. you should not need to actually type in gnome-session anywhere if that file is set up corretly

Ah, okay. So, I need to restart the VNC server then? Or just reconnect?

kill the vnc server and restart it.

Bingo. You are the king, AK.

What was the difference between the following two commands?

gnome-session
exec gnome-session

Or was the difference the fact that it was in the xstartup file instead of being run manually?

And I'm still curious about how to open an xterm when you're at a blank desktop. I accidentally closed my shell one time and had to restart the vncserver as a result. :/

you could open it from a console with something like

xterm --display :1

but generally you wouldn't... you'd load a desktop manager first.

hi, I cannot load my desktop in the vncviewer. Mi xstartscript is:
#!/bin/sh

# Mandrake Linux VNC session startup script
exec /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc

I only see the blue background of my desktop, no icons no panel nothing at all. I've been triying in the script : kdestart, kdesktop,gnome-session and all I got were lots of errors and anytime a grey desktop.
I've read VNC FAQ q#16 and #21
http://www.uk.research.att.com/vnc/faq.html#q21
as RolledOat suggested me.
Any ideas will be wellcomed.

I had it all working just fine, and suddenly I'm back to square one. I don't believe that I've changed anything at all. I, too, login to a blank environment now with no shell, no GNOME... nothing.

My xstartup script only had the following line in it:

exec gnome-session

but now that doesn't work. Could anyone at least tell me how to open a shell from a blank background if you can't tell me how to bring GNOME up on startup again?