Hey all. Running Mandriva 2006 on KDE 3.4.

I'm trying to set up Remote control of my laptop which currently runs' Window's XP for only 1 reason (it controls programming to my engine computer in my car.) I Love linux better, just not pheaseable to adapt the program to work in linux.

I can't see the linux machine on window's, and i can't see the window's machine on linux.

I want to transfer files. I figured Remote control would be the easiest way.

Main question so far. I understand i'll have to reboot after settings are set.


What do i input into the Window's Hostname space? Ip Address? it's all on a local network. blah blah blah, I'm a newbie here with basic knowledge. So take it easy on me. Thanks!

Assuming you have DNS running on your network, you could connect via Hostname. If you don't, then you'll have to type the IP address in. I assume your using tsclient or rdesktop to remote control the XP machine. The first step would be to ping it just to verify connectivity.

If you just simply want to transfer files, then there are numerous ways to do it. Why don't you set up SSH/SFTP on the Linux box? Then grab a graphical user interface client for Windows, such as PUTTY or OpenSSH. It's just drag n' drop a'la Windows.

THe other option to transfer files is to set up a SAMBA share. You can then mount this new share in Windows as another drive and do a simple drag and drop. You can also go the other way (Linux to Windows).

To connect to your computers in your LAN, just go with IP addresses for right now.

Well. the whole remote desktop thing doesn't work. I do'nt know why or how. But frankly, I found another way to gain access to the files i needed to. It would've been pretyt cool to control the laptop from my desktop, but oh well not an absolute necessity. I'm sure it'd freak my mom out if she was in the middle of using it though.

Anywhom, I was able to begin copying the files I needed to. The laptop had Terminal Services in. Rdesktop gave me an error message saying "ERROR: Unable to connect"

And the other methods, well. kinda stared blankly at me. Than again, i'm not very familiar with it. (as stated, a newbie from this point.) I was able to use smb4k to gain access to the computer once i shut off the firewall (dumbass me couldn't figure out why i couldn't get an ip address from that computer)...

Anyway, thanks all anyway for the help, if you feel like helping out figuring out how and why rdesktop doesn't work. That would be appreciated. Thanks!

Rdesktop relies on Windows XP having the Remote Desktop enabled. Right-click MY COMPUTER->properties. Check the REMOTE tab. Check the box and make sure the appropriate user is selected AND in the Remote Desktop Users group.

If you want to control your mother's computer while she's using it, you can install VNC on her Windows XP and then use 'vncviewer' in Linux to connect to her console. You can freak her out by spying on her and moving her mouse.