I just installed vnc on redhat 9, and all is fine except starting a gnome session. I modified my xstartup to include

gnome-session &

But if I try to start vncserver while I am already running gnome I get an error (in the log file) about a gnome session already running. But when I run vncserver without x running it starts a gnome session just fine.

I guess what i am wondering is there anyway to get vnc to behave on linux as is does on windows. ex: when you log into a windows machine you actually are manipulating the current users session like you are sitting in front of the machine, but in linux it starts a new desktop.

Thanks

it's not possible as it is a horrendous security risk... (windows? security? hahahahah) there are some direct clients for KDE i've come across but it's not possible on other desktops. I'd suggest just connecting to the vnc session locally aswell as remotely to share these apps.

dont quite follow you, I understand the security part, but what about the gnome session? Playing aroung further, I found I can start the vncserver from the console (without x running) and it will start the gnome session then i can start another gnome session on the machine, but how do I fix this so i dont have to kill x to start the vnc server? Should it put it in as a service at runlevel 3?

i don't like the idea of vnc as a service... not sure why. as for gnome, i only ever run lightweight wm's like blackbox under vnc (well, i oly ever ever run lightweight wm's full stop..) which aren't bothered about things like that. all i'd suggest offhand would be verbosely passing the display number rather than letting it find it itself...

gnome-session --display :1

in vncstartup