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Old 10-06-2008, 12:51 AM   #1
Romanus81
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What can I do with a Laptop and a PC with no monitor?


Hello, I am in college and I brought my laptop and PC. I bought a special cable that would let me use my Wii with my monitor. Instead of switching out the cable each time I want to use my PC, is it possible for me to use my Laptop as a monitor for my PC? As in, I boot my laptop, and I boot my PC, and I can switch between using my PC and my Laptop?
I am assuming it would work somewhat like how I switch terminals when not in X (ctrl+alt+F#) or by ssh.
So is this possible? Or is there anything I can do with this?
 
Old 10-06-2008, 01:02 AM   #2
checkmate3001
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You could definitely ssh to your computer. You should be able to also connect your your computer and use X (the X window), but I have never tried this and wouldn't know how to go about it.
 
Old 10-06-2008, 01:06 AM   #3
billymayday
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I'm no expert, but these work for me http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos#head-b...09d96026ca6666 see section on vnc
 
Old 10-06-2008, 06:48 AM   #4
ghodkiller
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there is no way to do that except if your laptop has an input for extra video source. mine has s-video input, and i`ve used for such tasks.

Debian

Last edited by ghodkiller; 10-19-2008 at 07:26 AM.
 
Old 10-06-2008, 10:36 AM   #5
tredegar
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Quote:
is it possible for me to use my Laptop as a monitor for my PC? As in, I boot my laptop, and I boot my PC, and I can switch between using my PC and my Laptop?
Yes, it is easy and I do this all the time.
You need both computers to be on the same network, so they can ping each other.
Install ssh on both machines (for convenience).
Check your firewalls allow ports 22 and 5900-5909 on your LAN
Install and have running vncserver on the main PC
I have this command in the file /etc/rc.local to start a vncserver as the user myusername at boot time on my server:
Code:
su - myusername -c "cd /home/myusername && vncserver :1 -geometry 1024x768 -depth 24"
Install vncviewer on your laptop
When you want to use your main PC, connect to its vncserver like this from your laptop:
Code:
vncviewer IP.OF.SER.VER:1
or
Code:
vncviewer Name_of_server:1
A 1024x768 window opens, running programs on your PC, but displaying them on your laptop.
If you are worried about security, you can tunnel vnc through key-pair based, passwordless authenticated ssh, and have all the network traffic encrypted, but I'll leave you to experiment with that.

For maintenance of your server (no GUI, but it is handy for setting up things like vncserver when your server has no screen) open a terminal and type
Code:
ssh username@servername
or
Code:
ssh username@IP.OF.SER.VER
Start simply, then work upwards.
Linux is awesome
 
  


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