unable to use freeNX

Hi

I have been trying to get my 2 Ubuntu 6.06 machines working with freeNX. I have no problem installing my server and client machines but when I try to connect my client to my server machine I get an error message server not installed or NX access disabled. At the cmd line I do sudo nxserver --start
and I get an error saying:-
NX> 100 NXSERVER - Version 1.4.0-45-SVN OS (GPL)
NX> 500 ERROR: Service already running
NX> 999 Bye

I think this is some permissions problem but I do not know how to proceed. Does anyone know what I have done wrong? Are there any things that I should do to get this working? If I wanted to connect to a windows machine is this possible?

Thanks
Adrian

FreeNX can be very troublesome to use if you're trying to connect to an old server from a new client. If the client you are using is up to version 1.5, the problem you have is due to incorrect installation. If you are using the latest v2 client then forget it. You will need to install the rpms from www.nomachine.com. If you need more details, please inform us.

Thank you for the info, have deleted freenx and installed nxclient, nxnode and nxserver on both machines. When using nxclient to connect to my remote machine I still get error "server not installed or NX access disabled". What am I doing wrong! I have installed the nx user on both machines. Thank you in advance for any help
Adrian

If the installation completed without errors (mine initially gave an error because the nx user existed, so I removed it and reinstalled the nxserver rpm), you need to generate the keys with ssh-keygen -d without password, then import the id_dsa key in the client and add the id_dsa.pub public key into the /usr/NX/home/nx/.ssh/authorized_keys2 file of the server. You may need to change the AuthorizedKeysFile into .ssh/authorized_keys2 setting of the /etc/ssh/sshd_config file and ensure the sshd settings are optimal (enable PubKeyAuthentication etc).

Have tried all of this but still getting "Server not installed or NX access disabled"
Details show:-
NX> 203 NXSSH running with pid: 6579
NX> 285 Enabling check on switch command
NX> 285 Enabling skip of SSH config files
NX> 285 Setting the preferred NX options
NX> 200 Connected to address: 192.168.1.4 on port: 22
NX> 202 Authenticating user: nx
NX> 208 Using auth method: publickey
NX> 204 Authentication failed

Using my user to log in with my password of the remote machine
Is there something else I should do?

Is there anyway to check that the key is right?

Adrian

Gone further

On both of my machines I got to run nxsetup, here are the results:-

First machine

sudo nxsetup --install --setup-nomachine-key
Setting up /etc/nxserver ...done
Setting up /var/lib/nxserver/db ...done
Setting up /var/log/nxserver.log ...done
Setting up known_hosts and authorized_keys2 ...done
Setting up permissions ...done

----> Testing your nxserver configuration ...
Warning: Could not find nxdesktop in /usr/lib/nx. RDP sessions won't work.
Warning: Could not find nxviewer in /usr/lib/nx. VNC sessions won't work.
Warning: Invalid value "DEFAULT_X_SESSION=/etc/X11/xdm/Xsession"
Users might not be able to request a default X session.
Warning: Invalid value "COMMAND_START_KDE=/usr/bin/dbus-launch --sh-syntax --exit-with-session startkde"
Users will not be able to request a KDE session.
Warning: Invalid value "COMMAND_START_GNOME=/usr/bin/dbus-launch --sh-syntax --exit-with-session gnome-session"
Users will not be able to request a Gnome session.
Warning: Invalid value "COMMAND_START_CDE=cdwm"
Users will not be able to request a CDE session.

Warnings occured during config check.
To enable these features please correct the configuration file.

<---- done

----> Testing your nxserver connection ...
ssh: connect to host 127.0.0.1 port 22: Connection refused
Fatal error: Could not connect to NX Server.

Please check your ssh setup:

- Make sure "nx" is one of the AllowUsers in sshd_config.
- Make sure your sshd allows public key authentication.
- Make sure your sshd is really running on port 22.
- Make sure your sshd_config AuthorizedKeysFile in sshd_config is set to authorized_keys2.


Second machine

sudo nxsetup --install --setup-nomachine-key
Setting up /etc/nxserver ...done
Setting up /var/lib/nxserver/db ...done
Setting up /var/log/nxserver.log ...done
Setting up known_hosts and authorized_keys2 ...done
Setting up permissions ...done

----> Testing your nxserver configuration ...
Warning: Could not find nxdesktop in /usr/lib/nx. RDP sessions won't work.
Warning: Could not find nxviewer in /usr/lib/nx. VNC sessions won't work.
Warning: Invalid value "DEFAULT_X_SESSION=/etc/X11/xdm/Xsession"
Users might not be able to request a default X session.
Warning: Invalid value "COMMAND_START_KDE=/usr/bin/dbus-launch --sh-syntax --exit-with-session startkde"
Users will not be able to request a KDE session.
Warning: Invalid value "COMMAND_START_GNOME=/usr/bin/dbus-launch --sh-syntax --exit-with-session gnome-session"
Users will not be able to request a Gnome session.
Warning: Invalid value "COMMAND_START_CDE=cdwm"
Users will not be able to request a CDE session.
Warning: Invalid value "COMMAND_SMBMOUNT=smbmount". You'll not be able to use SAMBA.
Warning: Invalid value "COMMAND_SMBUMOUNT=smbumount". You'll not be able to use SAMBA.

Warnings occured during config check.
To enable these features please correct the configuration file.

<---- done

----> Testing your nxserver connection ...
Warning: Version Mismatch. Expected 1.4.0-45-SVN got: HELLO NXSERVER - Version 2.1.0-13 - LFE.
HELLO NXSERVER - Version 2.1.0-13 - LFE
NX> 105 Quit
<--- done

Ok, nxserver is ready.

PAM authentication enabled:
All users will be able to login with their normal passwords.

PAM authentication will be done through SSH.
Please ensure that SSHD on localhost accepts password authentication.

You can change this behaviour in the /etc/nxserver/node.conf file.
Have Fun!


Now on both machines I have done the same procedure but they both have different logs for nxsetup. Why is that? Also the logs state the Warning:

Invalid value "COMMAND_START_GNOME=/usr/bin/dbus-launch --sh-syntax --exit-with-session gnome-session"
Users will not be able to request a Gnome session.

Now at the very least I will need to run a gnome session, so what is wrong? Any help would be appreciated.

Adrian

First of all make sure that you use clients and servers of the same version (in the second case, the client is v1.4). Everything worked provided that I had setup the keys correctly. Actually, there should be no nxsetup binary; maybe you should delete the previous versions of the NX package if you haven't already. Anyway, you can check whether your keys match if you run the following:

ssh nx@127.0.0.1 -i /usr/NX/share/keys/server.id_dsa.key

, where certainly you can replace 127.0.0.1 with the address of the NX server. The result of the command should be

HELLO NXSERVER - Version 2.1.0-13 - LFE
NX> 105

, if not then your sshd and/or nx configuration is at fault (all this assumes that ssh communication is possible between the two, firewalls should be set accordingly etc).

It works!!!! the key was to get all (ha ha same word!!) keys the same and volia it worked, thank you for your help with this.

Adrian

What if you type in:

ssh nx@127.0.0.1 -i /usr/NX/share/keys/server.id_dsa.key

but instead of:

HELLO NXSERVER - Version 2.1.0-13 - LFE
NX> 105

you get:

nx@127.0.0.1's password:

You probably haven't set up the ssh server to accept public key authentication attempts (the PubKeyAuthentication option in /etc/ssh/sshd_config).

in my /etc/ssh/sshd_config file I already have:

PubkeyAuthentication yes

I think this is the right direction, any other suggestions?

Yes it all works now the answer was to get the keys right in the correct place