Hi,
I am not sure if this is the right place for this thread. I use Fedora distribution and would like to access my lab machine remotely at home. SSH is what I usually use but it doesnt let me use commands like ns and gcc which are installed on my lab server and not locally.
Is there any way to access my machine similar as remote desktop on windows?

Thanks,
eternity

VNC or FreeNX are ways to access the GUI remotely.

I tried VNC but for some reason the VNC server installed at Linux end is weird and I wasnt able to access it using my VNC client on WIndows machine. I have used VNC server running on WIndows and that works easily but I am not sure if its going to run on Linux.
Any comments?

Are you using Gnome? Or do you wish to have remote access into a terminal? Or both?

Gnome comes with its own vnc server: vino. To access its configuration:

Desktop>Preferences>Remote Desktop

If you're not using vino, then TightVnc server should do the trick.

x11vnc is another option that should work, as well.

There is also ample information and howtos here at LQ, as well as elsewhere for SSH X11 forwarding, or SSH-vnc forwarding, but, as always, you know where to find us.

the terminal server client software is called tsclient on both windows and linux, by some miracle. so you can just yum install tsclient. tsclient in turn is just a gui front end clone very similar in appearance to microsoft's own tsclient, but on back end you'll also need rdesktop to connect to windows boxes and the vnc package to connect to gnome's vino or other linux vnc servers, so yum install those too. Or to do it all in one shot:

# yum install tsclient rdesktop vnc



or for more info just:

# yum info tsclient rdesktop vnc



EDIT: Oops, for Windows just download the TightVNC EXE like mrclisdue suggested. That's what I use and it works great. Here's a link to mirror sites that host it: http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/v...p.exe?download

EDIT AGAIN: Screenshot http://4crito.com/screenshots/tsclient.jpg

I played around with vino BTW and looks like it's more a replacement for desktop sharing (remote assistance) rather than VNC (terminal server). Good to have both I suppose.

hi eternity_00,

what do you mean when you say the linux end is weird? do you mean that the GUI looked very premitive?

i was able to setup vnc on fedora core 5 using kde. i believe it installs it automatically, if not, just install it off the CD or yum. anyway, i was also able to connect to my linux system using my windows computer with no problems. it looked the same as if i were on my linux system. i did have to change some configuration files to make the gui look nice because initially, when i setup the vncserver and connected into my linux system, it would show me a basic XWindows interface (no kde), which basically consisted of a terminal window and a clock... if i remember correctly... it looked very simple and nothing like what i was used to when i would connect locally.

let me know if this helps.
moniker117

AFAIK Linux VNC and Windows Terminal Server use two different and incompatible protocols. And to X forward to Windows you definitely need an X emulator.

hi Crito,

i think you're right, those two protocols are different and incompatible.

i'm referring to connecting to the vnc server on FC5 using a vnc viewer on a windows system (i used the standalone vnc viewer from www.realvnc.com). i took that to be eternity_00's intention.

moniker117

Thanks a lot everyone, I'll try it and let u know which one worked

I know this is somewhat of a late reply, but Windows Terminal Services uses a vastly different protocol than VNC, and is actually better, in many ways (cleaner and faster, in my opinion). However, the big advantage with VNC is that it is universal, and not specific to a single platform.

The linux tsclient, installed as I described above, supports both VNC and RDP protocols. I think where the confusion comes in (and Gnome seems to have adopted the same poor terminology used in Windows) is between remote desktop sharing and a virtual network connection. Though they may require a password to connect, Vino and Windows RA (Remote Assistance) are remote control or desktop sharing apps. You assume the session of another user when connecting through them. In contrast, a virtual network connection provides you with your own login and session. Yes, they use the same protocols, but the application is different, so using the generic term "remote desktop" for both is very confusing and misleading, IMVHO.

And to be complete about the discussion, it's only fair to mention Citrix and their proprietary ICA protocol. They were top dog on the Windows platform before Terminal Server existed. Like most of Microsoft's business partners, they got stabbed in the back.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citrix_MetaFrame

I used VNC for a couple of years before I switched to FreeNX. Easy install and there are clients for windows and linux. It runs over WAN far better than VNC and is encrypted via ssh, so safer too. I think that Fedoranews.org had a howto for installing it.