Access to X Windows remotely.
 

I need to access Linux GUI remotely. On my local network I have couple machines installed, RH8, FEDORA CORE 5, etc.
On Windows XP workstation I have Cygwin and Cygwin/X I am connecting all Linux machines perfectly (I use a commant XWin :0 -query <remote machine IP>).
It all works on my local network. When I install Linux machine on my DMZ zone (separate network defined in firewall), it stops working. I just see a gray screen. all other services on that machines are working OK, for example, VNC works fine, but VNC is not good for many reasons, mostly because it requires to have existing session one the machine, so I cannot logout and then login without going to the machine.
All ports are open, firewall on Linix machine is disabled. What is going on?
Open ports is not a good options to use this serrice. I do need to know what ports should be open to connect X/WINDOW remotely. Would be glad if some will help with that, but for now I need to make it working.

I'd recommend tunneling X inside SSH. That's probably the easiest way.
Plus that's secure, and only requires you to open 1 single port on the firewall.

5 minute google will tell you how to do that.

Have fun :)

Many thanks for the reply.

I tried the following:

On Linux machine (RH8, to be certain) I connected the machine I need with ssh and then was able to start individual applications on that machine. Works perfect. The only one issue: I need GNOME (KDE) environment to find programs I need, I am new to Linux and I do nto knwo all the names yet. GUI helps a lot in that. How can I start it?

I found a nice explanation how to set up VNC/sss/PUTTY. Works good. But this is VNC, meaning that, it requires user to be loged in before connecting and this is what I want to avoid.

On Windows, where I need it the most. As I mentioned before, Cygwin/X with XWin works fine within local network. Attempt to repeat the same trick as on RH8 (being under X, ssh to the server and then start a program) did not work on Cygwin/X. I started X (startx or startxwin.sh, both commands start a command line X/Terminal), connected the server using ssh and then tried to start a graphical progarm. That did not work, programs give a message "unable to connect X server".
Any idea for any of the questions above?

I found how tunneling works. I made it working form Cygwin/X and from RH8 workstation (cannot say I completely understand it). Nautilus starts perfectly. If I put the launchers of the program I need on desktop, I can start them too. But about the programs from menues? Is there anyway to start full GNOME environment? or at least get all program names from menus (accessories, "go places", etc)?

vnc config steps
 

Hi,
Download the following document which contains vnc config steps,

http://www.erpstuff.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=16

Have a nice day.

thanks

I downloaded the file and followed the instructions for VNC installation. It works fine, but it does the same as before: I need to be logged in before connecting with vncviewer, and thus cannot logout without blocking possibility to login abain. But there were useful thing in those insturction: it mentioned the name of the program tat should be started to get GNOME (KDE) environment. It is gnome session (startkde). I tried it with ssh tunneling abd it works. There are still some issues, but and least I know where to go now.

Thanks a lot for help.

Gregory

Try freeNX

http://freenx.berlios.de/

Secure thru SSH, only requires a single port open (port 22 by default) and since it uses ssh for the initial connection you do not need to have a session already running... (although it does support persisent connections) plus it's much faster that VNC.

I installed that. But I cannot make it working.
I did the following:

On Fedora Core 5 I ran yum install freenx and installed client for windows. Installation ran well.
But I keep getting message this message: "Server not installed or NX access disabled".
nxserver is running. I was able to start/stop it, add user, change password, etc.
ssh port is open, I can connect with ssh using other software.

What else can I check?

Gregory

Have a look here first:

http://fedoranews.org/contributors/rick_stout/freenx/

And possibly here:

http://fedoranews.org/contributors/rick_stout/ssh/

Sorry I can't help much more than that, not a Fedora user. I'd really try to get FreeNX running tho, it is worth it.

Thanks a lot. I already found that I missed the step of importing a key. It works great, many thanks.
Now I have another issue. I cannot connect to two different computers at a time. Is that possible? I had to close first one to connect to another one.

By the way, what distribution you prefer?

Consisgd:

I happened across this article, it's a bit old but may suffice

http://mail.kde.org/pipermail/freenx...er/000359.html

Never tried to connect to multiple hosts simultaneously with FreeNX... let us know how this works

I prefer a simple ssh connection myself for multiple hosts (which I do constantly)

My current desktop distro of choice is SLED10 primarily due to the fact that I work at a huge SuSE/Novell shop (although I regularly use Ubuntu/Mepis/slackware on my personal machines)

Another possibility for you would be to use PuTTY to establish SSH connections to multiple hosts, setup port forwarding using different ports for the different hosts and tunnel VNC. this will allow the simultaneous host connections with X and the security of the SSH tunnel but still leaves you with the slower performance of VNC (and more complicated)

Either way ... have fun