i'm testing some vnc connections and configurations and, as a perma-n00b,
have some questions. i'm using tightvnc. when i connect from my mac to
my xp home box, the screen which appears on my mac shows me the screen on
the xp box as it appears on the xp box. the windows i have open on the
xp box can be seen in the vnc viewer window that opens on the mac i'm
using to access the xp box. likewise, if i log on to the mac from the
xp box, i get the same behaviour. i see whatever is open and can
manipulate it.

on linux, however, the behaviour is different. i'm using various flavors
of mandriva for this. if i have windows open on the linux box, they do
not appear when i log on through tightvnc. i get a clean desktop, icons
and all, but the windows are not open. i can open and run apps but i
would like to be able to see what is going on on the desktop with these
linux boxes.

i am in the right account. i do know that. i've seen discussion of
differences between the :0, :1, :2 displays, but i'm not sure that's
my issue as these seem to be related to different accounts.

how do i set up tight vnc on my mandriva linux boxes so that when i vnc
into them i see the current activity on the desktop? other than this,
which seems to be a configuration issue, i'm getting good responsiveness
from tightvnc.

thanks,
BabaG

GNOME and KDE have software to share your desktop by VNC. x11vnc is an option independent of your desktop environment. All these things replace the functionality of the tightVNC server, meaning you may be better off uninstalling that from your Linux box.