I am considering changing of my PCs to Mandrake. Currently, it acts as a server that I connect to exclusively through MS Remote Desktop. I do not have a display on the machine.

Does Mandrake/Linux support remote use? If so, is it native or do I need an additional application?

You can log into a Linux computer remotely in a number of ways.

I think there's a SourceForge project called rdesktop (?) that will let you use Windows Remote Desktop.
The native GUI mechanism is to use a remote X session. For security, this is usually disabled by default; look for the “remote X session HOWTO” on www.tldp.org for setup instructions. This will require you to install an X-Windows server on the MS-Windows machines.
There are also products like Citrix that give cross-platform GUI desktops.

Out of the box, you can get a console login using either telnet (installed on Windows by default) or the more secure ssh (look for puTTY for a Windows SSH client).
It's also not unknown to use an old-fashioned serial terminal plugged into the serial port. That way, you don't even need a network

Hope that helps,

— Robert J. Lee

There's also TightVNC - run a search for it on the Mandrake RPM's

Thanks for the info. I have Putty already that I use to log into a friends Linux machine.

Will that give me the GUI like I would get from being local?

Installing Mandrake now...wish me luck!

No - PuTTY will not give you a GUI. You'll need VNC for that. Install the tightvnc package on mandrake, and install vnc on your win box. Then just VNC in

scuzzman is right. TightVNC comes in windows and linux flavors. I use it on my windows box to get a graphical (mirror image) of my Mandrake desktop.

Hint: If the remote window you open is set to a lower resolution than the machine you are sitting at, the window will be easier to get around in (no scrolling). Also be prepared for a small amount of latency as you move around the remote desktop, especially if you are really, really remote.

Thanks guys. I am now an official Linux user!

The latency is more than I experienced with MS remote desktop. I'm on a 100mb Lan sitting on the same switch. I set the CPU to max so I will see how it goes.

I noticed that it actually shows the activity on the server. Could that be causing some of the delay due to having to manage two screens. Is there not an "invisible" mode?

Also, I have setup samba for disk sharing. Is there a way to put the machine on my Windows workgroup and access it by wnc name \\[boxname].

Thanks for all the help so far.
Miles

I am in search of a method to have the VNC server start automatically with the machine and not require me to login and manually start the server.

Any suggestions?

There is a file called rc.local, usually under /etc/rc.d/ or /etc/init.d/ or /etc/rc.d/init.d/. This file is really a script that gets run as root when the computer starts up, after setting up everything else up, and before you can log in.

If you add a line like this:where:
user is the username you wish to start the server as, and
command is the command you would use to start the server

…then it will automatically start when the computer boots up.

What's the easiest way to find the actual file name for a KDE menu item? I tried right clicking?

Thanks once again...

Right-click on the K menu icon itself and select “menu editor”.