Is there a way to configure VNC on Fedora 4 that will be normal - controling exactly whats on the hardware display - even if no one is logged in - i've researched incorperating with GDM, but it seems to end the session every time I end the VNC connection and my hardware screen looks different. Any ideas?

Thanks,

Scott K Logan
CottsayNet
logans@cottsay.net

Um, I'm not exactly sure what you mean by "hardware screen" and "hardware display". All VNC does is display a GUI at your remote location. A couple of things to keep in mind is that VNC is not necessarily using the same GUI as you would if you were sitting at the machine. So if you normally use Gnome at the machine, VNC might be set up to use KDE, Fluxbox, or something else. In fact if you install VNC from source, I believe it defaults to using TWM, which is a truly horrible (if lightweight) GUI. Also, VNC is using a different X screen from the one being displayed on the VNC server. So someone working on the remote computer would NOT see you doing things in your VNC environment. They are two distinct X screens.

I think he's asking about remotly viewing the X:0 display. There's a vnc kernel module, I use it frequently, and it works very well. You connect with the remote client and you see the gdm login screen just as if you were sitting at the terminal. When you move the mouse and type it actively controls the console of the person sitting in front of the console. You can also connect in a passive-only mode and simply view what the logged in use is currently doing.
See the realvnc.com web site, FAQ, "Can I remote the normal X:0 display of my Unix workstation?"

Perfect! Thats exactly what I wanted!

http://www.realvnc.com/products/free/4.1/x0.html

Thats exactly what I was talking about - all I needed to do is add the module to /etc/X11/xorg.conf and set the authentication options in the screens section. Thank you so much!

Scott K Logan
CottsayNet
logans@cottsay.net