I am looking for options to share the console, or preferably a separate session, from an Ubuntu Mate 14.04 LTS machine. I have used vnc4server successfully on CentOS and Ubuntu 12.04 server with a minimal gnome desktop as well as a number of other distros. I have used "desktop sharing" from an Ubuntu 12.04 LTS machine running gnome fallback. However, I am not having any luck with the same approaches on Ubuntu Mate 14.04.

I have not turned up much by searching. In fact, several hits refer back to a similar question which I posted on linuxquestions last year - before Mate became an "official" Ubuntu flavor.

The "Software store" lists X11vnc which I think I have played with in the past although not very successful as I recall.

Can anyone give me a starting point? I am obviously overlooking something.

TIA,

Ken

The reason you had those remote desktop applications in the other desktop environments is because they were packaged by your distribution to be included. I am assuming MATE doesn't come prepackaged with a remote desktop client. You can easily install a VNC client from the Ubuntu software repository. Here is a list of Ubuntu remote desktop clients you can install:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/VNC/Clients

For a VNC client to connect, you must have a VNC server running. Here is the documentation for that:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/VNC/Servers

I have had good results with TightVNC.

Klaatu likes X11VNC.

There are other VNC options out there.

Thanks mralk3 but I am after the server functionality, not the client. I use the Vinagre remote desktop viewer on my main CentOS 6 machine. I am considering updating my wife's desktop PC and my toy netbook to Ubuntu Mate but I want to be able to remotely access them from my main PC. Let me also thank you for the two reference links.

Thanks frankbell. I guess I really just needed to get motivated on this project again. I looked at x11vnc and printed out the information on the web site - 169 pages! It looks like it is intended to export the actual console display - sort of the desktop sharing concept. I will certainly investigate that a little further. However, I really like the concept of accessing a virtual desktop on the machine rather than the console. Sort of like accessing a real (mainframe) computer

I have done that with vnc since probably Redhat 8. With Ubuntu I got slack and used the built in desktop sharing except for my headless server on which I used vncserver on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS server. As to the Mate issue...

I found this post http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...on-4175437332/ which gave me the info I had been missing. My .vnc/xstartup looks likeThe 3 lines in red were what I needed to comment out/add. I can now attach to a virtual desktop in my virtual Ubuntu Mate test machine. I will play with it for a while then try it on some actual hardware. Of course I need to also master accessing the console especially for the wife's machine - saves me a lot of walking from my office to the living room to answer "what's this?"

Thanks again to you both.

Ken

You can also use ssh to access the console.

If connecting to a VNC server from outside your network, you should use ssh port forwarding for the VNC sessions so that the sessions are encrypted. Otherwise eavesdroppers will be able to see what you are doing in the remote session.

Thanks mralk3,

I used ssh to install vnc4server, configure and launch it. That is what I did on my "server" - really just a 16TB file pile. I normally connect to it when needed with nfs or Samba for file transfer and with ssh for routine maintenance. On occasion I wish to use a couple of gui utilities to shovel around a bunch of files. In that case I connect with ssh, launch my vncserver session and then connect from the CentOS machine.

All of my activity is on a wired home network behind a router/firewall so I am not that concerned about security/privacy. I really do need to play with the encrypted remote access some day.

Regards,

Ken