VNC and current session question.

[PaLoBo]

Hi all,

I've followed some excelent guides found on this great forum and managed to get VNC working just great with my new FC4 setup.
However I've noticed that when I login to my pc remotely it starts a new session, however I would like to be able to see what I was doing in the previous session. ( maybe an explanation will help...)

Say I start bittorrent or amule. Leave it running for the weekend and during the weekend I want to check on the progress of a certain download or something of the sort. How can I do that? (My FC4 box is at work.)

Can this be done even though it starts a new session? Any info is welcome. Thanks in advance.

Cheers,
P.

[SlowJet]

If an account is connected and runing in the VNCserver then the only time the session would end is if you logged out or stopped VNC. The trick would be that the connected session on the work box needs to be left running with out being connected.

So start the session from another box with a remote viewer. When it is up and running close the viewer program but don't log off. The session and program remain running.

Then you could start a connection from home with SSH port 22. (assuming your work network is step up to allow the routes and the port.

There is a shared account session where the two connection share a screen but needs to have some more setup and a SELinux check box set for shared memory (I think). I would test it at work first.

SJ

[woppa30]

I do exactly what you are after, basically you want to see the 0 display as opposed to the new one that VNCSERVER starts. To do that edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf and in the "module" section add
Load "vnc"
and in the "screen" section add

Option "passworddFile" "/root/.vnc/passwd"

Once you reboot and point your favorite vnc viewer at your IP you can see the display:0 i.e. what is currently being diplayed on the monitor attcahed to your linux box. It is possible to tunnel this over ssh which is another thread, even from a windows machine. VNC doesn't to my knowledge use any decent encryption and so using the default ports will leave you open to an attack if you are trying to view your display over the web. If you need instructions on how to do this post back.
Best wishes,
David.

[alphonsebrown]

the 2 models you are talking about are Xvnc and vino-server the "Remote desktop" from main menu is the vino-server which doesn't close the session and Xvnc is a way to initiate xdm/gdm/ or directly wm, so you can have both

[SlowJet]

OK, but in real life I wouldn't use root and I wouldn't assume the work box is in a trusted area to be having the screen and worked displayed.

So vino is for noobs and end users and Xvnc is for geeks with no concept of security.

SJ

[alphonsebrown]

no Xvnc closes the session which is not so geeky if you want to leave it open aigh'

[charlien]

Got to Desktop -> Preferences -> Remote Desktop and set it up to allow remote access. I'd use a password and not have it directly on the Internet. I VPN into my network and do the vnc remote connection. Works just the way you want it to.

[SlowJet]

It does seem like the Remote Desktop does not close the remote session but shares it?

If Xvnc closes the remote session, what the difference from vino?

Which one(s) use shared memory?

Which ones require more setup, SELinux changes?
Isn't "Load vnc" the same as start vncserver, except one is varified as started before hand and the other could cause problems, or hang when needed? Theory is thoery but the trenches are a dirty business.

SJ

[PaLoBo]

Thanks all for your input. I think for now I will try and use charlien's method. Sounds safer to me. That should do what i need for now. By the way charlien, could you give some pointers as how to configure VPN+vnc.

Thanks. I will post back with the results of my labour.
Cheers,
P.

[charlien]

Originally Posted by PaLoBo

Thanks all for your input. I think for now I will try and use charlien's method. Sounds safer to me. That should do what i need for now. By the way charlien, could you give some pointers as how to configure VPN+vnc.

Thanks. I will post back with the results of my labour.
Cheers,
P.

My VPN is setup through my router. It is a Linksys router that is a VPN server. I access my home network from work over the VPN tunnel between the two routers. There are alot of other ways to create a VPN tunnel. Open VPN seems to be gaining popularity.

[alphonsebrown]

actually since you have VPN (general setup with encryption no restrictions) then vnc through it is not a question of how rather it's a top layer...

[Error403]

Why don't you just save your .torrent files to a directory and then use btdownload in a terminal window? that way you can simply ssh to the box and see the progress.

to start a .torrent download:

screen btdownloadcurses.py file.torrent --max_upload_rate 123

Note the screen command in front of it. It emulates a shell in a shell. So when you're in a screen session, you can simply do CTRL+A and D to (d)etach, and to return to a screen, you do:

screen -ls

That will output something like this:

There is a screen on:
        10995.pts-1.localhost   (Detached)
1 Socket in /var/run/screen/S-phil.

Then you can go back to the # of the process:

screen -r 10995

And voila! You're back in your uninterrupted download!
All you have to do then is login by ssh and do the same thing to check your downloads! I would suggest binding an alias to start a download, kinda like this:

alias btget='screen btdownloadcurses.py --max_upload_rate 10'

Hope it helps

[alphonsebrown]

wow nice approach definitely news for me