(cc) Tin Ho. See main page for copyright info.
vncserver -geometry 1012x688 -depth 24 # Good for small Laptop LCD at 1024x688 (with 4 toolbars/title bars all together)
vncserver -geometry 1260x950 -depth 24 # Good for 17" desktop screen running at resolution of 1280x1024
vncserver -geometry 1580x1120 -depth 24 # Good for 20" desktop screen running at resolution of 1600x1200
If you are using Solaris, the procedure is slightly more involved. Below is a basic outline of commands to run. ssh to your sun machine and run: bash export PATH=$PATH:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin:/usr/dt/bin:/opt/sfw/bin vncserver -nolisten local -geometry 1012x712 -depth 24 Then, on your windows machine: vncviewer YOURHOST:x Once inside the VNC session, at the xterm window prompt, enter the commands: pkill twm /usr/dt/bin/dtwm &vncconfig -iconic &
(i) Setup your PATH. You may already have them setup. You can check via echo $PATH or you can rerun these commands, duplicates are safe. sh/ksh/bash users (recommended, csh/tcsh is weired!): Solaris export PATH=$PATH:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin:/usr/dt/bin:/opt/sfw/bin Linux export PATH=$PATH:/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin AIX export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/bin:/usr/lpp/X11/bin HP-UX export PATH=$PATH:/usr/dt/bin:/bin/X11:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin csh/tcsh users: Solaris set path=($path /usr/bin /usr/local/bin /usr/X11R6/bin /usr/dt/bin /opt/sfw/bin) Linux set PATH=($path /bin /usr/bin /usr/local/bin /usr/X11R6/bin) AIX set PATH=($path /usr/local/bin /usr/lpp/X11/bin) HP-UX set path=($path /usr/dt/bin /bin/X11 /usr/bin /usr/local/bin) (ii) Start the vncserver: vncserver -nolisten local -geometry 1012x712 -depth 24 The "-nolisten local" parameter avoid the need to write to the directory /tmp/.X11-unix, which only root can do. The -geometry and -depth settings set the screen size and color palette. This setting should work well in windows desktop running resolution of 1024x768, so that you don't have to be scrolling till your head is dizzy. NOTE: If you have never run vncserver before, it will prompt you to enter a vnc session password. Enter that, and when it returns to the prompt, run the vncserver command listed above again to really start the server. This time, it will print a message telling you which virtual session (:N) your vnc session will be located, or an error message.
Desktop Environment includes Windows Manager and extra features like desktop icons, integrated file manager and web browser, etc. By default, vnc session starts with the most barebone windows manager (twm) and no desktop environment. You can change it to use something else, so that you won't be left with a boring plain pale looking TWM. This is optional, but it generally gives a much better feel of actually running the stuff in local machine native graphical console. The settings are platform depending. Traditional Unix typically support CDE, and it is the default Desktop Environment pushed by the major vendors in the past few years. Linux use gnome or kde, and don't typically have CDE installed. -*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
CDE for Solaris 7, 8, 9
CDE for AIX 4.x, 5L
CDE for HP-UX 11i
set your ~/.vnc/xstartup file to something like:
PATH=$PATH:/usr/dt/bin:/usr/openwin/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin:/bin/X11
XSTATION=1
DTXSERVERLOCATION=local
export XSTATION DTXSERVERLOCATION
Xsession &
xterm -geometry 80x24+10+10 -ls -title "$VNCDESKTOP Desktop" &
and start the vncserver, it will start CDE environment nicely.
The color settings of starting CDE like this is better than just
running dtwm.
You can also copy the xstartup file from /nfshome/tho/.vnc/xstartup.cde
Be sure that XSTATION and DTXSERVERLOCATION are NOT preceded with "set"!!
Trobleshooting:
If your vncsession start up with a blank screen, then check that
CDE and X server has been installed on your machine.
AIX does not have this installed by default!!
If it is installed, you should be able to do ls for file such as:
/usr/dt/bin/Xsession
/usr/dt/bin/dtlogin
If the file above cannot be found, or if the whole /usr/dt/bin dir is not there,
contact the sysadmin to get the CDE/X server packages installed to the system.
-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
First, ensure that twm is not running. In the xterm windows:
ps -ef | grep twm
If there is a process named twm, just issue a "kill" on the pid, eg:
kill 12345
or
ps -ef | grep twm | grep -v grep | awk '{print "kill " $2 }' | sh
Then, run:
/usr/bin/gnome-session &
This should start a nice and complete gnome desktop environment.
For lighter terminal settins, AS/ES 3.0 can use the following two lines instead,
it will disable things like the screen saver, etc.
This method seems to be needed for Solaris 10 w/ international language support,
as somehow that interact catastrophically with gnome-session and the keyboard
won't work!
/usr/bin/gnome-wm &
/usr/bin/gnome-panel &
For GNOME/Java Desktop on Solaris 10, run:
/usr/dt/config/Xsession2.jds &
startkde = start a kde session, will work inside VNC equiv to gnome-session kwin = kde windows manager. Equiv to gnome-wm or twm. kicker = start the KDE bottom panel (start menu) equiv to gnome-panel kdesktop = start process that respond to desktop background (Info collected from RHEL 4, SUSE 10 has KDE under /opt/kde3 and use different binaries)
dtwm # This is the windows manager that is run with CDE. # available in /usr/dt/bin/dtwm (HP-UX, Solaris, AIX) # not available in default linux install (it is ugly anyway). # Note that the color is a bit off when run inside VNC, # but the funtionalities are there. # See CDE in desktop environment below. olvwm # Sun default windows manager before it adopted CDE. # It is pretty clumsy to use, but works well in old system. # try to locate it in one of these places: # - /usr/local/bin/olvwm # - /corpits/usr/local/bin/olvwm mwm # alternative to olvwm, much more usable and very light weight. # Available in # - /usr/bin/X11/bin (HP-UX) # - /usr/X11R6/bin (Solaris, Linux) twm # Most barebone windows manager, avail almost everywhere. # Solaris, Linux is in /usr/X11R6/bin # HP-UX don't seems to have it! fvwm2 # fvwm2 build on top of mwm, adding a config option to allow # win95 menu, if configured properly. # Avail in: # /corpits/opt/sfw/bin/ mwm or fvwm2 icewm # an open source light weight Windows Manager # with support for GNOME and KDE. # avail only in Linux, as the code won't compile under Solaris. # .xstartup recommended way to start icewm # icewmtray & # which icewm >/dev/null 2>&1 && exec icewm || exec xterm -bg red If you want to try out the various windows manager, you can always lookup the process number of your current windows manager, kill it, and then start a new one. ************************************************************************* PS1: http://www.uk.research.att.com/archive/vnc/faq.html has a very good FAQ about the many advance features for VNC. PS2: Windows VNC program: http://tin-u10:8000/~sa/applet/VNC-tightVNC/ PS3: A note on HP-UX use of ^C and '@' symbol. Default HP-UX /etc/profile map interrupt to "DEL" and kill to @. This cause lot of confusion. So, I recommend that you update your keyboard mapping once you get to a shell prompt: stty intrstty kill stty -a # check your settings.
Sunfreeware now has this package called x11vnc. It works closer to the windows vnc in the sense that you share physical display with a remote user. To use it, you will need to have an existing physical login to your sun desktop. Then, to share your display, issue the command: x11vnc -display :0 Then, on the client side, just use vncviewer against your hostname with :0 as your display (eg spartan:0) and it will connect. When you are done, terminal the vncviewer. Once the client ends, the x11vnc (server) also ends. Note that this is the only security, there are no password checking. So, run x11vnc only when you want to share your desktop. You can use ssh or telnet to your machine and issue the command when you want to share. Password can probably be setup, will need to refer to the doc...
download package, untar
cp vncviewer vncserver vncpasswd vncconnect Xvnc /usr/local/bin
vncserver
need to ensure that /tmp/.X11-unix is world writable
in solaris, need to do it in init script as it is changed back on bootup.
vncserver fails silently when this dir is not world writable.
chmod 777 /tmp/.X11-unix
Haven't seen any report of security problems with such setup,
but solaris 9 seems to reset the directory permission.
Alternatively, start vncserver as
vncserver :n -nolisten local
So that it avoid writting to /tmp/.X11-unix completely.
http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~crf/crf-guide/resources/software/vnc.html
logs are in ~/.vnc
~/.vnc/xstartup is config file.
default to twm.
can run olvwm (old sun) or dtwm (which is the one cde use, but ugly color).
vncserver -geometry 1500x1000 -depth 16 # home 24"
vncserver -geometry 1260x910 -depth 16 # win 1280x768 desktop, okay sun 20"
vncserver -geometry 1018x720 -depth 32 # approx for 1024x768...
vncserver -geometry 1150x910 -depth 16 # u10 build in vga port + sun 20" mon
vncserver -kill :1
sun 21 inch is about 1280x1020, cde top aroud 934. title + frame around 24 pixels.
default port is
5800 for windows
5801 for unix java
5901 for unix standard vnc client
solaris version req perl which may not be installed. the vncserver script may need to change the #! line.
-----
encapsulating vnc with ssh, all command run on localhost:
ssh -L 5911:localhost:5901 tin-u10
^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^
| destination machine and port
|
tunneled localhost port 5911
vncviewer -shared -hextile localhost:11
# establish tunnel that is:
# localhost:5911 <====> tin-u10:5901
# thus vnc connect locally will get tunneled to remote host.
# vnc for unix default to port 5900 + virtual session number
# the tunnel kind of create the port on virtual session 11,
# To some extend, this would limit number of VNC that can be running to 10.
# -hextile will not let machine think it is local and use raw.
# actually, not sure if that is windows only.
# for linux machine to vnc server on tin-u10, but i haven't gotten it to work yet.
-shared -fullscreen
-scale 1024/1280 # scale 1280 screen to fit 1024, but ugly font and slower.
-scale 4/5 # same ratio as above, read as, every 5 pixels on svr,
# becomes 4 pixels on client.
-noauto # no auto detect color depth, not usually needed.
-fullscreen:
disable full screen prompt:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ORL\VNCviewer\Settings\
Create DWORD SkipFullScreenPrompt set value to 1.
wish there was just a cli option for it :)
-localhost vncserver only binds to 127.0.0.1
-interface IP vncserver binds to specified IP
starting vnc at startup thru rc script,
this case for oracle applmgr user, as ora app need running X server to work
correctly in rendering graphics for web clients!!
simple content for rc2.d/S99rcVnc
su - applmgr -c "/opt/sfw/bin/vncserver :18 -localhost -nolisten local -geometry 1012x712 -depth 24"
search online for other script to start series of vnc at startup.
F8 = pop up menu, send key sequences like ctrl-alt-del full screen mode
