terminal services prototype

[Felipe Alfaro Solana]

On Thu, 2004-06-03 at 19:11, Mark McLoughlin wrote:
> Hey,
> 	Caolán and I have been working on prototyping a VNC based terminal
> services system which also allows hot-desking.
> 
> 	The idea is that we allow GDM to accept VNC connections, spawn a VNC
> server for each new connection and display a login screen. The user then
> authenticates through the login screen as normal and GDM starts a new
> session on the VNC server. However, if you then close your VNC client,
> the session doesn't go away. GDM continues to manage that session.
> 
> 	You may then go to a different terminal, the server will spawn off a
> new VNC server with a login screen through which you log in. However,
> once you log in, GDM detects that you already have a session running and
> switches you to your original session rather than starting a new
> session.
> 
> 	You could imagine terminals which are very similar to LTSP terminals,
> but instead of starting an X server which queries the server for a login
> using XDMCP, it starts a fullscreen vncviewer which connects to the
> server.
> 
> 	We've reached a stage where we can demo the basic idea, so here's the
> results:
>  1) On a test machine which will act as the terminal server, install
>     the "gdm" and "vnc-server" packages from:
> 
>         http://people.redhat.com/markmc/terminal-services-demo
> 
>     Note: there are packages built against both FC2 and rawhide.
> 
>  2) Punch port 5900 through the firewall on the server - i.e. 
>     system-config-securitylevel, Other ports, "5900:tcp"
> 
>  3) Reboot for good luck.
> 
>  4) From another machine, vncviewer -FullScreen -FullColor myserver
> 
>  5) Log in as normal, play around, start a few apps.
> 
>  6) Close vncviewer (F8, Exit viewer)
> 
>  7) Start vncviewer as in (4)
> 
>  8) Log in as normal, you should be immediately switched back to your 
>     original session.

Doesn't work properly.
The first time I logon it works nicely. However, I can't get back to my
session once I disconnect.

When trying to log in back, GDM simply hangs indefinitely. No CPU cycles
are wasted. Nothing seems to happen. I'm using Kerberos V
authentication, IPv6 and IPSec.

Please, feel free to contact me for additional information.
Thanks!