Seeking help configuring vnc

William Hooper whooperhsd3 at earthlink.net
Mon Jun 12 13:16:07 UTC 2006


Janina Sajka wrote:
> I have a server in a data center with great pipes to the net, and I have
> associates who need to attach using vnc. Unfortunately, I can't test
> whether I've got things working (because I'm blind), so I'd like to ask
> questions here to help me get things configured. So, here goes ...
>
> 1.)	chkconfig vncserver on
>
>
> If I understand the documentation I've read correctly, I only want to
> run vncserver as a service if I want my users' sessions persisted. Is that
> correct?

Not really.  The function of the vncserver "service" is to start VNC
sessions at boot.  However, using the "service" also make sure all your
sessions are started in the same order, so a user gets consistent display
numbers.

> 2.)	To ask the same question another way, any of my users who can
> login to their shell account via ssh can activate vncserver whenever they
> wish, is that correct? service vncserver does not need to be started.

Correct.  The next available display number will be used (unless it is
specified in the command).  This means if two users are using VNC, the
next display number is 3.  If one of ther first users kills the VNC server
(say the one with display 2), then the next user will take that display
number (display 2).

The session will continue running until it is killed via "vncserver --kill
[display]".

> 3.)	I see where each user needs to run vncpasswd, and where various
> configuration options are creatable under $HOME/.vnc/xstartup. Is this
> sufficient?

Yes.  These files are needed if you use the service or if you don't.

> Or, do I still need to list each user allowed to launch vnc in
> /etc/sysconfig/vncservers?

No.  The /etc/sysconfig/vncservers file is only used for the vncserver
"service".

> I'm sure there will be a few more questions--especially about securing
> things,

Securing things is easy.  Don't allow direct connections to VNC, only
allow SSH tunnels.

-- 
William Hooper




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