vnc and inetd

[Chris Kottaridis]

Well, I figured it out. One of the steps of the xdmvnc.html page was to
edit /etc/X11/gdm/gdm.conf if your system runs gdm. But, I couldn't find
that file anywhere so I just changed the KDM file which I  could find.
Doing a ps shows I am running gdm-binary and searching the man pages
shows there is a gdmsetup gui based command to configure gdm. So, I ran
it and enabled "Remote". I rebooted and now I get the login window when
I vnc view my host. Which is what I was trying to accomplish.

I tried to strace gdmsetup to see if it would open the gdm.conf file,
but it seems to make a socket conenction to some daemon that actually
manages the file. I ran find over / looking for a file named gdm.conf
and it came back with no matches. So, I still don't know where this file
is, but I seem to have a way to get it enabled so I am off to the races.

It also mentions to modify the xfs configure file, but I don't seem to
be running a font server, at least there is no /etc/init.d/xfs script to
start the thing up. So far I haven't noticed it being a problem, so
maybe it isn't absolutely required. I'll keep poking around though.

Thanks
Chris

On Sat, 2009-07-25 at 00:32 -0600, Chris Kottaridis wrote:
> I am trying to get vnc working via inetd on my Fedora Core 8 machine. I
> want to be able to use a vnc viewer to open up a window and get a login
> window, so I can be logged into the same machine twice under different
> usernames.
> 
> I followed the man page for Xvnc:
> =====================================================
> In the nowait mode, Xvnc uses its standard input and output directly as
> the connection to a viewer.  It never has a listening socket, so cannot
> accept  further connections from viewers (it can however connect out to
> listening viewers by use of the  vncconfig  program).   Further  viewer
> connections  to  the  same  TCP port result in inetd spawning off a new
> Xvnc to deal with each connection.  When the connection to  the  viewer
> dies,  the  Xvnc  and  any associated X clients die.  This behaviour is
> most useful when combined with the XDMCP options -query and -once.   An
> typical example in inetd.conf might be (all on one line):
> 
> 5950    stream    tcp  nowait  nobody   /usr/local/bin/Xvnc Xvnc -inetd
>        -query localhost -once securitytypes=none
> 
> In this example a viewer connection to :50 will result in  a  new  Xvnc
> for  that connection which should display the standard XDM login screen
> on that machine.  Because the user needs to login via XDM, it  is  usu-
> ally OK to accept connections without a VNC password in this case.
> =====================================================
> 
> Of course I had to make an xinetd file, but I seem to have this working.
> I am running as nobody from xinetd as mentioned above if that is a
> problem. I can connect with a vnc viewer and it pops up a new window.
> However, I don't get the xdm login window, just a blank pattern. The
> docs imply that it'll coordinate with xdm and give me a login window.
> 
> I found instructions here to try and get xdm to work with a vnc window:
> 
> http://homepage.ntlworld.com/daniel.rigal/xdmvnc.html
> 
> I changed all the files mentioned and rebooted. But, I still just get a
> window with a blank pattern when I connect to :50. When I try to run the
> xdm test:
> 
> X -query hostname :1
> 
> it seems to start something up another window but with the same blank
> background pattern I see in the vnc window. I can ctl-alt-F7 &
> ctl-alt-F8 to go back and forth.
> 
> But, it seems like I am missing something that will enable xdm to take
> control of the new windows created.
> 
> What am I missing ?
> 
> Thanks
> Chris Kottaridis
> 
> 
>