[K12OSN] vnc to locally loaded ltsp?

[Jan Middelkoop]

Actually, you can easily run x11vnc on the clients, and then you can VNC 
to the actual client, rather than just a desktop session.  I use this to 
take over screens of the thin clients here, if users have questions 
about something on their desktop.

If you just a want a remote desktop via VNC though (to work in), it's 
best to do that with a regular VNC server, independant of LTSP.  VNC 
servers can provide users with a login prompt over a VNC session, just 
like LDM (the ltsp login manager) does on the thin clients.

In the client chroot there's a /usr/share/ldm/rc.d/ directory, which 
contains scripts that executed on startup and exit of LDM.  Scripts 
starting with "I" get run when LDM starts, "X" get run when LDM stops 
(when a user logs out of their desktop).

On the server you'll find the directory at 
/opt/ltsp/i386/usr/share/ldm/rc.d/, naturally.

I have a file which I call "I99-x11vnc", with in it:
# /usr/bin/x11vnc -display :7 -xkb -loop -passwdfile /etc/x11vncpassword 
-nossl -logfile /var/log/x11vnc &

Make sure the display number corresponds with the display used on the 
client (specified in lts.conf).  Also create a file 
/opt/ltsp/i386/etc/x11vncpassword with the password in it, in plain text.

I also created a script "X99-x11vnc" with
# /usr/bin/killall x11vnc
in it, so I don't get multiple x11vnc processes running.

You could of course also put the x11vnc startup line in some other 
script on the client that gets executed after X startup, but I found it 
easiest to do alongside LDM.

Kindest regards,
Jan Middelkoop


Op 18-5-2011 9:46, Burke Almquist schreef:
> On May 18, 2011, at 1:04 AM, John Oligario wrote:
>
>> Hi there,
>>
>> Is there a way to VNC to the locally loaded version of Linux which gets loaded upon LTSP bootup?
>> If so what would a username be? When I shell to the terminal window I am presented with a logon however using root does not work, or there is a totally different password.
> I think you might be confused about just how LTSP works. The GUI you log into from the client is actually all on the server, with the possible exception of local some local apps. LTSP clients grab just enough of an OS to basically VNC into the server, so there isn't anything running on clients for you to VNC into. You can set up LTSP to run some apps on the local machine, but the session is still coming from the server. You can ssh onto the client machine, but there is no graphical session actually running on the client. If you want access to the displays on various clients, something like FL_Teachertool is probably your best bet. I'm not sure what it's status is on recent versions of LTSP though.
> You still lurking here Robert?
>
> OTOH, something like DRBL loads an OS image from the network each time it boots, but everything runs locally. It's great if you have lots of really beefy workstation.
>
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