Remote Desktop to an Ubuntu computer?

[AtlantaBob]

Hi all,

Here's the deal. I've got a Mac Mini and an Ubuntu 10.04 machine that are sharing a monitor.

The Mac Mini is considerably more powerful, but given a few weird issues with Python and some packages on the Mac, I'd rather develop on the Ubuntu machine. I'd like to have remote access to the Ubtuntu machine from the Mac over the LAN -- and ideally, I would be able to see the Ubuntu GUI. Is there a reasonable way to do that? (Some Googling turns up several VNC solutions -- particularly Chicken of the Sea VNC, but it looks like those references might be several years old).

Is there a good way to do this, or would it make more sense just to SSH into the Ubuntu computer?

Thanks,

 

[TheStu]

VNC should work just fine. Alternatively, you could run Ubuntu in a VM on the Mac Mini.

 

[sourceninja]

you can ssh in (or use ssh -X to launch graphical applicatons). VNC is also a fine solution. There is a fairly nice built in VNC client found in /System/Library/CoreServices/Screen Sharing.app

I use it often for VNC. Here is an article with more info http://www.macworld.com/article/131094/2007/12/screensharepower.html

 

[AtlantaBob]

Thanks guys! I tried CotVNC, but it I really like the features (scalable window) and speed of Screen Sharing. I'll also try ssh -X (something I think I vaguely knew about, but not enough to have it come to mind.) Again, thanks!

 

[sourceninja]

I use ssh -X a lot to run things like the netbackup gui clientd
First you need to make sure your sshd_config file has this line in it.

X11Forwarding yes


Then it's just
ssh -X backupserver

then in the ssh terminal
/path/to/client/exe &

Then the application will appear on my osx desktop as if I was running it right on my machine (via osx's built in X server).

You could in theory run the whole desktop that way. If I recall you just need to type in
gnome-sesson in the ssh terminal.

 

[sourceninja]

One other thing. If you have them both on the same desk (each with their own display) you can use synergy to share your mouse and keyboard between the two computers.

*warning, i'm about to pimp my blog*

http://tacticalcoder.com/blog/2009/05/using-synergy-software-kvm-with-osx-and-linux/

has more information about setting up synergy on mac and ubuntu.

 

[AtlantaBob]

One other thing. If you have them both on the same desk (each with their own display) you can use synergy to share your mouse and keyboard between the two computers.

*warning, i'm about to pimp my blog*

http://tacticalcoder.com/blog/2009/05/using-synergy-software-kvm-with-osx-and-linux/

has more information about setting up synergy on mac and ubuntu.

sourceninja,

Thanks.... you just gave me another reason to seriously consider another 22" Acer Monitor.... my wallet thanks you!