vnc Again...will not logon without user intervention

[Goosemaster]

Basically, I have moved back to mandrake now and am trying to get VNC to work...I works flawlessly, but I have to go into the conseole and type


vncserver

and then it works remotely...


I have tried to look for the files that it is refering to, but to no avail...../home/goosemaster/.vnc

ther is no such directory


what do I do...


I rREALLY want to have this pc on its own...

 

[n0cmonkey]

Did you setup vnc to run at boot?

 

[mgpaulus]

You can still have it on it's own. You have 2 options to do that.

1: You can have vncserver start on it's own at boot up time. This can be accomplished either by putting an entry in /etc/inittab, or the better route, creating a startup script in /etc/rc.d/init, and then linking it into the appropriate /etc/rc[2345].d directories.

2: From your main desktop, you should be able to telnet to the mandrake box, and then start vncserver via your telnet window. vncserver will start detached, so you can then logout of your telnet session, and connect via vnc.

Method 2 has a definite advantage because the vnc session will be started as your userid, whereas if you use option 1, the vnc session will be started as root/init, and I'm not sure that is a good thing.

 

[Goosemaster]

yeah...says it can't connect to the server..that is until I go t the linux box and type it in and it makes hte new desktop


I even see vncserver [ok] loading during startup

 

[mgpaulus]

If you start it up at boot time, then you should probably specify which desktop/port you want it to start on. If it is the first XServer to load, then it might try to grab :0, which can be confusing to you. You can specify which Server to fire by using the :x option. I start mine on :32 so I don't conflict with any other XServers/users that might want to use/play/try it, and I always know where it's at.

 

[Goosemaster]

I am really new to this so, how would I go about making a scripy, and what exactly should I put in it

I have to say the telnet does not sound bad

 

[Goosemaster]

Hehy...it works


I did what you said..

Telneted in with hyperterminal, and started it..


so why does nvncserver satrt at bootup but does not make the desktop ready?

 

[Goosemaster]

by the wya I did find the "/.vnc" directory...damn hidden files


I see the script but it will not let me do anything with it..not even edit it🙁


Should I just leave this to telnet
IT's not like I need it 24/7

I will only use it when I need to reboot the server and need to restart the service


now to tunnel through with ssh

 

[mgpaulus]

I would use the telnet method.... You only need to do it once after each reboot. So if you leave the machine on mostly, then once you start your session, it will stay alive until you kill it. That will also allow you to see which session it starts. (In fact, that is the way I manage my home firewall machine. I do port forwarding via ssh to my machine at home, so I can start a remove VNCserver @ home and see it from work 😀)

If you really want to do a boot time script, then go down into /etc/rc.d/init.d and look at a few of those scripts. They will give you some examples.... Find a small one to copy.
Then, go to /etc and do a find for 'S??<scriptfile>'. That will give you an indication of all the places to link in your file, then do the links.

Here's an example.

let's say you decide to look at /etc/rc.d/init.d/cron, and make a copy of it called /etc/rc.d/init.d/vncs
edit your /etc/rc.d/init.d/vncs and make it start vncserver..... Probably make sure it starts on :2 or so, so that it does not interfere with the standard X server and any additional XServers you might want to start.
cd /etc
find . -name 'S??cron'
This will return a list of where the start script is invoked from. (mine returns
./rc2.d/S89cron
./rc3.d/S89cron
./rc4.d/S89cron
./rc5.d/S89cron)

Now go into those directories, and create a link to your vncs script. You want this to fire pretty late, so you want to make the number pretty large. The scripts are invoked in numerical order.... So, something like this:

cd rc2.d
ln -sf /etc/rc.d/init.d/vncs ./S95vncs
cd ../rc3.d
ln -sf /etc/rc.d/init.d/vncs ./S95vncs
cd ../rc4.d
ln -sf /etc/rc.d/init.d/vncs ./S95vncs
cd ../rc5.d
ln -sf /etc/rc.d/init.d/vncs ./S95vncs


Now it will start. However, The problem I see with this is that I THINK it will start as root, which means that you will be starting an XServer/XSession attached to root. Unless you set it up to do the standard X login console. If you have it come up straight into your user desktop without logging in, then the telnet process is better.

 

[mgpaulus]

Here's what my script to do the ssh tunnel back to my house:

ssh -c blowfish -g -C -l <userid> \
-L 143:localhost:143 \
-L 80:localhost:80 \
-R 5904:localhost:5900 \
-L 5904:localhost:5932 <home ipaddress>

The important lines are the last 2
the -R 5904:localhost:5900 tells ssh to do remote port forwarding, so that I can connect to the vnc server on my WIN2K machine from home, if the link is up (At home I type xvncviewer localhost:4 and I am connected to my machine here @ work).
the -L5904:localhost:5932 tells ssh to do a local port forward. To connect to my machine at home, I would type xvncviewer localhost:4, and I get connected to the vncserver which I ALWAYS run on :32.

Let me know if you have more questions and I will try to help.