Re: [gentoo-user] Re: What is the gimmick to run tightvnc from windows to gentoo

[Josh Cepek]

Harry Putnam wrote:
> David Blamire-Brown <david@××××××××××××××××.uk> writes:
>
>> I did this a while back and I got it working by tunnelling via SSH
>> (using putty on windows).  But I can't remember the exact details
>> off the top of my head. It may be worth googling that set-up. I seem
>> to remember thinking it felt like a kludge and I can't quite
>> remember why I ended up doing it, but I do remember that it worked.
>
> Well at least that sounds promising.  I did see mention of that in
> some of my google searches but I wondered, If I had to use ssh, why
> wouldn't I just pull the X session on linux across with ssh alone.
> And forget about VNC.

Session persistence. [1] With VNC I can create a full desktop session (I 
use Fluxbox because it's lightweight) and connect to it as needed from 
any system with network access. This is great for my IM app. I lock my 
firewall rules down to allow VNC only from localhost and ssh tunnel all 
my connections (even on the LAN) because VNC's auth scheme is dreadfully 
insecure.

> I think I've heard that can be done....I think I may have even done it
> sometime way back, but VNC is so easy the other direction it seems it
> should be just as easy connecting windows vnc client to gentoo vnc
> server.
>
> For some reason the vnc server appears not to have any debug or
> verbose switches. But not sure even if it did, since it appears the
> connection is simply rejected, if that would help.
>
> I'd like to see some log info as to why the connection is rejected.

How are you starting TightVNC from Linux? If you use something like 
`vncserver :1` then you should get lots of info in ~/.vnc/`uname 
-n`:1.log . This should provide plenty of info/debug info for you.

I'd start by starting the VNC server and making sure that the log file 
indicates it started correctly, which should look like [2]. Then try to 
connect from a remote host; if you get a connection refused message then 
chances are good you have a firewall problem, so make sure the proper 
port is open (5901 for :1, or 5801 via the java http applet.) Try nmap 
from the Windows host to verify port status if you're unsure. I've 
included a connection log sample at [3].

[1]: You could look into NoMachine's NX server (or the GPL-flavor of 
this project) as well for the persistent execution benefit, but I've had 
bad luck with NX sessions terminating on me. Plus you can't resume an NX 
you start under Linux on a Windows host or vise-versa, so it's not as 
useful to me as VNC is. YMMV.

[2]: Sample VNC session startup log segment:
20/07/08 23:59:17 Xvnc version TightVNC-1.3.9
20/07/08 23:59:17 Copyright (C) 2000-2007 TightVNC Group
20/07/08 23:59:17 Copyright (C) 1999 AT&T Laboratories Cambridge
20/07/08 23:59:17 All Rights Reserved.
20/07/08 23:59:17 See http://www.tightvnc.com/ for information on TightVNC
20/07/08 23:59:17 Desktop name 'X' (seraph:1)
20/07/08 23:59:17 Protocol versions supported: 3.3, 3.7, 3.8, 3.7t, 3.8t
20/07/08 23:59:17 Listening for VNC connections on TCP port 5901
20/07/08 23:59:17 Listening for HTTP connections on TCP port 5801
20/07/08 23:59:17   URL http://seraph:5801
xrdb: No such file or directory
xrdb: can't open file '/home/josh/.Xresources'
BScreen::BScreen: managing screen 0 using visual 0x22, depth 24
Xlib:  extension "RANDR" missing on display ":1.0".

[3]: Sample VNC connection log segment (this connection initiated from 
127.0.0.1, the VNC server's localhost address):
20/07/08 23:59:24 Got connection from client 127.0.0.1
20/07/08 23:59:24 Using protocol version 3.8
20/07/08 23:59:24 Enabling TightVNC protocol extensions
20/07/08 23:59:49 Full-control authentication passed by 127.0.0.1
20/07/08 23:59:49 Pixel format for client 127.0.0.1:
20/07/08 23:59:49   32 bpp, depth 24, little endian
20/07/08 23:59:49   true colour: max r 255 g 255 b 255, shift r 16 g 8 b 0
20/07/08 23:59:49   no translation needed
20/07/08 23:59:49 Using tight encoding for client 127.0.0.1
20/07/08 23:59:49 Using image quality level 6 for client 127.0.0.1
20/07/08 23:59:49 Enabling X-style cursor updates for client 127.0.0.1
20/07/08 23:59:49 Enabling cursor position updates for client 127.0.0.1
20/07/08 23:59:49 Enabling LastRect protocol extension for client 127.0.0.1

-- 
Josh