FC4 remote login from windoze

[petebog]

hi folks ... im still fairly new at linux. I now this qestion has been asked before but i havent yet found an answer that actually works .....

i have a box which will run FC4 as a gateway. the box will run headless so i need remote access, all beith across a LAN. the problem is i canna get VNC to run as a sevice at boot time so that when accessed i see a login screen. i can run VNC fine as long as a user is logged in.

if anyone could point me in the right direct it would be brill ..............

thnx in advance

[smfinley]

You could get XLivecd, ssh into your box and do trusted X forwarding (ssh -Y you@yourdomain.org).

[chili555]

You can also install putty on the Windows box and use ssh. I run three headless machines running FC4 and I administer them all with ssh.

http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/

[petebog]

thnx for that folks ....

so are we saying this canna be done - using VNC - with linux and / or fedora ?

it certaintly works fine on windoze.

as to SSH and putty could you point me in the direction of a howto ?

thnx again

[Twey]

It certainly can be done with VNC. The problem you're having is that it won't work the way other services do, because it ought not to be run as root. Add:

su myuser -c vncserver

to your /etc/rc.d/rc.local file, and make sure you've run vncserver as that user once before (or it will prompt for a password and die). However, if you've got a headless box, I'm assuming it's a server of some kind. Frankly, you don't need pretty graphical interfaces for a server. All running X and vncserver will do is increase the install size ridiculously and (debatably) slow the machine down.
As for using SSH and PuTTY, it's very simple.

1. Run system-config-services / ntsysv and tick sshd.
2. Run system-config-securitylevel / system-config-securitylevel-tui and open up port 22:tcp.
3. Download and unzip PuTTY from http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~s.../download.html onto the Windows machine.
4. Run PuTTY, and connect to your box with your usual name and password.
5. Administrate.

Alternatively, you could use Tunnelier. A nice SSH client, but it's non-Free (but doesn't cost money). Its installation procedures are fairly self-explanatory, and even the [strikethrough]least[/strikethrough] lower end of the mediocre range of computer-literate of users should be able to manage it.

[petebog]

thnx twey .....

i understand what your saying about not needin a GUI for a server however im still learning with linux so a GUI helps to keep things easier when in a rush ..... but i will get to that point and will opt for the PuTTY / SSH option ... it work a treat.

as to the original question about VNC ... i tried your suggestion above ..... i can get a login but it the same as when using PuTTY ......... what im really looking for is a GUI login ........

petebog

[grim76]

You can try running nx server. I am running it for remote access when I need to get something done via a GUI and I am not anywhere near the machine.

http://fedoranews.org/contributors/rick_stout/freenx/