VNC

[mad_hatter]

I just got through installing VNC on this Linux box and and two Windows boxes, and it works! Just got started toying around with it. The only catch is that to remote access a Windows box from Linux, one has to su to root. One cannot seem to do it as a regular user. I'm just wondering if setting the suid bit on the vncviewer program is wise? I have heard some horror stories about misplaced suid bits.

Cheers.

[jasonlambert]

VNC should NOT require root access (the client DEFINATLY should not).

What are the permissions on the vncviewer binary?

eg:

user@box# locate vncviewer
....
....
....
/usr/bin/vncviewer
....
....
....
user@box# ls -al /usr/bin/vncviewer
-rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root        83016 Jul 18  2003 /usr/bin/vncviewer

Jason

[mad_hatter]

Jason,

Thanks for confirming that I did not need to be root to have use of the vncviewer. Your reply to my post galvanized me into investigating a bit more deeply into the whole problem and I found out what it was. The permissions were fine. The problem was in the $PATH variable. The whole problem lay in the fact that the vncviewer binary (the one that actually works) was in the /usr/X11R6/bin directory while the ones that I copied as per the advice I had gotten told me to put vncviewer and the others into the /usr/local/bin directory.

Now, when I was su'ed into root, the $PATH variable for root looked into the /usr/X11R6/bin directory before it looked into the /usr/local/bin directory and that's why it worked when I was root. When I was a regular user, on the other hand, the $PATH variable looked in /usr/local/bin directory first, and that's when it tried to execute the vncviewer binary that didn't work. When I typed the full command path (/usr/X11R6/bin/vncviewer) while logged in as a regular user, it worked like a charm! Of course, I could take the trouble to revise the search order in my user $PATH variable, but I don't want to mess with it because it may have unforseen consequences later on.

Again, thanks for the tip, jason!

[mad_hatter]

With this vncviewer, I can now have my cake and eat it, too! I could probably play some games in Windows without having to leave my Linux box! Heh, heh... Not that I play games all that much. The real game is in the fun of learning all the computer stuff.

It's good having a three computer home network so I can experiment with some of this stuff on my own computers. I cringe at the thought that crackers might try to use these kinds of tools on unsuspecting computer users.

Cheers.