VNC Question

[phpinfo]

I am trying to VNC to RHEL 4 ES, but can't get the desktop to come up. I keep getting a screen that has check boxes for viewer options, with a gray background.

The check boxes say "Accept clipboard from viewers", "Send clipboard to viewers" and "Send primary selection to viewers"

Do I need to install Gnome or something - or do I need to edit a config file? Thanks

[Need2BaGeek]

Hi phpinfo,

I'm actually working on the same thing right now. I'm using Fedora 8 and installed the VNC rpm's. I started VNC server and am able to connect from other Linux boxes, but when I connect I can only get an xterm session. I cannot figure out how to see the GUI. I'll keep researching this and post the solution when I find it (if you haven't found it already).

Also, I'm interested in finding out how to connect from a Windows box. I've tried with UltraVNC And TightVNC but neither clients are able to connect.

[Roxoff]

Here's the quick solution. This is from memory, though, as I'm at work on Windows...

Yes, you need to have gnome, kde or some other desktop environment of your choosing installed.

If you've got a server declared in /etc/sysconfig/vncservers, then before you start the vnc server service (or after you stop it) you need to take a few steps:

- Run vncpasswd as the user to set up their connection password.
- in the users ~/.vnc directory they'll need an xstartup file, which is a simple text file to start off their chosen environment - it should contain a line like 'gnome-session' or 'startkde'.
- The xstartup file should be readable and executable by the user whose session is starting, so use 'chmod 750 xstartup' or 'chmod u+rx xstartup'.

Now, when you start up the vncserver service it'll load your chosen desktop environment.