Remote User Logins via VNC on Red Hat Enterprise 5

[it_guy]

Hi Guru,
I'm trying to setup the vnc on my Redhat enterprise 5server.I have done a few steps as follow and have managed to vnc from my windows machine to this RH Ent 5server. But I can see only blank screen ( no x window and not able to right click ) when I vnc to RH Ent5 server.

(1) Open ports at RH Ent5.
- click ->system->administration->security level-> Firewall
- other ports -> Add-> 5000-5999 -> OK -> Apply
(2) Enable remote visual Access
Uncomment the following at the file /root/.vnc/xstartup
#unset SESSION_MANAGER
#exec /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc
(3) Start VNC server Listener at Startup
vncserver :1 is being added to the /root/.vnc/xstartup file
VNCSERVERS="1:root" is being added to /etc/init.d/vncserver file
ln -s /etc/init.d/vncserver /etc/rc3.d/S99vncserver is being linked.

( 3 ) Starting the Server

vncserver :1

But when I connect to the RH Ent 5 using Real VNC , I can see only the blank screen and I can't access any thing in the server.
Pls.help.

[syd05]

Hi,

You could perhaps try this
Append the following to /etc/sysconfig/vncservers file assuming you have vnc-servers package installed
VNCSERVERS="2:root"
VNCSERVERARGS[2]="-geometry 1024x768 -depth 16"

Rem: you have perhaps tried a different approach....

/root/.vnc/xstartup looks fine to me though you could try replacing the line twm & with gnome-session & or startkde & ( for gnome / KDE respectively) in addition to the above if it does not seem to work

--Syd

[Roxoff]

You seem to be wanting to give a login session for users. You've made a couple of fundamental mistakes that have the potential to be security breaches.

Firstly, you'd only need to forward the ports for your VNC sessions through your firewall (5901 upwards - one port per screen). Secondly you should not be setting up a VNC session for the root user, if anyone gets access to the session (and VNC isn't secure) they'll have root access to your machine. This is bad.

If I were doing this, I'd set up VNC access using xinetd - which can provide you with a logon on-the-fly, i.e. you don't need to keep a VNC session running to allow logins. And anyone connecting would need a proper account on the machine to log in.

There are some simple instructions for RHEL5 here, and RedHat's own knowledge base article here.

[it_guy]

Hi Roxoff,
Thanks a lot. The advise you gave me is absolutely right. First of all, this is the test machine to do some development. And this m/c is to be accessed within the LAN only and has only private IP. And root is currently is used only for this test sever and not for the production . Anyway I will learn accordingly about the RH5.
i m a newbie for RH system. Really appreciate your guidance.

[it_guy]

Thanks a lot for your kind explanation. I tried this
way and currently working but i knew that it is not the proper practise to access by root usr.

Rename the existing .vnc/xstartup to .vnc/xstartup.orig. Then create a link to xinitrc in the .vnc dir as follows:

Code:
cd .vncCode:
ln -s /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc xstartup

This may not be necessary, but wouldn't hurt: restart vncserver.