Notes from the Ether

So the developers want a GUI on the system they use to develop our java file-serving app (I’ll rant about that later).

Anyhow, I’ve installed a few VM’s with Gnome on them, so I figured VNC was an easy way to get them there, without dealing with the complications of running X across the WAN. 

Originally, I was trying the GUI managed setup that Gnome has to “turn on remote desktop”, but I quickly realized that it only works when the desktop is logged into the console.  After the user has logged out, this isn’t going to do me a whole lot of good.

I found another doc that ended up pointing me in the right direction.  Here’s what I did:

1) I edited the /etc/init.d/vncserver file to include this line at VNCSERVERS:

VNCSERVERS=”1:root 2:user1″

2) I started /etc/init.d/vncserver

3) I ran vncpasswd as the users I needed (root, user1)

This gave me the ability to connect to the remote ip with vncviewer at vnc:ip.of.the.server:1 for root, and ip.of.the.server:2 for user1.  Each had their own password so I didn’t have to give up root to my developer.

So far, the developer seems happy, and the solution seems to be working well (it’s only been 10 minutes.)