On Mon, Jun 16, 2003 at 03:24:26PM -0500, Tom Duerbusch wrote: > I'm getting too many people talking at me....so it's time to bring it > out to the people that are in the "know". > > Some of our Linux users want to use the X11 interface to access > Linux/390 (Suse 8 under z/VM). Some of them have software already > installed on their Windows PCs and use it for other platforms. Others > just need software installed. And I have to have a X11 server > installed. > > Now that I'm on Suse 8, and the install method kind of force the issue, > I have VNCSERVER installed. On the PC, I have vncviewer installed. It > seems to me that I have a X11 interface running. > > But I'm told by some folks here, that that isn't X11, vnc isn't > compatable with X11 and there is different software for X11.
The standard mode of operation for VNC on linux is to start its own X server (Xvnc) and desktop and then serve the content of this X server using the VNC protocol. (There is also a VNC server for an existing display, but this is not what you're after). The user on the PC runs a "vnc client" that connets to such a display and shows it locally. OTOH, with X, the client will run a local shell, and X clients will connect to the X server. The user on the PC runs an X server. > > I've been told that I need a product such as "cygwin". I've gone to the > website and when I try to download it, boy is there a lot of stuff that > would be downloaded. (perhaps I got the options wrong...I just took > whatever defaults there was) This makes me believe that cygwin and > vncviewer are quite different animals. > > Any comments? How many users are we talking about? One thing to consider: with vnc you'll have to allocate a port to each user, and probably keep the vnc server running permanently. This means much more load on the server if there are 10 users or so. VNC also seems to have a poor security model for a multi-user machine: only a password separates you from someone else's desktop. Is there any simple way to make VNC authenticate using PAM? Alternatively: is there any magic way to automatically authenticate connections that come from an ssh tunnel that was established by the same user? Also, if you use vnc, use a simple theme (with no gradianets and no bitmaps): this will save much network bandwidth. And TightVNC is espcially optimised for this. -- Tzafrir Cohen +---------------------------+ http://www.technion.ac.il/~tzafrir/ |vim is a mutt's best friend| mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] +---------------------------+
