Hi, I've been having some discussions with Chuck Liebow about using my program (http://www.karlrunge.com/x11vnc/) to remotely view, fix, test, etc, individual LTSP client displays using a vnc viewer from where ever you are sitting.
Chuck suggested starting a discussion on #ltsp how this might be done with LTSP more robustly, but I thought I'd send this to ltsp-discuss to see if anyone is interested. If this is more appropriate for ltsp-developer please let me know and I'll repost there. Please Cc: me since I am not on either list. My program is run on the desired client, it polls the X11 display for changes and allows VNC viewers (e.g. vncviewer) to attach and view and interact with the X11 display. There is a growing number of other programs like mine, but in thinking about LTSP integration the issues are all the same. First off, the easy case with no X11 access control on the clients and no other desire for privacy. It is very trivial: # ssh someclient '/usr/local/bin/x11vnc -display :0 -bg' # vncviewer someclient:0 Things become tricky when access control is turned on in the X session. You somehow have to find and get access to the XAUTHORITY file for the desired client session and then get that information to the /usr/local/bin/x11vnc process running on the client (by setting the XAUTHORITY env var). This is even more tricky since on the LTSP (i.e. Xterminal setup) since the XAUTHORITY usually lives on the central server buried in /var (e.g. /var/lib/xdm/authdir/authfiles/Asomehost:0-Cfd9dk) which is a different machine from where the x11vnc process will be run. It is not too hard to do this manually for a given setup. For example if a user is already logged into a client and you have the permission to become that user, you just set XAUTHORITY=/home/user/.Xauthority before starting x11vnc. Alternatively, if no one is logged in yet or you do not want to log in as the user, you can, as root, dig around in /var/lib/... to find the auth file, copy it via ssh to the client machine and point x11vnc to it via XAUTHORITY. A third way is to use the display manager Xsetup script (e.g. /etc/X11/xdm/Xsetup for xdm) to copy the info (in the script XAUTHORITY is already pointing to the correct file on the central server). These lash-ups are fine, but since LTSP has so much infrastructure, it might fit in more cleanly somehow. I look forward to discussing this with anyone who is interested, and can also help with any x11vnc questions people might have. Best regards, Karl ------------------------------------------------------- This SF.net email is sponsored by: The Robotic Monkeys at ThinkGeek For a limited time only, get FREE Ground shipping on all orders of $35 or more. Hurry up and shop folks, this offer expires April 30th! http://www.thinkgeek.com/freeshipping/?cpg=12297 _____________________________________________________________________ Ltsp-discuss mailing list. To un-subscribe, or change prefs, goto: https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/ltsp-discuss For additional LTSP help, try #ltsp channel on irc.freenode.net
