On Tue, 2007-11-27 at 18:35 -0500, Aaron Kulkis wrote:
> John O'Gorman wrote:
> > I am trying to set up VNC on a new opensuse 10.2 installation.
> > When I run vncviewer it connects to the vncserver but all I get is the
> > Xll grey screen with the large X shaped cursor - No xdm login screen!
> > After a timeout period the connection closes and the vncviewer exits.
> > 
> > Symptoms are the same when I run vncviewer on a remote or on the local
> > machine.
>  
> 
> http://www.vnc.com/support/getting-started.html
> http://www.vnc.com/support/documentation.html
> 

> > 
> > Any ideas?
> 
> Yes.  When having problems with an application, the first
> thing to do is to go to that application's website;
> 
> In this case, visit http://www.vnc.com/

The above source and others are in conflict with each other.
The documentation refers to a different method of setup from the one
SUSE (open or otherwise) now uses as its default method.

Nearly all the documentation refers to running vncserver and vncpasswd.
I set up VNC this way many years ago but now use the much more
satisfactory method of running Xvnc on demand through the xinetd
super-server.

As a warning to any other users who would use VNC with openSUSE, don't
touch vncviewer or vncpasswd. They will mess things up for you.

I have now got VNC going OK on 10.2. But I had to go behind YAST's back
and vi the key kdm and xdm files. (This probably means that YAST won't
work for other modules which need to change these files unfortunately).

To summarise for others who might be interested:

1. Don't at any time run vncserver or vncpasswd 
2. Use YAST to enable xinetd services vnc1, vnc2, and vnc3
3. Use YAST to disable firewalling (to allow remote access to the vnc
ports)
4. Find and edit the following files (I couldn't find a way to do it
with YAST)
a:xdm-config: put a ! in front of: DisplayManager.requestPort: 0
b:Xaccess: make sure there is no # commenting out:* #any host can get a
login window
c:kdmrc: Find the Xdmcp section:  Enable=true Port-177 #uncomment if
necessary
5. as root, on the console, run the commands: init 3; init 5 
to restart X, kde, and other grapohical stuff

Warning: openSUSE puts the above files in non-standard places. Use the
locate command to find them. It is a nuisance that openSUSE no longer
installs locate by default. You will need to install the findutils
package. 

Possibly some or all of the above could be done by YAST. I couldn't find
a way to do it. A YAST module for VNC would be nice. Maybe there is one
in openSUSE 10.3?

To clarify the firewalling setup. VNC should probably be run only on
private networks protected from the outside by a separate firewall
machine. The VNC server can then safely run without firewalling. Experts
may be able to run VNC with firewalling by opening up the ports in the
5900 to 59xx range.

The best site for VNC documentation seems to be
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/daniel.rigal/xdmvnc.html

It would be good if this sort of documentation were on the openSUSE
wiki. The current openSUSE wiki document is plain wrong!

> 
> > John O'Gorman
> > 
> 
> 
> 

-- 
To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]

Reply via email to