from http://www.walkernews.net/2007/07/05/how-to-setup-linux-vnc-server/
VNC server works similar to Telnet or SSH daemon, except that it allows
VNC clients running on diverse OS platforms to remotely access
Linux
Desktop Manager of the server itself, rather than the TTY
text-based console!
As such, most of Windows-to-Linux users prefer using VNC server than SSH
daemon, who are generally favor on the vivid Desktop Manager (either
KDE or Gnome) than the cold
black-and-white TTY
console!
For the newbie (as myself), here is my another
3-minute Linux guide about
How to
setup VNC server in Red Hat Enterprise Linux?
Though this Linux-VNC guide is tested on Redhat Enterprise Linux
4, it served the general guide of installing VNC in Linux
distributions.
- Locate the vnc-server-4.0-8.1.rpm package from the Red Hat Linux installation
CD or download the latest free version of VNC
server from Real VNC.
- Install the rpm package of VNC server:
rpm -Uvh vnc-server-4.0-8.1.rpm
- VNC server is using different set of login authentication than the
Linux /etc/passwd. Meaning that, you have to create VNC login password
for individual Linux login accounts who are granted remote access with
VNC client.
To create VNC login password, just execute vncpasswd
command and enter a valid password twice as usual.
- Unlike VNC server for Windows, each
user account can run more than one VNC servers in Linux.
To start an instance of VNC server, just execute vncserver
command, which will create the $HOME/.vnc directory with VNC default
startup scripts inside (if $HOME/.vnc is not currently exists).
- The
vncserver command will startup a VNC server that
open 3 next available TCP/IP port, starting from 5801, 5901, and 6001
respectively.
Port 5801 is for VNC client connection over HTTP protocol, port 5901
is for VNC client connection over RFB protocol, and port 6001 is to
allows X applications to connect to the VNC server. The lsof or
netstat command will able to show the network port opened by Xvnc
server.
By executing vncserver for the second time or
execute the vncserver :2 command, this will startup VNC
server that bind and listen to port 5802, 5902, and 6002 respectively.
To connect to Linux VNC server over HTTP protocol, just type walkernews.net:5801
(replace walkernews.net with your VNC server IP/hostname) at any
javascripts-enabled web browser, such as Mozilla
Firefox, Opera, or Internet
Explorer.
To connect to Linux VNC server over RFB protocol, just type walkernews.net:5901
at the VNC client.
- To kill the VNC server in Linux, just execute
vncserver -kill
:1 will kill the first VNC server that bind and listen to port
5801, 5901, and 6001. The vncserver -kill :2 will kill the
second VNC server, and so on.
How to get KDE or Gnome Desktop Manager running in Linux VNC
server?
Don’t worry, it’s just a 3-seconds
Linux
trick! Edit the default VNC server startup scripts
$HOME/.vnc/xstartup
and un-remark the two “critical” lines, as per the scripts suggestion:
#!/bin/sh
# Uncomment the following two lines for normal desktop:
unset SESSION_MANAGER
exec /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc
[ -x /etc/vnc/xstartup ] && exec /etc/vnc/xstartup
[ -r $HOME/.Xresources ] && xrdb $HOME/.Xresources
xsetroot -solid grey
vncconfig -iconic &
xterm -geometry 80x24+10+10 -ls -title "$VNCDESKTOP Desktop" &
twm &
Isn’t easy to setup and configure Real VNC in Linux, particularly
with Red Hat Linux?