Linux Desktop Hacks

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Chapter 4, Related to X

#31 Run Your Desktop over the Internet

HACK

NX, from NoMachine (http://www.nomachine.com), is an add-on to X that

accelerates remote X applications and can be used to run a full remote desk-

top at near-native speeds, even over a 56K modem connection. NX works

much like a proxy cache for the X protocol, caching and compressing

requests and responses to and from the X client and server. This dramatically

reduces the network traffic of the X protocol and works in a way that is trans-

parent to the X client. All the NX libraries and components are open source,

as is the NX client software. However, the servers NoMachine provides are

proprietary, although a free trial period of the personal edition is available,

which allows single-client access. In addition, the FreeNX project uses the

open source NX libraries to create an open source NX server. The following

examples use the personal server and client software from NoMachine.

Installing the NX Server and Client

On the machine on which you want to run the remote session, you need to

install an NX server and client. Packages for various flavors of Linux are

available from http://www.nomachine.com. Download the NX Server Per-

sonal Edition for your distribution, along with a client, and install both in

the normal way. For example:

foo@bar:~# rpm -i nxserver-1.4.0-99.i386.rpm

foo@bar:~# rpm -i nxclient-1.4.0-75.i386.rpm

On the ...