Linux Desktop Hacks

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Chapter 4, Related to X

#32 Access Your Programs Remotely

HACK

Access the Entire Desktop

There is no doubt that running X applications remotely is useful, but a truly

killer feature is the ability to run the entire desktop from a remote computer

on your local machine. To do this, you need to use a feature called the X

Display Manager Control Protocol (XDMCP), which is part of X. This pro-

tocol allows remote computers to access the GDM/KDM/XDM login pro-

gram, which then gives access to the remote desktop. If you have a

reasonably fast network connection—Ethernet speeds of 10-Mbit or greater

are recommended—it is possible for a slow computer to be as responsive as

a cutting-edge machine. This is possible because the local box is just a dis-

play device, like a television, and all the real work is done on the faster

remote machine.

To use XDMCP, you must be running XDM, GDM, or KDM as your login

manager on the remote machine. Each display manager has support for

XDMCP, and you must turn on that support.

To enable XDMCP in GDM, you need to load the gdmconfig tool. Inside this

tool is an XDMCP tab. Turn on XDMCP support by setting the Enable

XDMCP option. You can use some additional settings on this tab to fine-

tune XDMCP support. After you’ve made your changes, you must restart

GDM.

There is no GUI way to turn on XDMCP in KDM, so you need to edit the

kdmrc file on your system. Both a system-wide