Linux Networking Cookbook

8.8. Configuring a Custom Desktop

Problem

The Connection Wizard only gives you four choices for your remote desktop: KDE, Gnome, CDE, and Custom. You don't want KDE, Gnome, or CDE, you want something else like IceWM or Xfce, so Custom is the obvious choice. How do you configure a custom desktop?

Solution

First, make sure the desktop you want to use is installed on your FreeNX server. Then, fire up the Connection Wizard on the client.

On the Desktop tab of the Connection Wizard, click Custom, then Settings.

On the Settings window, click "Run the following command," and type in the command to start up your chosen desktop.

Check "New virtual desktop."

Finish the rest of the setup, and you're done. See Figure 8-5 for an example.

Discussion

You may or may not be able to get a custom desktop to work; currently, there are some problems with these.

Figure 8-5. Configuring a custom desktop

Make sure your server and client versions match, or your remote desktops might get garbled, or even be unusable. They must have the same major and minor version numbers, so the server version 1.5.0-50 must be paired with a client version starting with 1.5.

Gnome and KDE run well even over slow links. To get even better performance, try lightweight window managers like IceWM or Xfce. These are fully featured, but a lot less resource-hungry. However, FreeNX is so efficient, you probably won't notice a lot of difference. ...