Linux Server Hacks, Volume Two

Hack #10. Access Systems Remotely with VNC

Virtual Network Computing is the next best thing to being there—and it's cross-platform, too.

Command-line-oriented utilities (such as ssh and telnet) for accessing remote systems are fine for many things, but they don't help much when you need to run graphical utilities on a remote system. You can play around with the standard X Window System DISPLAY environment variable to output programs to different displays, or you can take advantage of cooler, newer technologies such as VNC to display the entire desktop of a remote system in a window on the system on which you're currently working. This hack explains how to use VNC to do just that. VNC is a cross-platform thin client technology originally developed by Olivetti Research Labs in Cambridge, England, who were later acquired by AT&T. A VNC server runs on a desktop or server system and exports an X Window System desktop that can be accessed by a VNC client running on another system. VNC servers are typically password-protected and maintain their state across accesses from different clients. This makes VNC an optimal environment for accessing a graphical console and running graphical administrative and monitoring applications remotely.

Any host system can run multiple VNC servers, each of which exports a separate desktop environment and therefore maintains separate state. Similarly, multiple clients can connect to and interact with the same VNC server, providing an excellent environment for ...