XDMCP & VNC

Setup

Common

• Enable XDMCP:
  • For kdm, edit /etc/kde3/kdm/kdmrc and change Xdmcp section to:

Enable=true

• • For gdm, edit /etc/gdm/gdm.conf and change xdmcp section to:

Enable=true

• Add the following lines to /etc/services:

vnc_1024x768             5901/tcp            # VNC (1024x768)
vnc_1280x1024            5902/tcp            # VNC (1280x1024)
vnc_1920x1200            5903/tcp            # VNC (1920x1200)

• You may wish to turn off the local X-server if you're not going to access the machine locally. To do this, comment out the line 0=Standard device=/dev/console in /etc/gdm/gdm.conf

Feisty

• Install vnc4server

• Add the following to /etc/xinetd.d/vnc:

service vnc_1024x768
{
        disable         = no
        socket_type     = stream
        protocol        = tcp
        wait            = no
        user            = nobody
        server          = /usr/bin/Xvnc
        server_args     = -inetd -query localhost -geometry 950x700 -depth 24 -once securitytypes=none
}

service vnc_1280x1024
{
        disable         = no
        socket_type     = stream
        protocol        = tcp
        wait            = no
        user            = nobody
        server          = /usr/bin/Xvnc
        server_args     = -inetd -query localhost -geometry 1260x960 -depth 24 -once securitytypes=none
}

service vnc_1920x1200
{
        disable         = no
        socket_type     = stream
        protocol        = tcp
        wait            = no
        user            = nobody
        server          = /usr/bin/Xvnc
        server_args     = -inetd -query localhost -geometry 1860x1120 -depth 24 -once securitytypes=none
}

Note: To enable persistent sessions (which has the downside of only enabling 1 login per service), prefix -inetd with :n where n is a number beginning at 1 for the first service, and counting up.

• Restart xinetd

Gutsy

For some reason, vnc4server doesn't play nicely with gutsy and XDMCP, so instead you need to use vncserver.

• Install vncserver (and make sure vnc4server is not installed)

• Add the following to /etc/xinetd.d/vnc. Note that for some reason Xvnc doesn't work with depths above 16

service vnc_1024x768
{
        disable         = no
        socket_type     = stream
        protocol        = tcp
        wait            = no
        user            = nobody
        server          = /usr/bin/Xvnc
        server_args     = -inetd -query localhost -geometry 950x700 -depth 16 -once
}

service vnc_1280x1024
{
        disable         = no
        socket_type     = stream
        protocol        = tcp
        wait            = no
        user            = nobody
        server          = /usr/bin/Xvnc
        server_args     = -inetd -query localhost -geometry 1260x960 -depth 16 -once
}

service vnc_1920x1200
{
        disable         = no
        socket_type     = stream
        protocol        = tcp
        wait            = no
        user            = nobody
        server          = /usr/bin/Xvnc
        server_args     = -inetd -query localhost -geometry 1860x1120 -depth 16 -once
}

Note: To enable persistent sessions (which has the downside of only enabling 1 login per service), prefix -inetd with :n where n is a number beginning at 1 for the first service, and counting up (and probably remove "-once" from args).

• Restart xinetd

Gutsy amd64

Even more unfortunately, vncserver coredumps on amd64 architecture, so we need to install an old version of vnc4server.

• Ensure neither vncserver or vnc4server are installed
• Install http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/universe/v/vnc4/vnc4server_4.1.1+xorg1.0.2-0ubuntu1_amd64.deb
• Put vnc4server on hold to stop it being upgraded using:

sudo aptitude hold vnc4server

• * Add the following to /etc/xinetd.d/vnc:

service vnc_1024x768
{
        disable         = no
        socket_type     = stream
        protocol        = tcp
        wait            = no
        user            = nobody
        server          = /usr/bin/Xvnc
        server_args     = -inetd -query localhost -geometry 950x700 -depth 16 -once -fp /usr/share/fonts/X11/misc securitytypes=none
}

service vnc_1280x1024
{
        disable         = no
        socket_type     = stream
        protocol        = tcp
        wait            = no
        user            = nobody
        server          = /usr/bin/Xvnc
        server_args     = -inetd -query localhost -geometry 1260x960 -depth 16 -once -fp /usr/share/fonts/X11/misc securitytypes=none
}

service vnc_1920x1200
{
        disable         = no
        socket_type     = stream
        protocol        = tcp
        wait            = no
        user            = nobody
        server          = /usr/bin/Xvnc
        server_args     = -inetd -query localhost -geometry 1860x1120 -depth 16 -once -fp /usr/share/fonts/X11/misc securitytypes=none
}

Errors

Couldn't open RGB_DB '/usr/lib/X11/rgb'

Add to server_args: -co /usr/share/X11/rgb