Installation of VNC Server on CentOS 5.x

 I honestly thought I documented this already, but I searched the blog and was unable to locate it.

This covers installation and quick configuration of VNC on a server, in the event that Desktop access is needed on a remote server. In some cases, the CLI is not enough, and I've found this very useful.

On to the entry:

1. Login as root (or su)

2. Install required packages:
yum  -y install vnc-server

3. Secure the VNC server:
vncpasswd
Set mypassword
cd ~/.vnc
ls
the passwd folder should be listed

4. Configure the server:
nano /etc/sysconfig/vncservers
add to end of file:

VNCSERVERS="3:myusername"
VNCSERVERARGS [3] = "-geometry 1024x768"

5. Start the VNC service and configure service to autostart on boot:
service vncserver start
chkconfig vncserver on

6. Further configuration:
cd ~/.vnc
nano xstartup
add under the line "# Add the foll..."

(while true ; do xterm ; done) &

remove comments(#) from

#unset SESSION_MANAGER
#exec /etc/x11/xinit/xinitrc

7. Restart the vnc service
Service vncserver restart

8. Configure firewall to allow VNC server traffic
system-config-securitylevel-tui
add 5903:tcp to exceptions list

9. Open VNC client from remote peer and connect to VNC Server:
server: 192.168.x.x:3
username myusername
password: mypassword (as set in Step 3)


finito
-noveck

LinuxCon2012!

Just got back from Linux Foundation's LinuxCon2012 (Aug 29-31) in San Diego.

Some great sessions and the slides were made public. It was a powerful reminder of the immense possibilities of open source and who are some of the companies running Linux in their enterprise.

See Linux Foundation's site for some of the brilliant presentations. One of my personal favourites was the fact that SpaceX's shuttle is running on linux.

 Lots of great ideas in hand, stay tuned for some fresh projects!

-noveck