Using VNC on Linux

Unlike many other operating systems, Linux uses an X server for graphical display, which allows network redirection. This me ans that you can easily have a secure remote display without using VNC by tunneling through ssh using 'ssh -X'. None the les s, if for some reason you would still like to use VNC, this page describes the process for getting it to work.

Modern Linux distributions typically come with a secure shell client, ssh. If you find that you need a copy, a free implemen tation, openssh (and a dependency, openssl) is available at http://www.openssh.org.

We recommend using TightVNC as it includes a number of nice features over the official VNC client.Download a copy at the TightVNC download page: http://sourceforge.net/projects/vnc-tight/.The viewer is available as a pre-compiled binary or as source code. Only download the source if you are familiar with building packages or have an OS which doesn't have pre-built binaries. Optionally, install the VNC client to a system directory. Of course, first take a look at the README.

Each time you want to connect using VNC, do the following:

• Use ssh to forward a local port to the VNC server. The following would work for Grace Hopper:

ssh -L 5901:localhost:5995 grhopper@mote.cs.vassar.edu

• Start the VNC client:

vncviewer -encodings "tight hextile" :1

• When you finish your Unix session, log out of Unix as you normally would, quit vncviewer, and exit from your ssh session.