FreeNX server now in experimental

[aay]

For those of you who want to try out the new FreeNX server without having to install Knoppix 3.6 you can now do so. I happened to see the following post over at dot.kde.org by mornfall.

The original link with some helpful followup is here: http://dot.kde.org/1093280657/

Adam

Hello, we have intermittent server hassles (migrating to a different box: changing dns, moving the data, etc). I hope we'll be back up fully operational tonight. In the meanwhile, there is the news item from the site:

23.08.2004: FreeNX packages in experimental

The long awaited FreeNX server is finally here! Apt-get it from:

deb http://www.freedesktop.org/~mornfall/debian/ experimental main

After installing it (by =apt-get install nxserver=), run, as root =nxsetup=, then add your users (again as root), like "nxserver --adduser <username>" and "nxserver --passwd <username>". The user must exist in the system database first. When you have done this, you can run nxclient (get it from http://www.nomachine.com.

[A. Jorge Garcia]

aay:

Cool! Let me get this straight. So, FreeNX is sort of like a cross between ssh and VNC, right? FreeNX is faster, more secure and less buggy than VNC and users still have to have a login and a home dir on the remote server. No?

This sounds very promising. I tried VNC and found it a bit to clunky. I've setup X -query and found it a bit troublesome at times.

I'm currently having my students use ssh to login to their home dirs remotely. This has been the best solution so far. It still has a few cons, however. For example, when I'm teaching about java applets running from an html index file, the applet very seldom loads and executes properly over ssh.

I may have to try out this FreeNX in KNOPIX 3.6. Looking at the changelogs I didn't think I needed to upgrade, but now....

Thanx for all your help,
AJG

[ahfoo]

What fun this is.
I'm running an NX client on a DSLinux machine burning a DVD on the NX server machine with the data coming from a hard drive on a third machine under Windows.
This is Escher meets the OS.
In the back of my mind there's a distinct sense of vertigo. Borders collapse, all the media and hardware blends together in a soup of data.
And at the same time, everything becomes clearer and easier to manage than ever. I am even imagining a time I may no longer need my cherished KVMs.
However, as impressive as it is, I've has some minor issues. The main one I've seen so far is that if I log-in to the server and start Konqueror as root I lose all the fonts. Of course it is not essential to run Konqueror as root, but in some cases like dealing with a Windows machine over a samba share it can be helpful.

[baldyeti]

Hmm .... I am typing this from the windows nxclient talking to a linux nxserver running on a colinux instance on the same machine, and I can't say it feels that much better than TightVNC.. Both run with their default sttings so there's probably room for improvement, but I'd say display refreshing feels slightly faster with nx, and fonts look better but it introduces annoying delays in keystrokes. Because of this I'd say overall vnc still feels more usable. If anyone manages to tune their configuration so colinux in graphical mode is actually viable, I'd be very interested to hear about it.

edit::I have now tried between two different machines over wireless, and it feels much smoother! Quite possibly the sluggishness I was complaining above is an artefact of the colinux "internal networking" not being very fast or optimised yet (as I seem to recall reading). IOW: nx is worth evaluating under one's real setup before rushing to conclusion...

[A. Jorge Garcia]

LOL, ahfoo, I love your stream of consciousness! BTW, what's a KVM?

Regards,
AJG

[A. Jorge Garcia]

Oh, baldyeti, what's TightVNC? Is that something on the KNOPPIX CD or something I can apt-get from my hdinstall or, heaven forfend, is it a commercial solution? I've never been able to get VNC to run satisfactorily over my LAN....

TIA,
AJG

[baldyeti]

Oh, baldyeti, what's TightVNC? Is that something on the KNOPPIX CD or something I can apt-get from my hdinstall

My tests above were from a windows client to a linux server. Vncserver used to be included with knoppix. On 3.6 it has been augmented/replaced by nxserver. I have not downloaded 3.6 yet, but have apt-get'd nxserver from the source mentioned by aay in the top post. Clients exist for (amongst others) unix & win32, respectively from www.tightvnc.org and www.nomachine.com

[ahfoo]

what's a KVM?
KVM is an acronym for keyboard, video and mouse switch. I keep racks of motherboards attached to a single monitor and balance various tasks between them.
While most people are probably thinking of NX as a VNC replacement for remote acces, I'm more intrigued with the possibilty of getting a KVM effect with just an ethernet jack and virtual desktops. This might sound like a minor point, but actually in a KVM environment the cables are typically more expensive and much more of a hassle for designing a desktop layout than the switches themselves. So, dumping all that cabling is not a minor issue.
Unfortunately, there's one bit catch --boot time. There probably is no way NX can be made to work at boot time. So, it could still work but you'd need to be absolutely sure you were getting a good boot every time which is quite a trick in the real world with things like power outages, lightning strikes and who knows what. And this is not to mention when you want to pass some boot paramaters for something like Knoppix running off the CD. So, probably it's too early to give up the KVMs.

[adrianmak]

I'm using knoppix 3.6
how to start and use FreeNX ?

[paoloskater]

Hi all,
I have a strange problem connecting from Windows (with NoMachine NX Client) to the Knoppix FreeNX Server. The problem was already reported on the internet (without answers).
Note: I can connect *without problems* from other Knoppix PCs to the FreeNX server, not from Windows. The test has been done either with and without SSL encryption.

The Windows NX log is:
NX> 203 NXSSH running with pid: 2464
NX> 285 Enabling check on switch command
NX> 285 Enabling skip of SSH config files
NX> 200 Connected to address: 10.x.x.x on port: 22
NX> 202 Authenticating user: nx
NX> 208 Using auth method: publickey
HELLO NXSERVER - Version 1.4.0-01 OS (GPL)
NX> 105 hello NXCLIENT - Version 1.4.0
NX> 134 Accepted protocol: 1.4.0
NX> 105 SET SHELL_MODE SHELL
NX> 105 SET AUTH_MODE PASSWORD
NX> 105 login
NX> 101 User: me
NX> 102 Password:
NX> 103 Welcome to: myserver user: me
NX> 105 listsession --user="me" --status="Suspended","Running" --geometry="1024x768x32+render" --type="unix-kde"
NX> 127 Sessions list of user 'me'

Display Username Remote IP Session ID
------- --------------- --------------- --------------------------------

Thanks in advance for any suggestion
Kind regards
Paoloskater