X-terminal attaching to an existing session ?

[Dave_Bechtel]

--VNC gets more responsive when you:
o Load a more lightweight Windowmanager (such as Icewm)

o Use SSH with portforwarding and compression.

Example: Put this in ~/.vnc/Xsession:

# initialize variables for use by all session scripts

OPTIONFILE=/etc/X11/Xsession.options

SYSMODMAP=/etc/X11/Xmodmap
USRMODMAP=$HOME/.Xmodmap
SYSRESOURCES=/etc/X11/Xresources
USRRESOURCES=$HOME/.Xresources

SYSSESSIONDIR=/etc/X11/Xsession.d
STARTUP=$HOME/.xsession
ALTSTARTUP=$HOME/.Xsession
ERRFILE=$HOME/.xsession-errors

#xinit /usr/bin/sawfish

xrdb

rxvt &
# -display :3 &
/usr/bin/sawfish &

--Here is an example script that I use to start VNC on the server side:

BEGIN remotex

#!/bin/sh

#vncserver -cc 3 &
# cc 3 == pseudocolor visual

vncserver :2 -geometry 900x700
# -cc 3 -geometry 1024x768 -fp /usr/lib/X11/fonts/misc/,/usr/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/ -fn -misc-fixed-bold-r-normal--13-100-100-100-c-70-iso8859-1
# Use font -misc-fixed-bold-r-normal--13-100-100-100-c-70-iso8859-1

# Connect using vncviewer p233:5902 || http://p233:5802
#vncserver -kill :2

# if ssh -2 -C -L 5992:p233:5902 p233
# THEN vncviewer localhost:5992

--Here is how to port-forward with compression (Note the VNC server hostname on my network is p233.)

BEGIN ssh-vncserver

#!/bin/bash

ssh -2 -C -X -c blowfish \
 -l dave \
 -L 5992:p233:5902 \
 10.0.0.2 $*

--The above code forwards port 5902 on the vnc server to port 5992 on the client box, with compression. Connect the VNC viewer to localhost:5992 after starting the remote X session, and it will use the compressed port connection.

--You can also play with the VNC viewer's Options and experiment with different ways to re-draw the screen.

--Note that you will have to assign a password to the VNC session the first time you run it... Best of luck.

thanks. VNC is actually a more suitable solution for me but just that the multiple xserver(which is what xvncserver does) on the server scares me a bit in terms of resource. Didn't test it though.

However, it seems that VNC is slower than X, at least in my limited test situation on a local 100Mbps network, especially when I hold the scrollbar and drag. This is understandable as VNC need to sort of redraw the screen in a pixel by pixel for each small movement. The difference is though quite noticeable.