[wplug] howto remotely administer M$ machines from Debian GNU/Linux

Alexandros Papadopoulos apapadop at alumni.cmu.edu
Fri Feb 4 10:28:42 EST 2005


A fellow WPLUGer asked me this question, so here is a quick reference to 
get you started:

[0] On Debian, apt-get install xvncviewer.
[1] On the M$ machine, get 
http://www.realvnc.com/dist/vnc-3.3.7-x86_win32.exe (application) and
http://www.realvnc.com/dist/vnc-3.3.7-documentation.zip (documentation).

Install the win32 binary (choose "register VNC as a system service" and 
remember to add a password at the end of the installation). Reboot the 
Win9x machine and then you may have to enter the password once again 
(small bug).

At this point, if the Win9x machine has the IP 10.0.0.20, from Debian 
type vncviewer 10.0.0.20 and you'll get a prompt for your password. 
Enter what you specified on the Win9x side, and you should be all set!

Hit F8 at any time the cursor is in the VNC window to see a list of 
options. Resizing the window usually doesn't work, and full-screen DOS 
applications cannot be displayed either.

Note that there are fresher versions of VNC (4.x) but they just sport 
features that are not particularly useful. Also, there are many 
different viewer applications in Debian ("apt-cache search vnc viewer" 
speaks for itself), similarly with not very useful features for most 
situations. If you're using KDE, krdc is somehow more spiffy than 
vncviewer, but also feels slower to me.

Generally VNC seems quite simple and is *very* easy to install and use. 
If you think the mentioned process is not that simple, you should try 
setting up M$ Terminal Services and then get back to me.

Hope this is helpful!

-A


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