[wplug] vnc over ssh

[Patrick Wagstrom]

Arnaud Loos wrote:
> I’m looking for a way to remote into my ubuntu pc from a windows 
> machine. I explored FreeNX for a bit but decided VNC over SSH was better 
> (easier) to set up. I know that Gutsy comes with a VNC server builtin 
> and I was already running SSH. The guide I am following installs the 
> tightvnc server component and openssh. I am curious how the overlap of 
> vnc server and tightvncserver as well as ssh with openssh will work. 
> Should I uninstall the original vnc and ssh and then install tightvnc 
> and openssh? Should I ignore the guide recommendation and just use vnc 
> and ssh and attempt to configure as directed? The guide is located at 
> _https://help.ubuntu.com/community/VNCOverSSH_.
> 
> I’m curious also if there’s a strong argument for whether to run 
> vnc/tightvnc and ssh/openssh? Does anyone regard one as being better 
> than the other?

What a wonderful example of people making something far more complicated 
than it really needs to be.  The setup they're talking about makes you 
start a new X-Session...welcome to 1998!

Here's a much simpler way:

sudo apt-get install vino

Then go to system->preferences->remote desktop and setup Vino there. 
You'll now have a VNC server running with your normal GNOME session.  None 
of this mucking around with configuration files.

The final step is to set up an SSH tunnel to let you connect:

Run: ssh -c -L 5900:REMOTEHOST:5900 REMOTEHOST

Leave the session running and tell your VNC client to connect to localhost:0

Of course, if you already have a VNC client running on your machine, you 
can do:

ssh -c -L 5901:REMOTEHOST:5900 REMOTEHOST

and connect to localhost:1.


There may be other alternatives you should know about, however.  If you're 
just using standard X applications and don't need persistance, SSH will 
transparently forward your X connections.  Or, if you find you need to do 
this often, you may want to look at OpenVPN to provide easy remote access.

--Patrick