The most favorite remote administration tool is the well-known SSH. However, in some cases, you might want GUI. X window might not be suitable for remote administration. VNC is a good solution. Firstly, you have to install necessary pieces such as VNC server and a window manager of your choice. For me, I would like to try IceWM.

apt-get install icewm tightvncserver xfonts-base mrxvt

That’s all! Then you have to set password using vncpasswd. Next step is to specify default font path. You can set system wide /etc/vnc.conf or just for yourself ~/.vncrc.

$fontPath = "";
$fontPath .= "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/misc/";
 
$geometry = "1024x768";
 
$depth = "16";

Next step is to specify window manager in ~/.vnc/xstartup as follow.

#!/bin/sh

exec icewm

After that change mode as follow.

chmod a+x ~/.vnc/xstartup

Now you can start the server by specifying a desktop number e.g. 1 and 50000 as follow.

vncserver :50000

At this time, you might try to use any VNC viewer to connect to that specified desktop number or its corresponding port number by formula port number = desktop number + 5900. For example, desktop number is 50000 so the port number is 55900.

Technorati Tags: English, Software, Linux, Tips and Tricks, VNC, TightVNC, Vncserver, Vncviewer, Mrxvt