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Using VNC

This screencast shows how to use VNC to connect to CSE Unix systems from home. An SSH tunnel is required for VNC because it is an insecure protocol. It’s not plain text, but it’s not encrypted at all. Because it is an insecure protocol, we block VNC traffic at our border firewall. Using an SSH tunnel will secure your VNC traffic. You need to download a VNC viewer for your platform. I suggest RealVNC. If you are using Windows, you’ll need to download an SSH client as well for the SSH tunnel. I suggest PuTTY. Mac and Linux users can use the ssh client that comes with both systems directly. Links for RealVNC and PuTTY are below:

Startup File

You can use the following ~/.vnc/xstartup file if you access both Solaris and Linux systems:

#!/bin/sh

[ -r /etc/sysconfig/i18n ] && . /etc/sysconfig/i18n
export LANG
export SYSFONT
vncconfig -iconic &
unset SESSION_MANAGER
unset DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS
OS=`uname -s`
if [ $OS = 'Linux' ]; then
  case "$WINDOWMANAGER" in
    *gnome*)
      if [ -e /etc/SuSE-release ]; then
        PATH=$PATH:/opt/gnome/bin
        export PATH
      fi
      ;;
  esac
fi
if [ -x /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc ]; then
  exec /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc
fi
if [ -f /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc ]; then
  exec sh /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc
fi
[ -r $HOME/.Xresources ] && xrdb $HOME/.Xresources
dtsession

The only difference between the Linux version and this one is that I deleted the last three lines at the end and added dtsession instead. The script already is checking if the OS is Linux, and the /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc file does not exist on Solaris anyway. You can substitute your own window manager for dtsession if you wish. A copy of this file is available here. You can also delete your ~/.vnc directory and start over after logging into the Red Hat Workstation 6 login servers to get the new xstartup file and then make the modification.

SSH on Linux and Mac OS X

If you use SSH on Linux or Mac OS X for your SSH tunnel, you’ll have to specify your CSE UNIX username in the command if your local username does not match the CSE systems. PuTTY on Windows will prompt for your username, but SSH on UNIX operating systems will not. The easiest way to do this on Linux or Mac OS X is to use:

ssh <username>@<hostname>.cse.ohio-state.edu

or:

ssh -l <username> <hostname>.cse.ohio-state.edu

Substitute your CSE username for <username> and the proper hostname or DNS CNAME alias for <hostname> above.

Logging Out on Solaris

Logging out of Solaris is similar to logging out on Linux, except that you should click the “Exit” button and wait for the light to stop blinking before exiting your VNC client and killing the vncserver process on the remote server.

Legacy VNC Instructions

I have legacy VNC instructions here. Those instructions are a little dated, but they mostly apply now as well. You can use the instructions here on the Solaris stdsun systems as well, but you won’t get the xstartup file above that way. There is an older screencast linked to from the legacy VNC instructions page, but you should use this screencast instead.

Special Note: Make sure that you use the subscribe command to subscribe to CONTRIB if you are using the stdsun Solaris machines. The vncserver command is not in your PATH variable otherwise.