VNC nightmares OpenSuse 12.3 - Is there an ultimate guide to install it?

English Network/Internet
#1

Hi,
I’ve used VNC server in the past upt to suse version 9…nish.
Since then I’ve not been able to successfully make it work.
I’ve found a number of similar posts on the web, with similar complains, and followed their procedures with 0.000001% luck.
Currently I get to the point where I get on the vnc client a password request that says “no auth password”
I’ve enabled VNC server on the firewall, i’ve added a password using ‘vncpasswd’ etc etc. In fact I only managed once to connect remotely. Then I rebooted the computer and it did not work again.
I also tried the desktop sharing, and at some point also tweaked some vnc confuration file.
I’ve even considered, after many years of using SUSE, switching to centos, as it appears easier to configure there.

Since I’ve seen tons of tons of posts with similar nightmares installing VNC, I was wondering whether:

Is VNC hard to configure by design…? Does suse really not want you to use it?
Is there a viable Suse alternative, i’ve heard of rdp servers that are not vnc on Linux (I can connect via SSH, but I want graphic gui) ?
Since I might have screwed the vnc server configuration file, would removing all the vnc packages and trying again resolve the issue/ help in any way?
Which packages should I install (I know there are different vnc servers)

Thanks in advance for any help.

Assuming I manage to install it?
In the past (Suse 9nish or before) I was able to login via vnc to kde, but recent versions apparntly only allow you to share your desktop, after you are logged in, which does not help if you want to login remotely.
Is it posible to do that nowdays in vnc?

#2

Hi,

Our admin swerdna wrote this: https://forums.opensuse.org/content.php/180-How-To-Activate-VNC-Server-in-openSUSE-12-3
That got it working for me, though I’d very much appreciate the “old way”, i.e. user connects, gets presented with kdm login screen. My 12.2 server still works that way. As you will see in the article, the current VNC implementation requires settings per user.

#3

Thanks, will have a look again, although the post seems familiar (i.e. I might have checked it before and did not work), but I will double check it.

#4
  1. You can pass X (Graphic display) over SSH.
  2. Recommend you setup the VNC server as a service (if you haven’t already). I don’t know if invoking manually will retain the VNC password but last I checked running as a Service should. That should fix your problem of losing and re-entering the VNC password, once setup and working it should continue to work through reboots.
  3. Know that the VNC password is different than any other. This means that it is stored and used separately, and once authenticated you will need to login to the Server with some local password.
  4. Unless things have changed, only 6 characters of the VNC password are actually used. So, make those 6 characters strong. Is due to legacy *NIX string length restrictions in another era.
  5. Know that ports are different for the VNC client and the web client.

HTH,
TSU