The first obvious thing to try, of course, was directly forwarding X. That was just too slow. Next was VNC. I tried tightvnc, realvnc, vino, etc. The only usable setting I found was 8-bit colour and using Hextile encodig. However, it wasn't very enjoyable.
Then I discovered FreeNX. It's fast, secure, stable, user-friendly, and very pleasing to the eye. Here's how to set it up on Ubuntu 8.04.
Server Setup:
------------------------
Step1: Update your current installation
prompt%> sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade
Step2: Add the repository for th NX packages & get them
prompt%> sudo vi /etc/apt/sources.list
Add the following lines:
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/marceloshima/ubuntu hardy main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/marceloshima/ubuntu hardy main
Install:
prompt%> sudo apt-get install expect openssh-server nxlibs nxagent nxproxy freenx-server
Step3: Add your account
prompt%> sudo /usr/bin/nxserver --useradd < username > --system --administrator
Step4: Startup the NX server
prompt%> sudo /usr/bin/nxserver --start or --stop or --restart
Client setup
------------------------
Step1: Download the client
prompt%> wget http://64.34.161.181/download/3.2.0/Linux/nxclient_3.2.0-9_i386.deb
Step2: Install it
prompt%> sudo dpkg -i nxclient_3.2.0-9_i386.deb
If you are using a windows machine, you can get a client from here:
http://64.34.161.181/download/3.2.0/Windows/nxclient-3.2.0-10.exe
Step3: Run the client
prompt%> /usr/NX/bin/nxclient
Enjoy!
Update 2008-06-26:
For AMD64, its just about the same:
1) Get SSHD:
prmpt%> sudo apt-get install openssh-server
2) Get 3 packages from here.
3) Install:
prompt%> sudo dpkg -i nxclient_3.2.0-9_x86_64.deb
prompt%> sudo dpkg -i nxnode_3.2.0-11_x86_64.deb
prompt%> sudo dpkg -i nxserver_3.2.0-13_x86_64.deb
4) Start server
/usr/NX/bin/nxserver --status|--start|--stop|--restart
Enjoy!
References:
http://www.drtek.ca/freenx-server-ubuntu-hardy
10 comments:
I have tried these steps several times (Free NX), including other steps (NX server from nomachine) but I always get:
"The NX service is not available or the NX access was disabled on host 192.168.1.11"
Other have reported this issue and I never saw a solution that works.
I believe the problem is in ssh. You have to make sure sshd is running on the server machine. Also, if your ssh is running on a non-standard port (i.e. not 22), make sure to make your nx client use that port.
For ssh setup, try this:
http://www.jonathanmoeller.com/screed/?p=228
Let me know if this works. Good luck!
Shouldn't step 1 be repeated after you add those repositories?
Not necessarily. You should only need nx components from the new repositories. But there's no harm if you updated again after step 1.
Good luck!
Awesome. Thanks. Works like a charm with a Mac client connecting to a server running on Hardy. Previously I was using Hardy builtin desktop sharing solution. But I was experiencing some serious lagging. The freenx solution is much more efficient. Thanks a lot.
I actually had to add a bunch more repositories than you listed:
deb http://www.datakeylive.com/ubuntu hardy main
deb-src http://www.datakeylive.com/ubuntu hardy main
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/marceloshima/ubuntu hardy main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/marceloshima/ubuntu hardy main
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/freenx-team/ubuntu hardy main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/freenx-team/ubuntu hardy main
Upon closer inspection, the marceloshima repo seems to be abandoned... not sure if that one is even still needed.
Also, step 3 of the server setup is not needed anymore (actually throws an error).
Still, nice guide :) Worked like a charm after adding the additional repos.
How do you uninstall this program?
OK, first I need to confess I am real new to Ubuntu.
That said, I had tried about three of the packages that are mentioned plus Xming which the Ubuntu site recommends. This was the oly one I was able to get to work. BUT ...
He missed four statements that need to be added to etc/apt/sources.list and then he forgets to tell you to update.
So read this post also: http://www.drtek.ca/freenx-server-ubuntu-hardy
I seem to have a problem with it disconnecting immediately. It seems to connect, authenticate, etc, however disconnects immediately. Tried from both Win/Lin computers & the server shows the session info -- ie, connected, authenticated, etc.
Any help is greatly appreciated.
Worked an absolute charm, thanks! I use third party remote access for my PC/Mac - PC/Mac connections, but until now I had no solution for Ubuntu. Thanks again!
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