I’ve tried to ask myself if I’d trust someone enough to let them run a remote session on my own desktop to solve a problem. I think the answer is “it depends”. If you think about it, I do tech support for home users quite a bit and they let me come into their homes. If I were weighing someone coming into my house, or onto my computer desktop, I think I’d choose my desktop. …
Category: Software
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x11vnc slow internet initial-connection performance – identd timeout
So, I had the script all ready, I’ve got my x11vnc custom compiled to be as widely compatible as possible, I’ve tested thoroughly on the internal network. The next step was to test my x11vnc “one cut and paste” script over the internet. So, I visited my parents pc which dual-boots Windows XP and Mandrake 10.0…. I did the cut and paste into the “run command…” menu and waited and waited and waited. dropped to a console and started again, but checked that x11vnc was already running. I didn’t know what could be taking so long. I tried again and the FIRST connection gave the prompt.
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The security of remote tech support (ultravnc sc or x11vnc with wrapper script)
Well, I’ve got a nice way of doing “easy” one click (or one cut and paste) light desktop support for windows or linux, one uses ultravnc sc, the other uses x11vnc with a special wrapper script. So, what security flaws are there in this process? Well, for starters, I see the biggest vulnerability for the computer running the listening vncviewer (because it HAS to be available to the outside world.) That means the tech support desk must keep on top of vncviewer updates and keep the service turned off when not expecting a client connection. The other question that comes to mind is encryption though….
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A closer look at x11vnc
I’ve got to say, one of the things I really like about linux are the myriad of options for remotely administering a system. SSH is the one I use the most, but for the graphical you have x (especially on the LAN), nxserver (which is a compressed and optionally encrypted wrapper of the X protocol….), vnc can be used, although as I’ve noted in the prior articles one problem with either nxserver, X or vnc is that you can’t by default connect to a running X session. x0rfbserver CAN, but only if a user is logged in (as far as I know….) I found an interesting trick with x11vnc that let’s you run it even if the system is at the greeter. (the login screen for X).
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x11vnc recompiled to be as widely compatible as possible…
As I said in the earlier posts, I was essentially looking for a “Single click” solution for linux VNC remote desktop support. A solution that doesn’t require the remote support client to change firewall settings, install software, etc. What I’ve settled on is closer to a single cut and paste solution, which is fairly simple. The next problem I had was compatibility of the x11vnc binary. The first problem was the xfixes library not being a part of Mandrake 10.0, then xdamage, xrender, xrandr – none of those libraries were found… so, I started looking at the compile options for x11vnc (and the optimization, because I wanted a smaller file size.)
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Remote Tech Support with x11vnc and wrapper script
So, the idea is that I wanted something “like” the Ultranvnc Single Click download, only for linux. The main idea being is that if someone is looking for a bit of desktop tech support on linux, we don’t need to be giving instructions for 5 different package managers, or source compilation, or anything more than MAYBE something to cut and paste. In fact, something like this…. wget http://www.mysite.com/remote-support && sh remote-support could be easily pasted into a console window (which hopefully we can give instructions on finding), or a run command in kde for instance. Then the remote-support script should do the rest. *(By the way, the script doesn’t have to be chmod’ed to executable when we use sh to invoke it…)
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Knoppix 5
It’s hard to believe it’s time for a version 5 of knoppix, but … I guess it is. I was just booting up Knoppix 4 in a qemu session last night and already several days behind 5… Anyway, Knoppix 5 was released on June 2nd. I saw the note the day after the Ubuntu dapper release, but never got to do a post. (It’s actually 5.0.1 available for download – the 5.0 release was released at CeBiT). Anyway, there are DVD and CD iso’s and bittorrent downloads are available. You might look here for a list of torrent download links.
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20 things you won’t like about Vista
I don’t know, it seems excessively wine-y to gripe about an operating system that isn’t released yet, but I’ve seen people do that about linux quite a bit…. (why doesn’t xyz work in beta 1 of _____ distribution….) It’s a beta, there will be many things that aren’t likable, report it where they’re looking for feedback… That much said, there was an article out at Computer world detailing the 20 things you’ll dislike with Vista. Of course, given that it’s a beta things will likely change (yeah – there’ll be 30 things you don’t like by the full release…. sorry had to be said.) Seriously, hopefully Microsoft is listening to this feedback. I’ve heard that they are aware they need to make the UAP less “in your face all the time…”
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Ubuntu 6.06 LTS release
Probably the biggest news so far today, at least in linux circles is the official release of the Dapper Drake…. Ubuntu 6.06 LTS (Long Term Support) (and kubuntu and edubuntu all…). I’ve been playing with an install based on the Release Candidate (and now upgraded to even include KDE 3.5.3….. I’m really impressed that there were kde 3.5.3 packages available for Dapper Drake 1) before the official release which only officially includes 3.5.2 and 2) almost simultaneous to the KDE announcement. Anyway…. (Almost all links are to the US mirrors…) Kubuntu download images are avialable as is the shipit free cds for kubuntu and shipit free cds for ubuntu and the various ubuntu cd image downloads………….
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Mandriva Kiosk
Some time back I had seen a quick reference to Mandriva Kiosk as some new Mandriva version of the “Click and Run” repository of Linspire. I finally got a chance to give it a try with the upgrade of KDE to 3.5.2 (Mandriva 2006 had shipped with the 3.4.x series of KDE.) Anyway, I found the process to make it work fairly straightforward. I installed the 4 required packages (new versions could only be found on the kiosk webpage – none of the urpmi sources, even updates new about the newest version of mdkonline, or urpmi/gurpmi…) Once those were done and konqueror restarted, I gave a click at installing kde 3.5.2 and off it went.