Linux Remote Desktop

Dacelonid

Hi All,
Hope ye can help me with this.
I installed Ubuntu on my PC recently and have decided that it is perfect for my parents computer, given the lessened security risk, less chance of them screwing things up (which they have done in XP quite often. Despite repeated protests to the contrary. We didn't do anything I swear. it just stopped working)

However given that Linux would be fairly new to me (altough by no means totally unknown) and that it will be totally new to the parents (I can imagine the look on their faces the first time I tell them to open a terminal) I have an idea or two that might help them that i would like some help with.

Firstly, how can I video capture things I am doing on screen. ie I want to make a series of instructional videos (like click here for the Internet etc) and if they have any queries they can look at those.

Secondly, in order to help with any problems, is it possible to set up a remote connection of some description that would allow me to log onto their machine remotely and see what is causing them hassle, or just show them what to do.

Now obviously both these are totally possible, but I was hoping someone would have a link handy that would give detailed instructions. As I said I am not totally new to Linux but I wouldn't be that familiar with setting up network proxies or indeed anything to do with networks in general. Hell it took me months to figure out how to set up port forwarding in XP (granted the problem was I had three firewalls running, but still the fact that i couldn't figure out that that was the problem shows the lack of knowledge)

I would ask on the official Ubuntu Forums, but thought I would ask here first because I have gotten great help from boardsies before.

Thanks
Dace

niallb

Hi Dace,
vnc2swf is great for making this kind of video.
It discusses a newer version than the one I've used, but the idea is simple.
You run a copy of VNC on the machine you want to record, and it makes
a flash movie containing everything you do.
Nice thing is this will work for linux, windows, anything with VNC available.

VNC could also be a part of your remote desktop access, so worth making
the videos on your parents machine in the first place.
VNC is not itself secured, so you'll need to connect to it over a secure channel like 'ssh'. I'd suggest looking for 'tightvnc' as it makes this kind
of connection simpler.

Keep us posted, and if the videos are general enough, maybe link to some copies of them. Might be the start of a really useful resource if a few of us
did some up for various tasks.

NiallB

Cake Fiend

There's a good thread on the Ubuntu forums somewhere about setting up VNC on Ubuntu that I followed once upon a time - try a search there.

AndrewMc

To set VNC, go to the System menu, Preferences and Remote Desktop. Switch it on

I don't think you can encrypt it easily, but if they're behind a broadband router, you can block the port, and then the only reasonable way in is to use SSH port-forwarding to pass VNC through, which should be good enough.

Khannie

freenx / nxserver is so so so so so so so so much better than vnc for remote desktop. I think it's in the multiverse repositories for ubuntu. You should just need to enable them in synaptic or edit your /etc/apt/sources.list file to include it. I use it to telecommute every Friday and it works flawlessly.

Let us know how you get on with the video capture. I used a program before that captures individual screenshots then uses them to make an mpeg or animated gif, etc. Can't quite remember what it's called, but that thing Niall was talking about sounds excellent.

bushy...

Afaik Vnc doesn't work properly in ubuntu atm ( shinier icons > useful stuff I suppose) , I put in the debian bits ( vnc vnc common) into a lads pc last week that was causing grief and its fine since.

Dacelonid

Hi Guys,
Thanks for all the replies. Will definitely be checking out the Ubuntu forums. But I am registered here, which is why I posted on Boards. Didn't want to bother registering on Ubuntu forums just yet.

I will definitely try out the vnc2swf thingy, sounds exactly what I am looking for.
I doubt I'll be posting any of the vids up here though. They will be of the order of. Click here to use the internet, click here for mail, click here etc. So they are definitely aimed at my parents more so than a general audience.

Question about VNC though. Does that allow me to actually see my parents desktop or does it only allow me to log onto the machine. Granted logging onto the machine would be damn handy, given I could solve problems. But what I was actually looking for was something that would allow me to actually see what the parents are doing. Something like Windows Remote Assistance.

Thanks
Dace

Dacelonid

Actually starting to read through all the info supplied, it looks like Vino will offer all the stuff I need.
Has anybody used it, is there any security risks I should watch out for.
Thanks
Dace

djmarkus

Khannie wrote:

freenx / nxserver is so so so so so so so so much better than vnc for remote desktop. I think it's in the multiverse repositories for ubuntu. You should just need to enable them in synaptic or edit your /etc/apt/sources.list file to include it. I use it to telecommute every Friday and it works flawlessly.

Let us know how you get on with the video capture. I used a program before that captures individual screenshots then uses them to make an mpeg or animated gif, etc. Can't quite remember what it's called, but that thing Niall was talking about sounds excellent.

Have to agree with you there. NX rocks.