Running Applications with VNC
From NCEAS Knowledge Base
Contents |
All Operating Systems
1. Login to helios through Putty.
2. If this is your first time using VNC, you'll need to create a VNC password:
vncpasswd
3. Start a vnc server. This only needs to be done once, and it will continue running until it is shutdown with vncserver -kill
vncserver
Note what desktop number has been opened. You'll need this to setup SSH port forwarding and bypass Helios' firewall.
New 'helios.nceas.ucsb.edu:2 (yourname)' desktop is helios.nceas.ucsb.edu:2
"2" is the number for this desktop.
Windows
4. Encrypt your Traffic (see below for OS X and Linux instructions from this point)
This can be done with Putty, you will need your desktop number from above:
The following configuration will forward and encrypt the VNC desktop "2" to your local machine. Add 5900 to the desktop number to get the port numbers.
5. Connect to your VNC session on "localhost"
6. When finished, shut down your vncserver session using your desktop number:
vncserver -kill :2
OS X/Linux
4. Encrypt your Traffic
Follow steps 1-3 above. For forwarding SSH ports, open a terminal and run the following command:
ssh -f -N -L5902:helios.nceas.ucsb.edu:5902 -l username helios.nceas.ucsb.edu
Edit the items in bold
5. Connect to your VNC session on "localhost"
For OS X, install and run Chicken of the VNC
For Gnome, run "Terminal Server Client"
For KDE, run "Krdc"
6. When finished, shut down your vncserver session using your desktop number:
vncserver -kill :2
other tips
- edit ~/.vnc/xstartup and change twm to gnome-session to have a nicer desktop
- start vncserver with vncserver -geometry 1280x1024 -depth 24 for a larger desktop. Change depth to 16 or 8 for better performance
