VNC can be configured in gnome or KDE using the Remote Desktop Preferences. VNC can be used to run your desktop on another computer, and you can also use it to see and take over the Desktop of another user. The last part can be useful for help desks to show users how to do things. VNC has the added advantage of being operating system independent, a lot of products (realvnc, tightvnc, xvnc, ...) use the same protocol on Solaris, Linux, BSD and more.

Starting the vnc server for the first time.

[root@RHELv4u3 conf]# rpm -qa | grep -i vnc
vnc-server-4.0-8.1
vnc-4.0-8.1
[root@RHELv4u3 conf]# vncserver :2
				
You will require a password to access your desktops.
				
Password: 
Verify: 
xauth:  creating new authority file /root/.Xauthority
				
New 'RHELv4u3.localdomain:2 (root)' desktop is RHELv4u3.localdomain:2
				
Creating default startup script /root/.vnc/xstartup
Starting applications specified in /root/.vnc/xstartup
Log file is /root/.vnc/RHELv4u3.localdomain:2.log
				
[root@RHELv4u3 conf]# 
		

You can now use the vncviewer from another machine to connect to your vnc server. It will default to a very simple graphical interface...

paul@laika:~$ vncviewer 192.168.1.49:2
VNC viewer version 3.3.7 - built Nov 20 2006 13:05:04
Copyright (C) 2002-2003 RealVNC Ltd.
Copyright (C) 1994-2000 AT&T Laboratories Cambridge.
See http://www.realvnc.com for information on VNC.
VNC server supports protocol version 3.8 (viewer 3.3)
Password: 
VNC authentication succeeded
Desktop name "RHELv4u3.localdomain:2 (root)"
Connected to VNC server, using protocol version 3.3
...
		

If you don't like the simple twm window manager, you can comment out the last two lines of ~/.vnc/xstartup and add a gnome-session & line to have vnc default to gnome instead.

[root@RHELv4u3 ~]# cat .vnc/xstartup 
#!/bin/sh
				
# Uncomment the following two lines for normal desktop:
# unset SESSION_MANAGER
# exec /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc
				
[ -x /etc/vnc/xstartup ] && exec /etc/vnc/xstartup
[ -r $HOME/.Xresources ] && xrdb $HOME/.Xresources
xsetroot -solid grey
vncconfig -iconic &
# xterm -geometry 80x24+10+10 -ls -title "$VNCDESKTOP Desktop" &
# twm &
gnome-session &
[root@RHELv4u3 ~]#
		

Don't forget to restart your vnc server after changing this file.

[root@RHELv4u3 ~]# vncserver -kill :2
Killing Xvnc process ID 5785
[root@RHELv4u3 ~]# vncserver :2
		
New 'RHELv4u3.localdomain:2 (root)' desktop is RHELv4u3.localdomain:2
				
Starting applications specified in /root/.vnc/xstartup
Log file is /root/.vnc/RHELv4u3.localdomain:2.log
		

1. Use VNC to connect from one machine to another.