Installing VNC

Firstly ensure that vncserver is installed, package name is typically vnc-server . To ensure that VNC is always available and restarting if killed. It need to be added to inittab .

 /etc/inittab

Add a line similar to the following to the mentioned file.

 v5:345:off:/bin/su - ccc -c /usr/local/bin/inittab_vnc >> /var/log/vnc.ccc 2>&1

Note that this line is inactive as specified by off . Upon successful configuration this will be changed to respawn . Next inittab_vnc has be to installed, this is a perl script which must be modified each time a VNC session is added or removed. There is a copy stored locally on robin, alternatively a copy may be obtained from a client who recently started using VNC. Such as ["TJMBrisbane"] or VNC.

Once installed the array %displaymap is the only place where modification is required.

%displaymap =
(
  'ccc' => 5,
);

The above array shows that there is only one VNC session, available for the user ccc on display 5. Next a password for that user much be created. To accomplish this, you must switch to that user using su - ccc and execute vncpassword . This will create a password for the current user in the home directory. It would of greater benefit if the password file and the below mentioned xstartup be store in /etc/skel/.vnc/ so when a user is created the appropriate files are copied.

 $HOME/.vnc/passwd

The inittab_vnc program depends on the user's home directory being in a specific location. Ensure that home directories are being correctly created. The default directory configuration must be set such that new users have correct paths in /etc/default/useradd.

 GROUP=3232                        # Non default value
 HOME=/u/cc/usr                    # Non default value
 INACTIVE=-1
 EXPIRE=
 SHELL=/bin/bash
 SKEL=/etc/skel 

Ensuring that the above is correct, the full path of the password will be as follows:

 /u/cc/usr/ccc/.vnc/passwd

An xstartup script must be created in the same directory as the password file and executes the following commands upon the establishment of a session

export NODEID="vnc$DISPLAY"
sleep 5
# exec /u/cc/std/binx11/ccmenubar
exec fvwm

To test the VNC session, execute the inittab_vnc as the user ccc . Then opening vncviewer for either Linux or Windows specify the machine's IP (likely VPN) address and session number which in this case is 5 after pressing connect you will be asked for a password.

attachment:vncviewer.png

Lastly you should be connected. To ensure that inittab_vnc is run automatically edit the inittab file and replace off to respawn . This will allow the session to be started automatically. The parsing of inittab can be forced by executing the following:

 /sbin/init q