Login from Windows box?

Hi,

is there some way to access a Linux box DESKTOP (GUI!) from Windows without
anyone being logged in to linux?

After several years of working only with windows I've just installed debian
5.0 on my other laptop and tried to connect via VNC. Works, but:
1. login only possible after someone is logged in on linux.
2. slow (even in 100 MBit Network)

I want to connect to the linux box right after starting the PC. No one
logged in on linux. From a Windows session. As it is possible with RDP on
Windows (after setting it up correctly).

I know of putty (on Windows) and ssh -X on linux, but have only one linux
machine (currently) available.

Did I miss some options in VNC on Gnome? Is there something better (and
faster) available?

Thanks In Advance,
Martin

Sorry for the wrong name, seems I set up the newsclient a bit too fast...


"news.maxi-dsl.de" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:gof1b3$7rb$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Hi,
>
> is there some way to access a Linux box DESKTOP (GUI!) from Windows
> without anyone being logged in to linux?
>
> After several years of working only with windows I've just installed
> debian 5.0 on my other laptop and tried to connect via VNC. Works, but:
> 1. login only possible after someone is logged in on linux.
> 2. slow (even in 100 MBit Network)
>
> I want to connect to the linux box right after starting the PC. No one
> logged in on linux. From a Windows session. As it is possible with RDP on
> Windows (after setting it up correctly).
>
> I know of putty (on Windows) and ssh -X on linux, but have only one linux
> machine (currently) available.
>
> Did I miss some options in VNC on Gnome? Is there something better (and
> faster) available?
>
> Thanks In Advance,
> Martin
>
>

On Sun, 01 Mar 2009 23:13:54 +0100, news.maxi-dsl.de wrote:

> Hi,
>
> is there some way to access a Linux box DESKTOP (GUI!) from Windows
> without anyone being logged in to linux?
>
> After several years of working only with windows I've just installed
> debian 5.0 on my other laptop and tried to connect via VNC. Works, but:
> 1. login only possible after someone is logged in on linux. 2. slow
> (even in 100 MBit Network)
>
> I want to connect to the linux box right after starting the PC. No one
> logged in on linux. From a Windows session. As it is possible with RDP
> on Windows (after setting it up correctly).
>
> I know of putty (on Windows) and ssh -X on linux, but have only one
> linux machine (currently) available.
>
> Did I miss some options in VNC on Gnome? Is there something better (and
> faster) available?
>
> Thanks In Advance,
> Martin

Kenton Lee's X/Motif page used to have links to several X clients. I was
partial to Xmanager since it allowed sessions to more than one Linux box
at the same time. It's a commercial product, but had an evaluation copy
that never seemed to expire. Options range from free to insanely
expensive (Hummingbird) and performance varies similarly.

On 2009-03-01, news.maxi-dsl.de <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>
> Hi,
>
> is there some way to access a Linux box DESKTOP (GUI!) from Windows without
> anyone being logged in to linux?
>
> After several years of working only with windows I've just installed debian
> 5.0 on my other laptop and tried to connect via VNC. Works, but:
> 1. login only possible after someone is logged in on linux.
> 2. slow (even in 100 MBit Network)
>
> I want to connect to the linux box right after starting the PC. No one
> logged in on linux. From a Windows session. As it is possible with RDP on
> Windows (after setting it up correctly).
>
> I know of putty (on Windows) and ssh -X on linux, but have only one linux
> machine (currently) available.
>
I think with Cygwin you can ssh -X into a linux box. Of course you
could also run a Linux virtual machine under Windows, or vice versa.

news.maxi-dsl.de wrote:
> Hi,
>
> is there some way to access a Linux box DESKTOP (GUI!) from Windows without
> anyone being logged in to linux?
>
> After several years of working only with windows I've just installed debian
> 5.0 on my other laptop and tried to connect via VNC. Works, but:
> 1. login only possible after someone is logged in on linux.
> 2. slow (even in 100 MBit Network)
>
> I want to connect to the linux box right after starting the PC. No one
> logged in on linux. From a Windows session. As it is possible with RDP on
> Windows (after setting it up correctly).
>
> I know of putty (on Windows) and ssh -X on linux, but have only one linux
> machine (currently) available.
>
> Did I miss some options in VNC on Gnome? Is there something better (and
> faster) available?
>
> Thanks In Advance,
> Martin
>

There are a number of different VNC implementations, with different
compressions (I use tightVNC). It is also quite possible to start VNC
in a session independently from other logins locally on the Linux box,
either using a startup script or by ssh'ing to the box. It can be made
to start an X window manager directly, or to start up xdm. You
certainly don't have to start up Gnome locally on the Linux box.

If you are happy with using X tunnelling, you could use xming on the
windows client.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/xming

Another alternative is NX, which is basically a way of tunnelling X over
ssh but avoiding most of the overhead. There are free clients for
Windows and Linux, and both free (google for freenx) and paid-for servers:

http://www.nomachine.com/

No matter what solution you use, aim for as light a desktop as you can -
something like fluxbox will be *much* more efficient over a network than
Gnome.

A slightly weird solution would be to run the Linux desktop within a
VirtualBox machine and use RDP to connect.


Having said all that, I tend to run Linux locally (real or virtual), and
only connect to remote Linux servers with ssh. I use VNC to connect to
a remote Windows server desktop, but that's only because it doesn't have
a proper command line.

On 2009-03-01, news.maxi-dsl.de <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> is there some way to access a Linux box DESKTOP (GUI!) from Windows without
> anyone being logged in to linux?
>
> After several years of working only with windows I've just installed debian
> 5.0 on my other laptop and tried to connect via VNC. Works, but:
> 1. login only possible after someone is logged in on linux.
> 2. slow (even in 100 MBit Network)
>
> I want to connect to the linux box right after starting the PC. No one
> logged in on linux. From a Windows session. As it is possible with RDP on
> Windows (after setting it up correctly).
>
> I know of putty (on Windows) and ssh -X on linux, but have only one linux
> machine (currently) available.
>
> Did I miss some options in VNC on Gnome? Is there something better (and
> faster) available?

VNC can be set up to offer a login widget.

Your X server and display manager (xdm/gdm/kdm) can be configured to
listen for and respond to XDMCP requests, so by pointing a Windows-based
X server (e.g. Cygwin) at your linux box, you will be presented with
your standard display manager login widget.

--

John ((E-Mail Removed))

On 2009-03-02, Bill Marcum <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> I think with Cygwin you can ssh -X into a linux box. Of course you
> could also run a Linux virtual machine under Windows, or vice versa.

Assuming your linux box is set up to respond properly to XDMCP requests,
you can connect your local (Cygwin) X server on Windows to your linux
machine simply by using

X -query [your.linux.machine] -once :0

right at the cygwin bash shell prompt.

N.B. if you're accessing it over the wild, wooly internet you may want
to tunnel the X session through ssh for security reasons, but on a
closed local network you don't strictly need ssh at all.

--

John ((E-Mail Removed))

On Mar 2, 9:22*pm, AZ Nomad <aznoma...@PremoveOBthisOX.COM> wrote:
> On Sun, 1 Mar 2009 23:13:54 +0100, news.maxi-dsl.de <Martin.Kna...@example.com> wrote:
> >Hi,
> >is there some way to access a Linux box DESKTOP (GUI!) from Windows without
> >anyone being logged in to linux?
>
What I do is I use PuTTY to create a tunnel to my linux box (using a
non-standard port for SSH... stops script kiddies from trying to hack
my box.) Once I'm logged into my box via SSH, I run a simple script I
wrote to launch VNC Server and then I just point VNC Viewer to
127.0.0.1:1 to log into my desktop, remotely. That being said, it's
kind of slow over the internet, so I have a very light-weight desktop
manager (lxde) set as my desktop manager for VNC (as of this morning,
it's also the desktop manager for my local console.... KDE4.2 was just
too much of a resource hog!) I use my linux box at home just like I
was at the local console. Surf the web, read email, etc. About the
only thing I don't try to do is any sort of heavy document editing.

Thanks to your suggestions.

Think I'll start giving Xming a try.

Years (decades) ago I had a nice linux box running. Worked fine without any
graphics overhead. But as time has changed I think I have to get used to a
GUI on linux also... :-)

Thanks again,
Martin

news.maxi-dsl.de wrote:

> I want to connect to the linux box right after starting the PC.
> No one logged in on linux. From a Windows session. As it is
> possible with RDP on Windows (after setting it up correctly).

You can do it by either starting a X session over the network/ssh
tunnel, or start a Xvnc server, which creates a off screen X
server, for which a VNC connection is the display device.

If Xvnc is installed you can start such a KDE session with

ssh -n -L5910:localhost:5910 -l $user $remotehost \
"xinit `which startkde` -- `which Xvnc` :10 -geometry 1280x1024"

And then connect to VNC screen :10 on localhost.

Similarily you can start GNOME, OpenBox, etc. by choosing the
respective session manager program.

> I know of putty (on Windows) and ssh -X on linux, but have only
> one linux machine (currently) available.

You can install a X11 server for windows and forward X11 by
PuTTY. <http://sourceforge.net/projects/xming>

> Did I miss some options in VNC on Gnome? Is there something
> better (and faster) available?

Yes. It's called NX. It's based on the usual X11 protocoll, and
adds a compressing proxy server to save bandwidth. One can start
a full screen session over a lame 9600 baud line and still have
good quality.
<http://nomachine.com>

Wolfgang