Re: Cygwin/x set-up question
From: Wayne Throop (throopw_at_sheol.org)
Date: 11/28/03
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Date: Fri, 28 Nov 2003 02:29:34 GMT
::: J. R. <jacobrich@yahoo.com>
::: I would like to be able to set up Cygwin/x on my Windows ME machine
::: and run X-windows GUI sessions from remote computers (the remote
::: computers would also be running Windows). I am hoping that
::: X-windows will operate in a similar manner as MS Remote Desktop. Is
::: this possible? I understand that I will only be able to run
::: X-windows apps, but, based on the large quantity of software
::: available, that does not appear to be a problem.
Let me paraphrase that back to be sure I understand.
You have N machines where N>1. All of them are running some
form of windows. You want to run a "GUI session" on one of
these machines, using the keyboard/video/mouse of another machine.
You only need these "GUI sessions" to support X apps running on windows.
So far so good?
::: -How to I create new users?
Conception, wait nine months, birth, wait a few years, send to school, etc.
(Which is to say... "huh? what you mean 'users' kemosabe?")
::: -How do I find out what the root password is?
You remember what it was when you set it.
::: -At this point, what do I need to do to access my computer remotely
::: (where can I download a client for my remote Windows computers)?
The cygwin project has both clients and servers. Xterm is a client.
The process that runs on the system which has the physical
keyboard/video/mouse you want to use is the server.
So, you may already have downloaded the client, along with the server.
A "session" is something else, but in X, it basically consists of a
set of X clients, wrapped in some authorization and login glue.
To get started, get at least one client running, then worry about
other things later.
::: based on the large quantity of software available, that does not
::: appear to be a problem.
: John Thompson <john@starfleet.os2.dhs.org>
: Win32 X applications are not all that common.
Right. I'm not sure why anybody'd think there are lots available.
: Your remote users can connect to your machine and run commands by
: either using PuTTY/ssh to connect to your machine and running the
: program, or connecting to the display manager on your machine by
: running "X -query your.machine.address -once" which will bring up the
: display manager's login widget from which they can log in and access
: an X desktop as if they were sitting at your system console.
Right. But to use "-query", the machine must be running an xdm server.
You can probably get such a thing from the cygwin project, once you know
what to look for. The xdm server is what handles the session; it runs
on the machines where the X clients run, normally.
: People often get confused about client and server with X.
Right. Apparently, people think "server" means "somewhere else", and
"client" means "on the machine right in front of me". But that's not
what client and server mean. A server offers access to some data or
other resource to clients; the resource here is the keyboard/video/mouse
of the machine you are sitting in front of, so that's where the server
runs. It just so happens the things servers serve are usually on
machines in a rack somewhere in a data center, and the clients run on
the machine on your desktop; but that's not what defines the
relationship of server and client, it's only the usual case. When you
treat access to kvm as a service, it's normally the other way 'round;
the app running in the datacenter needs a resource served from
your desktop.
:: John <pestilence4hr@hotSPAMmail.com.invalid>
:: Perhaps running a vnc server
:: would be more along the lines of what you want?
: John Thompson <john@starfleet.os2.dhs.org>
: The problem with VNC is (AFAIK, anyway) there is no way to detach the
: VNC process from the Win32 system display. That is, when you connect
: to a system using VNC, the programs run on the host machine as if
: someone were sitting at the console.
Exactly. Of course, you (jacob) could compile Xvnc for windows, in
which case you could run as many X sessions as you wanted, and access
them via the vnc viewer. That's a more complicated case, because there
are two client/server relationships involved. The Xvnc process serves
both of them; it serves access to a virtual X kvm via the X protocol,
and then serves controlof that virtual kvm by a real kvm via the RFB
protocol. The vncviewer running on the machine in front of you would be
a client of the RFB protocol, and the apps you talk to on the remote
machines would be clients of the X protocol, and the Xvnc process glues
them all together into a session.
However, Xvnc is unlikely to be available pre-compiled for download
for windows machines; it's more of a unix/linux thing.
Bottom line: it's unclear just which apps you want to run, how you want
to organize them into sessions, and whether you want multiple windows
desktops or whether a single X desktop with apps on multiple machines
would do what you want. But I suspect you may want to run windows apps
remotely in virtual sessions (ie, as you said, "I am hoping that
X-windows will operate in a similar manner as MS Remote Desktop"), in
which case neither X nor VNC will help you. If you compromise on the
"virtual" part, and just settle for remote control of a computer over
the home network, VNC is what you want. If you compromise on the
"windows apps" part, X is what you want; you will want to run xdm and/or
ssh servers on the machines where the apps run, and an X server on the
machine where kvm is. If you want multiple virtual windows desktops,
I think you do have to pay lots of money.
I'm guessing you can get enough of what you want with VNC, but that's
just because I'm guessing you want the "remote" part more than the
"virtual session" part. That's how I access the windows machines on my
home net remotely; via VNC. But then... you could use PC-anywhere or
similar for that, so it may not be enough for you.
Wayne Throop throopw@sheol.org http://sheol.org/throopw
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