The reason that I use this suite is to leave a Linux X session running
24/7, then disconnect and reconnect to it whenever I need to.
Session persistence (as it is sometimes called) is also extremely
convienent for demos of multiple desktops (KDE, Gnome, liquid, IceWM).
Another helpful item is to use vncserver sessions on a laptop to deal with
resolution disparities. I use 1280x1024 when the laptop is docked and
1024x768 with a Virtual 1280x1024 when undocked. If not for vnc, I would have to
log out to change resolutions. This way I just kill the X session without logging
out of my vnc session.
If you are familiar with the Switch User feature on XP, this is similar in
the fact that multiple people can log into the machine simultaneously. The
difference is that Linux/Unix has always had that capability. This is
just another program to manage it.
This is a suite of wrapper tools written as bourne/bash shell scripts to manage VNC sessions on the same server and across the network to other servers. The toolkit is still under development but I am posting this because it is in a useful state. The utlilties are:
vncquick - Automatically starts/finds a vncserver session and connects to it. More than one session results in a menu that asks which session to choose.
vncmanager - a menu of options such as starting a new vncserver session, etc.
vnclient - a client side connection script that uses settings in $HOME/.vnc/client to connect to servers (still working on this)
vncfinder - a helper script to print out information about currently running vnc sessions
vncfindX - a helper script to find the path to Xwindows so that vncserver can run properly
vncquick, vncfinder and vnclient have many options that can be viewed with -h. There may be better ways to accomplish these tasks so I am open to suggestions.
* When running vncquick in an xterm from kdm/xdm/gdm the window manager
inside of Xvnc is linked to the xterm instead of the Xvnc
session. Consequently, when X closes so does the window manager
even though Xvnc stays running. This means that getting user feedback
menu selections are currently out of the question from kdm.
- Workaround - I have to start the session without an xterm for output or feedback.
Here is a gzipped tarball.
Xwindows now has rfb/vnc features through the xf4vnc.sourceforge.net project. I may adapt this script to manage that as well. Through these means XFree86 can now have session persistence.
You can contact me at moreejt AT pcxperience.com, JT Moree
$Id: index.template,v 1.2 2003/03/28 14:52:27 moreejt Exp $