[olpc-help] A pleasant surprise and a question

[M. Edward (Ed) Borasky]

Sameer Verma wrote:
> Richard A. Smith wrote:
>> M. Edward (Ed) Borasky wrote:
>>
>>   
>>> Do I need to do anything other than "yum install vncserver" and start
>>> the server up? Or do you use some other server?
>>>     
>> I've never actually done it.  I've just seen the some of the other guys 
>> do demos with it.  Sounds like a good place to start.
>>
>>   
> 
> Look at http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Remote_display ...more specifically,
> the second method works via VNC.
> 
> Sameer
> 
Thanks!! It's actually a bit simpler than that:

1. Install vnc-server on the XO. As "root" in Terminal, type "yum
install vnc-server". If you don't already have Perl on your XO, you will
after this is done.

2. Exit from "root" -- you should now be back to the "olpc" login. Type
"vncserver". The first time you do this, it will ask you for a password.
Then it will create a directory called "/home/olpc/.vnc". It will start
up a session called xo-<miscellaneous-stuff>:1.

3. Now go to another PC with a VNC viewer (they should all work) and
view the session. You'll need to specify the hostname or IP address of
the XO followed by :1. If this worked, you should get a window on your
PC using "twm" (Tiling Window Manager or Tom's Window Manager). At this
point, you can run any X Windows applications you have on the XO in this
window! Believe it or not, at one point I got so frustrated with all of
the bloat in standard Linux desktops that I ran my machines with this
window manager! :) But you don't have Sugar yet.

4. Exit the VNC viewer. Go back to the XO terminal and type "vncserver
-kill :1". That gets rid of the session.

5. In the directory called ".vnc" there will be a file called
"xstartup". It should look like this:

#!/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 &

Uncomment the "#unset" line, but leave the next one commented out.
Underneath it, add the line

exec /usr/bin/olpc-session

and save the file.

6. Now shut down Sugar by typing Ctl-Alt-F1 aka Ctl-Alt-Neighborhood.
Log in as root and do "init 3". Follow the directions in the wiki page
to get your wireless back -- I don't have wireless yet and the wired
network I do have survives the "init 3". Now do "su - olpc" and
"vncserver" and your server should be running.

7. Now start your viewer up and go back to viewing the XO. You should
see a Sugar desktop now. On my machine, pushing the mouse to the corners
doesn't seem to bring the frame back, but Alt-F does.