VNC stands for "virtual network computing". It lets you control a a machine over a network as if you were sitting right there at the computer---giving you full graphical (GUI) access. To set this up, you need to do something with two different machines: the one you are "virtually" sitting at (in this case, Euclid), and the one you are actually sitting at.

STEP 1: Starting the GUI on Euclid

Before you can access the GUI, a VNC session has to be running. If it isn't already, you have to start it up:

1. Connect to Euclid's command line (see instructions)
2. Type "vncserver"
3. The very first time you run this, you'll be prompted to create a password, which the program will subsequently remember; choose a good password that is not the same as your network password.
4. The program will write something like

   New 'euclid.lab.knet.edu:3 (yourname)' desktop is euclid.lab.knet.edu:3

   ---remember the number it gives you.

If you leave your GUI running (see below), you should only rarely have to repeat this step, e.g. after a power outage or when euclid is rebooted.

STEP 2: Actually access the GUI

This involves running a VNC "client" program on the machine you're actually sitting at.

From a Knox public lab Windows machine:

1. Open the Start menu.
2. From "All programs", select "VNC"
3. In the "Server:" field, enter the desktop ID you were given when you started the GUI, which looks something like "euclid.lab.knet.edu:3" except probably with a different number.
4. Click OK.
5. Provide your VNC password when prompted.

From other Windows machines:

1. If you haven't already gotten it, download and install the free RealVNC client.
2. In the "Server:" field, enter the desktop ID you were given when you started the GUI, which looks something like "euclid.lab.knet.edu:3" except probably with a different number.
3. Provide your VNC password when prompted.

From a Mac (OS X):

1. If you haven't already gotten it, download and install Chicken of the VNC, a popular Mac VNC client. (It's already installed on the department Macs---look for the icon of the chicken in the tuna can.)

2. Run Chicken of the VNC.
3. If "euclid" isn't in your Servers list, click the plus-sign button and add it.
4. Make sure "Host" is "euclid", then set the "Display" to whatever your VNC display number is, and type your VNC password in the "Password" field.
5. Hit enter or click "Connect".

From a Linux system:

This will vary a little depending on which flavour of Linux you're using, but many come with a VNC client already installed. (Ubuntu comes with one called "vinagre"; another common one is called TightVNC, whose command line client is "vncviewer".) Most of these let you call them from the command line, providing them with the desktop ID right then:

  vinagre euclid.lab.knet.edu:3

and that's it! Some also can be accessed from an Applications menu, much as in Windows, and in this case the process should be fairly similar to those described for Windows or Mac above.

STEP 3: Using it

What you see when you connect to the session is an X11 session on Euclid, with fvwm as the window manager. That is, you're running a graphical interface, with the particular details being handled by a sleek little program that lacks some of the bells and whistles you'd get from a Mac or Windows (or Gnome or KDE)---no Dock, no Start bar, no desktop per se---but runs in a small memory footprint that will avoid bogging down the server. It looks something like this:

The light-blue box you see in the middle of that image, blown up at right, is the Applications menu. You can access it by left-clicking on the blue-purple background of the X session---basically, anyplace there isn't already a window where a click might mean something else. By default, you can open up a Terminal window to type at the command line (in white or black backgrounds), and you can run BlueJ, FireFox, or Mathematica.

Euclid should have enough power to handle the users we have, using it normally; but that doesn't mean you have to push it. You can keep your workspace spread out how you like, so you can come back to it later, but if you're actually done with a program, go ahead and close it to free up the resources. FireFox is a particular hog; avoid having lots of tabs open, and try to use your Euclid FireFox mostly for things like documentation browsing.

Optional final note: if you're interested in configuring your fvwm experience, there are a *lot* of configuration options. To begin on your fvwm configuration journey, type:

  mkdir  ~/.fvwm
  cp  /usr/share/fvwm/config  ~/.fvwm/

Then edit the file ~/.fvwm/config to your taste; after you make a change, choose "Restart fvwm" from the right-click menu to see its effect. For documentation, you can man fvwm or go to the FVWM homepage. Happy hacking!

This page is maintained by Don Blaheta | dblaheta@knox.edu