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--You should try Nomachine NX. Fast X over SSH. Supports Linux, OSX and Windows (plus tablet OSes.)

https://www.nomachine.com/

--That said, I have had some issues in the past with getting X forwarding with something basic like ' xclock ' working over SSH from Linux to Linux, but a bit of googling and modifications to the ssh config files (and bouncing the ssh daemon) cleared that up. Also make sure if you are using bash scripts that you have the proper command flags: ' ssh -2 -X -Y -c blowfish -o TCPKeepAlive=yes user@linuxbox ' is an example.

--I just checked, and SSH from Linux to Linux running ' palemoon ' brought up the browser OK. That said, you should make sure you have at least the basic X dependencies installed on both ends; sometimes trying to use X apps on a headless server can be problematic.

--If you have a linux box and want to SSH to it from Windows, I can highly recommend MobaXterm.

http://mobaxterm.mobatek.net/

--Feel free to email me if you want to experiment with X forwarding again. Even if you don't have a dedicated linux box we could always setup a virtual machine. :-)

'Travel from your desktop to any NoMachine-enabled computer at the speed of light. NoMachine is the fastest remote desktop you have ever tried. In just a few clicks you can reach any computer in the world and start working on it as if it was right in front of you.'

Yeah, just because I don't need that feature, lets rip it out for everyone, right?

That is very short sighted thinking. Sure the code is old. Sure it is crufty, but it works! Why remove something that is working now for something that may be created in the future? It would be a shame to throw out working code for a new unproven shiny binary. I'm all in favor of new stuff, but not when developers remove working features and promises they'll get to it later. It won't happen; if they wanted to do it, it would be done at the same time. It's a hard problem, and chances are, later will never come.

Before you criticize it, have tried to use the feature? It is immensely useful to be able to be able to render a single window locally without having to drag the system down rendering an entire desktop via VNC, RDP, NX, etc... Can single windows be rendered through RDP? Yes, sure. However, that requires some setup, where on Linux I just hop over to that server and type the command (usually with a &) and bam, local view of remote server.

All that aside, I'm not the only user of the technology. Other projects use it as well, such as WinSwitch, x2go, FreeNX, NoMachine's NX - although maybe less so since version 4. Try some of these, you might light what they offer.

In the past I tried to achieve similar functionality via cron jobs, login scripts, ssh and nx management

NX? But you are using x2go? THAT is not NX. Contact the experts I.E NoMachine http://nomachine.com/. Only the real authors of probably the most amazing remote access and management tool can you help you there.

this is still the best Linux solution:- https://www.nomachine.com/

The only company offering completely free remote access is NoMachine. https://www.nomachine.com/ I am surprised no one has mentioned it.

https://www.nomachine.com/

Supports Windows, Linux, OS X, Android, and they claim iOS soon.

On a personal level, I have always liked the NX Protocol. It's easily installable on Ubuntu or CentOS. You can choose between the free and open source route, or for an enterprise roadmap, NoMachine reigns supreme in my experience.

NoMachine packages its free client/server solution for what seems to be any gnu/linux distro. Its IOS and Android clients are due for release in the coming months and can solve the original poster's "problem". I have no affiliation with nomachine other than being a bit of a fan due to their community commitments.

In all reality it becomes a matter of servers, clients, and protocols that fit within your network's architecture with varying degrees of comfort and performance.

On a personal level, I have always liked the NX Protocol. It's easily installable on Ubuntu or CentOS. You can choose between the free and open source route, or for an enterprise roadmap, NoMachine reigns supreme in my experience.

NoMachine packages its free client/server solution for what seems to be any gnu/linux distro. Its IOS and Android clients are due for release in the coming months and can solve the original poster's "problem". I have no affiliation with nomachine other than being a bit of a fan due to their community commitments.

In all reality it becomes a matter of servers, clients, and protocols that fit within your network's architecture with varying degrees of comfort and performance.

There is nothing on the planet that competes with RDP for remote access.

There is, actually. RDP is a bandwidth hog and it has massive latencies, depending on the width of your pipe and the distance to the remote machine. NoMachine is actually quite impressive for remoting, a low latency, low bandwidth technology... but generally for remoting to a *nix server. Over a dial up connection it would beat RDP over fibre.

No machine's nx server/client does exactly what you want. http://nomachine.com/

http://www.nomachine.com/
I'm sorry, my mind pulled the server, not the client side of the question.

The NoMachine server/client is amazingly fast.

Here you go for TS replacement (if you require such): http://www.nomachine.com/

Protocol also has an OSS implementation, I believe it's called FreeNX.

Install freenx - http://www.humans-enabled.com/2012/05/how-to-install-freenx-on-ubuntu-1204.html
Use NX Client for Windows - http://www.nomachine.com/download-package.php?Prod_Id=3835

High latency/low bandwidth can be fixed using X11 with schemes like NX, which are very effective:

http://freenx.berlios.de/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NoMachine
http://www.nomachine.com/

Here is your answer: http://www.nomachine.com/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NoMachine http://freenx.berlios.de/

And it is still X11, and it really works. So yes, it can be done.

Try FreeNX / Nomachine: http://www.nomachine.com/ It's in the Debian/Ubuntu repository as well. Used/using it often to use a X display over a SSH tunnel: more secure and better performance than VNC over SSH.

NX http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NX_technology
http://www.nomachine.com/

Even if I have to shell out half as much again on a BT keyboard/trackpad, I'd still have larger screen, better compatibility and more typing comfort than I would on a tablet and for a fraction of the cost.

NX is also an option.

Linux is frustrating as hell even for *me*. The first time she calls with a problem and I tell her to open the command line interface, she's going to disown me (and then no more Christmas presents for me).

Ok, I know this sounds harsh and aside from the
sewing machine part... that's just sheer ignorance.

Obviously you are referring to "Linux" as Kleenex
here. Because with as many distros and as many
desktops, it would be impossible to avoid a good
combo for her. As much as most of us REALLY
HATE the new Ubuntu... Unity is pretty nice for
novice users.

As far as admin. Why FTLoG would you have a novice
do anything on the command line? Is there something
that is keeping you from using VNC, SSH, or a program
like NoMachine to remotely admin your mom's machine?
[ http://www.nomachine.com/ ]

I've been using remote admin to fix servers under my
auspices for a decade and a half as have most of the
IT world.

-@|

I personally like the password because that means that someone can't get unchecked graphical access to my remote machines by simply catching me on a bathroom break with my screen unlocked. In your scenario it would only take a single click. Yes, they would have access to my laptop but I'd rather have at least a password between them and access to the remote systems I admin.

I don't get the point here. You leave your screen unlocked then I gain instant access to where ever you're currently logged on. Plus I can stick a neat backdoor to your user account to automagically hijack all your further sessions (if time allows, depending on the magnitude of bathroom service you're utilizing...)

So please leave your screen locked. (BTW even if you lock it I can stick a key sniffer to your keyboard and pwn you anyway.)

Anyway what you probably originally meant is that PK auth is passwordless. Well it can be used that way but you can also put a password on your private key. Then you have to type that password in order to auth. The key difference here is that neither the password nor the private key leaves your computer and the login is unrepeatable without possession of the private key. That's in contrast to classic password auth where the pw is sent to the server where it can be sniffed and re-used. So what I meant in my original post is that in 2010 there is really no reason to use oldschool insecure auth methods.

Also, I don't think that you have the NX login sequence entirely correct because while the first part seems accurate, I can safely say that NX can NOT be spawning a second ssh session using my password because passwords are forbidden in ssh by policy on my system, so it'd have to be using my PK, or doing some other form of login.

Okay my experience with NX is about 18 months old and on behalf of this discussion I re-checked their docs today. It seems there is another way, that is using an internal database of users. The relevant source is http://www.nomachine.com/documents/admin-guide.php section 4. So either you're using that option or you should really re-check your SSH logs and config ;-)

I don't ever remember being encouraged to keep the same public key for NX but I can safely say that my setup uses my own PK.

Now I can't find the reference but I swear I saw a paragraph saying something like if you replace the keys then out of box installs will not connect blah blah. Yeah I hear you say "big deal" but ffs this is about serious loss of security so there should never be a default key thus negating the necessity for mentioning "replacing the default key" somewhere in the manual. The keys should be simply generated at install time, with a message popping out "give this [public key content] to any Joe Schmoe you want to access that server of yours".

And just to let anyone know who might be interested in setting up RSA PK authentication with NX, you have to use NoMachines node/server/client from their site, the FreeNX/OpenNX only do DSA.

Sounds weird to me, why the heck would that be so? Both use the same ssh, which supports both.

I've been using nomachine's server and client for years over Verizon 3G and it works fantastically. And since Google's nx stuff seems to be based on nomachine's I can't imagine it will be worse but probably even better.

NX might be the answer to your problems.
Compressed X over SSH, cached screens that only update the altered parts, desktop or application can be the command started.
PK logins, DB logins, ports, host keys, compression ratio, Windows client, Linux client/server, Mac has something that my mate (who uses overpriced gear) couldn't get working. You might.

Take a look, it's free! (and there is a Free version too). If you can't get your overpriced stuff to work, you might find a great reason to put YDL on it.

After I started using NX ( http://freenx.berlios.de/ and http://nomachine.com/ ) I never looked back at VNC. NX provides near local speeds for remote X11 desktops.

I use Windows 7 on my work desktop. I have dual monitors. I use UltraMon and get basically the setup requester is looking for: separate desktops that I can drag (or quickly hit the "move to other monitor" button) between screens.

I also use nomachine which tunnels compressed X sessions over SSH to remotely manage Linux servers in far away places and VirtualBox to run local Linux VMs.

It's not that hard to set up.

If you use 'nx' on both the server and client machines, you will find x applications running much faster.

The nx application intelligently caches x commands.

# yum info nx
Loaded plugins: refresh-packagekit
[...]
Installed Packages
Name : nx
Arch : x86_64
Version : 3.3.0
Release : 38.fc10
Size : 12 M
Repo : installed
From repo : updates
Summary : Proxy system for X11
URL : http://www.nomachine.com/
License : GPLv2 and MIT
Description: NX provides a proxy system for the X Window System.

#

If VNC is usable, you'll love NX. It is *far* more responsive for a given bandwidth/latency and it is persistent too (the session keeps running if your client disconnects.).

You can even run VNC to other machines through NX and it feels faster on limited bandwidth (NX creates a session on the Linux client that runs a fullscreen vncviewer to another system.)

It's my standard way of working remotely. My default work desktop lives on a Linux machine at the office and it resizes automatically depending on what screen size the client uses (as long as your Gnome or KDE version is recent.) Even at the office I run NX to my work session - over a LAN I can't tell the difference between local and NX.

you could only say that rdp is the best if you haven't heard of nx.
building on top of x, it is really, really great.
and with the added coverage that neatx (google developed nx server) brought, i'm surprised you don't know about it...
http://www.nomachine.com/.

NX is compressed X11 protocol with reduced number of round trips, so it's fairly responsive even over slow connection. You can create full-desktop sessions like VNC, floating window sessions like SSH with X11 forwarding, and also connect to existing full-screen sessions running on the remote computer like RDP. The server installation creates an "nx" user with a special NX shell. The NX client simply SSH to the server and manipulates the session with the NX shell, as opposed to listening on a TCP port.

No Machine is proprietary, but they let you use the NX client for free (as in beer). The NX free server (running on the remote computer) restricts the number of connections, but Google has released open source NeatX for the server replacement. It's probably easier to install the NX server first, then replace the NX shell with that implemented by NeatX. For me, I just stick with the proprietary NX free server because the restriction is not a problem for me.

NX does have a free open source server and client implementation, FreeNX. I haven't tried it, but you could.

First of all, even raw X11 performance is perfectly adequate over a 10mbit LAN. That's the environment it was designed for, after all. If anyone doubts that it works, why not try it? With NX, X11 screams over even a dialup connection.

Second, NX does support application sharing. I don't know where you're getting your information.

You might want to try No Machine's NX instead of RDP. It works exceptionally well. There's a free version (FreeNX) which also has an Ubuntu PPA. There's Ubuntu documentation here.

There are Windows, Mac, and Linux clients and a Linux server. We use it to allow windows users to run Unix software.

I've tried NoMachine and found it the most responsive compared to other solutions. Of course the GUI is over rated, as any dyed in the wool techie uses SSH + BASH + MC + PINE ...

I assure you that I *can* read, and I am sure you can too:

- Prints from within the X11 session to printers installed on the client

- Lets applications access any file system on the client as if it were on the server

I "administer" our small business IT infrastructure (well, it's just 10 computers) and our solution was to assess who needs internet access. As it turned out, the boss and the secretary need web, email and access to the accounting software on the remote side of a VPN, and the other guys don't because they use only internal documents. But they do need Windows because we use Windows-only software (SolidWorks and MasterCAM). So I've setup a fast Linux box that's on the internet, that provides web and email access through NX servers and clients (that is, the clients run on the linux box and display on the Windows workstations). USB ports are also disabled on all Windows boxes, and people who really want to see what's in a USB key have to plug it on the Linux box and have the content checked before it's transfered to a Samba share for Windows consumption. Same thing for CDs. None of the Windows boxes ever see the internet.

None of our Windows boxes are patched, updated or fitted with antivirus software, and we're doing just fine. The Windows boxes are super-fast as a result too.

But that's *our* solution. Your mileage may vary, but I think you should make a reasonable assessment of workers' need for internet access. You may be surprised how few actually need it to do their work (IM isn't a valid reason) and you may be able to rearrange your infrastructure to make it very easy and manageable like ours.

NX is a fair bit better than RDP/Citrix.

But now I run Ubuntu 8.0.4 in a VMWare server on top of Vista Home Edition (this all powered by an AMD-64 with 4GB RAM).

Works for my meager needs. I have access to the very few Windows-only apps I like (Quicken, iTunes) but I can use Linux for development and testing - at the same time. No more booting back and forth.

And with the NoMachine server and client, I can access the Linux desktop from the cube-farm.

Maybe not elegant, but it's cheaper than a Mac.

No Machine so far has been a great alternative for VNC and the like to work with remote Linux desktops and even virtually. I've tried both their free NX server edition and the FreeNX server. FreeNX still needs some love/work in making it easier to get up and going, especially on Debian. The free NX server edition works better than FreeNX because I've been experiencing refresh/display corruption over time using FreeNX and not with the retail/free NX server using the same NX client (of which is always free, currently anyway) on Windows and Linux desktops.

I especially liked how extremely well NX works with slow connections, not necessarily slow on the client side, but with extremely pitiful 128kbps upload speeds from the server such as my home DSL connection when I'm away. I use to prefer VNC until I found out about NX of which is just more enhancements to the X11 protocol over SSH as far as I can tell (I'm definitely no expert as to what all goes in behind the scene). It Just Works(TM). :)

I have an old Zaurus SL-5500 PDA with 64MB of memory, and I run X on it continuously. X adds so much functionality, why would anyone choose a framebuffer-based display instead?

Nothing's wrong with X, but people hate things they don't understand, and most people perceive X as old and complicated, therefore it must be junk. It doesn't matter if it's the best solution for the problem at hand.

Say what you want about how good it is.... X is old and complicated. The 'old' part is mostly irrelevant, given that there's plenty of software that's both good and old (Unix itself being the obvious example). Dealing with the complexity is a bit more tricky, but can be done.

My assessment is that X does a whole lot of things right, and a whole lot of things wrong. X.Org have done a fantastic job cleaning things up with their implementation of the protocol, though I think that there's a lot more that can be cleaned up/standardized. Even the network transparency could use a lot of work... remote X sessions are painful without something like NX added on top.

[The Linux eeePC] is a small computer that, at least in the 9" screen and 20GB SSD model, is well balanced, very practical, and an excellent example of a product where Linux makes perfect sense.

Plus, you can do things on it that would normally be beyond its scope by setting it up as a thin client to a more powerful desktop server. I've used NoMachine NX Free Edition for Linux to do something similar. All your high-power apps (and their storage and RAM requirements) can be handled on the server through the eeePC without it breaking a sweat, yet the eeePC can be carried anywhere within your wireless network range.

And when you need to travel, you can either use the eeePC as is with the apps it has and forgo the extra goodies, or connect remotely to your server by setting your server and/or your router (certain models) with a pseudo static IP via a service like DynDNS. NX uses SSH encryption, which makes it ideal for this.

Network transparency is IMO the killer feature of X, it would be a shame to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

You got it right, almost.
Network transparency is the feature that kills X. Network transparency was nice and revolutionary (cough) when X was invented many years ago. Nowadays it's just a huge pain in the ass because it kills performance and makes the whole thing insanely complex.

Reality has taught us that the whole network transparency thing is better tackled independently from the underlying platform.
Free software like NoMachine and VNC exists today and handles the Remote Desktop Use-Case much better (faster!) than the native X protocol. Moreover they are cross-platform, they don't even care whether your client/server are a unix, Windows or Mac.

A new X server should most definately not even attempt to provide network transparency. It should focus on solid driver support, fast compositing and a sane programming API so people can actually build stuff on top of it. Anyone who has ever worked with Xlib knows that the ridiculous API is the #1 reason why "linux on the desktop" is just not happening.

The primary reason for QT and GTK being the monstrosities they are is that they both have to deal with an effectively broken foundation.

Brother, I feel your pain. I tried to get several wireless cards to work to no avail. The Ubuntu forums are flooded with requests for help to get various wireless cards working.

Instead I loaded Ubuntu 8.04 onto a desktop machine, plugged it into my wireless router, and use NoMachine's free server and client (like Remote Desktop for Linux) to connect to the desktop from an old laptop running Windows XP Home edition.

Of course, YMMV.

Oh, woe is you. You sound like fucking Eeyore or some shit. Get your bitch ass over to http://www.nomachine.com/ and quit fucking around with VNC. Nx server/client is practically as fast as remote desktop even over dial-up. I use it all the time with a cellular modem; it's fucking great. And it's free as in beer. Fucking slashdot and its band of perpetual clueless whiners.

Try NX. It's free edition will do what you need just fine, and provides persistent X11 connections. www.nomachine.com

Try NX, http://www.nomachine.com/
It's orders of magnitude faster than VNC or native X11, and supports persistent sessions as you describe...
It also runs over SSH, so it benefits from the inherent security of SSH.

I would never even consider using VNC, entirely pointless... slower than native X11.

In a lot of opinions, it is.

When I changed over (full time) from XP to openSUSE 10.2 I could happily leave my PC on for days, use suspend (RAM and disk) many more times than under XP without a reboot to "freshen up" and I haven't yet seen a SEGFAULT that couldn't be fixed with a rc<service> restart.

In short, my experience is not the same as yours. Have you got odd hardware or an overclocked system?
Full speed BIOS settings, AMD/VIA, ATI GFX (8xAGP, 256M), ATA133 (x6) and everything runs peachy. Under XP having the AMD/VIA combo would cause the OS to crap itself regularly no matter which drivers I used, and I have tried a lot of them.

Now I have a copy of Win2K in VirtualBox running seamless mode for when I need Photoshop. With the recent v1.0 release of WINE I may even lose that ...

And to top it all, Linux has the free edition of NX that is far quicker and immeasurably more secure than VNC.

Remote desktop is kind of a joke in comparison.

Remote desktop is just better. Vastly more usable on low-bandwidth (or high latency) links and when your session drops out for some reason you can reconnect and not have lost everything you were working on.

Yes and no. Most of the core technology is GPL, but the front-end stuff, and therefore the actual client and server packages, are freeware or commercial. FreeNX is a fully-GPL fork.

Use, NX instead of plain remote X11, it almost feels like sitting at the local computer even over slow DSL. It's free as in GPL and very simple to set up. I really don't understand why it hasn't become THE standard for remote windowing yet.

X/ssh is a bit slow for poor network links. Check out NX server, that'll give you a full desktop or app over GPRS. It's also GPL, and you can have NoMachine or FreeNX (the free and hard to use version :) )