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FreeNX Terminal Server Setup on SUSE 10

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the helpful-hints dept.

TRussell writes to tell us that Mad Penguin recently had the opportunity to review SUSE 10 and found that they had included the latest version of FreeNX on their installation media. FreeNX is a relatively new technology for remote display providing "near local speed application responsiveness over high latency, low bandwidth links." The article provides a nice guide on how to get it set up for several different operating systems.

22 comments

  1. Re:Application? by the+roAm · · Score: 2, Informative

    *sigh* Don't post if you don't know what TFA is about. http://freenx.berlios.de/info.php

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    ~The roAm
  2. Re:Application? by Aranth+Brainfire · · Score: 1

    High latency = slow

    HTH, HAND

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    "Quoting yourself is stupid." -Me
  3. Re:Application? by CableModemSniper · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Slow latency. I do not think that means what you think it means.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latency_(engine ering)

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    Why not fork?
  4. Re:Application? by sean1121 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Excuse my ignorance, but how many connections are "high latency, low bandwidth"

    Dialup is high latency, low bandwidth.

    Dialup? Slow latency.

    I think your confused here. Latency is the time it takes for a packet to reach its destination. (And get back if talking round trip time) Bandwidth is how much data can be transmitted per second. See here

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    "The road from legitimate suspicion to rampant paranoia is very much shorter than we think." - Picard
  5. Speed by Seraphim_72 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Is it just me or are the speed claims overblown by NX? I have run it between work and home and I really dont see any diff between VNC and NX. NX seems to need to totally refresh the screen like VNC does and what ever compresssion it uses seems to not give it any advantage. What are your thoughts?

    Seraphim

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    1. Re:Speed by golgotha007 · · Score: 4, Informative

      Ok, just ran a few quick tests:

      Basically, there's a server on my local network that's routed via two different machines and going over a VPN (our WAN has about 2500 customers on it..). With VNC, it's not too bad. If I grab a window and yank it around the screen, there are some redraw issues and it basically looks like a slideshow.

      So, I decided to give FreeNX a try.

      I'm using FC4 on both client and server. I simply grabbed some RPMS (easy to follow instructions) here, loaded them up and I was off and running.

      First impressions: wow! holy crap! I can now grab a window and yank it around the desktop with near fluid speed. Everything is highly responsive. I'm a big fan of VNC and have used it for many years now, but I think it's time to switch.

      Keep in mind that this test was made over a low latent connection and with decent throughput.

    2. Re:Speed by paulatz · · Score: 1

      Did you used ssh tunnelling or you opened the other required ports? I noticed that ssh is slitghly slower.

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    3. Re:Speed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But you may find that the connection has high enough bandwidth for VNC to work well.

      FreeNX may be using far less bandwidth than VNC with the same responsiveness.

    4. Re:Speed by golgotha007 · · Score: 2, Informative

      I don't normally respond to my own posts, but I provided an incorrect link for the installation instructions for Fedora.

      Here are the Fedora instructions

    5. Re:Speed by Zontar+The+Mindless · · Score: 1

      I use VNC a lot on my LAN. I'm not too concerned about high-latency/low-bandwith, but it'll be good if it does better with cursors and high CPU usage than VNC seems to on some distros.

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      Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
    6. Re:Speed by Sithgunner · · Score: 1

      I have been following FreeNX for some time in my Gentoo but the good thing about FreeNX is not only I also feel it is more responsive than VNC, although I treat TightVNC server against RealVNC Windows client just as good, I think the built-in security measure is a big plus.

      It goes through port 22, which is the proven SSH method and connects to user NX on the server, then redirect itself to it's X and pass it back, so no fancy new firewall hole or no need to put in your ssh forward or don't need to risk going through insecure channel.

      There are more added bonus as in it supports X transulucency as well as the client keyboard layout can be changed, which really has to be there, since the server and client WILL have different layout in many occasions. It even supports sound, printer and hard disk forwarding, although you need a little setting to do on server side, but I have seen the sound gets forwarded and felt good.

      Besides, VNC only runs for 1 screen, there is XDMCP but then again, FreeNX provides new desktop for every user, just like what RDP does. And all in all, GPL and free of price. Way to go.

  6. Re:Application? by Daxster · · Score: 2, Funny

    Alright alright, cheers. I was thinking of high latency meaning..short travel times.

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  7. Re:Application? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Daxter: Hi, yes I want to buy a broadband connection. ISP: Ok, you can have our 1Mbps for... Daxter: Yes, but does it have high latency? ISP: Err, no, no, not at all (blushes), where did you hear that? Daxter: Oh? It doesn't? I was hoping for a high latency connection. ISP: I see...we can add that just for you! Daxter: Excellent! Thank you very much. ISP: (whispers) Merry-fuckin'-Christmas! (Followed by a long dr.evil-style laugh)

  8. Re:Application? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Play an online multiplayer game and notice your ping. That shows your latency. If it's below 30 (low), then you're all set. If it's above 150 (high), you'll have significant frame drops. Think latency = ping.

  9. Re:Application? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    High latency = slow

    Not necessarily. It depends on the window size. I have a 100Mbps connection between Los Angeles USA and London England. My latency is high (40ms), but my application (or my protocol) is smart enough to use large sliding windows of data and I get 100Mbps throughput even though I'm half the planet away.

    TDz.

  10. Setup? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    I just used "apt-get freenx" and it works like a charm. Why do you need all that setup?

    1. Re:Setup? by paulatz · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      Not even Christmas is enought for the Debian trolls.

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      this post contain no useful information, no need to mod it down
    2. Re:Setup? by aliquis · · Score: 1

      Didn't in ubuntu ;/, oh I should have taken freebsd anyway.

    3. Re:Setup? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Security was never a concern for you eh? Did you even read TFA??? No? I didn't think so. The author covers it.........

  11. Re:Application? by jgoemat · · Score: 1

    Or geosynchronous satellite internet, 600ms pings, but 3mbit

  12. Connection from the server to the client. by BokLM · · Score: 1

    FreeNX is nice, however it seems to be missing a feature we have in VNC. With vnc you can run the viewer with the '-listen' option, then wait for the server to initiate the connection. With regular X remote display, you can do a 'xhost +hostname' (or something similar using xauth) and then receive a window from this host. I didn't find how to do that using FreeNX, the client has to initiate the connection. If anyone has any idea about how to do that, I'm interested ...

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