[SOLVED] Accessing another Kubuntu 9.10 just as you'd be sitting there

[doctordruidphd]

Re: Accessing another Kubuntu 9.10 just as you'd be sitting there

startx -- :2

Well, it turned out that this has successfully started the 2nd X session _on_ the remote PC

Yep. #$%^& computers do what you tell them to do, not what you WANT them to do! And it did exactly what you told it to do.

To debug this, first things first. Say computer "A" is the one you want to use to connect remotely with, and "B" is the host system - the one you want to log into.

Boot B, log in to a kde session with your Bob account.

Now on A, boot normally, starting a kde session with whatever account you have on it (doesn't matter). Open konsole, (the terminal program in kde, NOT a ctrl-alt-f#) and type:
ssh -X Alice@B substituting the account on B that you want to use for "Alice" and the system name for B.

You should get a prompt that says something like Alice@B:~$.

Now type something simple: pwd will do. You should get back /home/Alice.

Now try some sort of graphical program - kdf, kate, whatever. It should open as a window on A.

If all is going well, then try plasma-desktop. I'm not sure what will happen here, that's the experiment. I wish I had another system to test thins on, but right now, I don't, so I can only make untested suggestions.


Edit: If you want to go the text console route, then you would have to type something like startx A:2 to tell it to open the X session on computer A, not B. I'm not sure of the proper command syntax there, check man startx.

[Passiday]

Re: Accessing another Kubuntu 9.10 just as you'd be sitting there

Now try some sort of graphical program - kdf, kate, whatever. It should open as a window on A.

Using your advice, this is what I did already and reported my success in Reply #4 of this thread. Launching one or more apps works just fine.

If all is going well, then try plasma-desktop. I'm not sure what will happen here, that's the experiment. I wish I had another system to test thins on, but right now, I don't, so I can only make untested suggestions.

The plasma-desktop however is too intrusive and conflicts with the plasma-desktop of Alice@A. I have described (in reply #4) my confusing experience when the remote plasma desktop was loaded on top of the local plasma workspace.

So, I figure, launching the remote plasma-desktop in the active X session just does not work. I must somehow launch that remote plasma-desktop in another X session on A. Then I could Ctrl+Alt switch between the Alice@A and Alice@B sessions and be perfectly happy.

[doctordruidphd]

Re: Accessing another Kubuntu 9.10 just as you'd be sitting there

So, I figure, launching the remote plasma-desktop in the active X session just does not work. I must somehow launch that remote plasma-desktop in another X session on A. Then I could Ctrl+Alt switch between the Alice@A and Alice@B sessions and be perfectly happy.

I see what you are saying, but i have no idea how to do that. You basically want kde and plasma running on A while using B for its files.

Then NFS may be the way to go instead. I'm just thinking out loud here, but what you would have to do is start a session with B:/home/Alice mounted as your A:/home/Alice. That should be do-able, too. Maybe. Gonna have to think about that one for a while.

Yeah, that's the way to do it. Not sure how at the moment, though. Have to start looking at how to mount NFS volumes during bootup.

[skunk]

Re: Accessing another Kubuntu 9.10 just as you'd be sitting there

http://www.vanemery.com/Linux/XoverSSH/X-over-SSH2.html

Setup #3 is what I think you want

[Passiday]

Re: Accessing another Kubuntu 9.10 just as you'd be sitting there

Wonderful. Mission complete.

So, here's the commands that work:

Context: User has active KDE session on a PC (User@LocalPC), he wants to connect to a remote Linux station and have complete experience as if he'd be sitting there (ie, display manager with all personalisation etc).

1) Click Ctrl+Alt+F1 to open the tty1.
2) Assuming you haven't already started session in tty, log in (on whatever account has proper rights to complete the commands below).
3) $ xinit -- :2
4) You should be presented with small graphic console window in display 2 (you are automatically redirected to it, but later you can switch to it by Ctrl+Alt+F9)
5) $ ssh -X RemoteUser@RemotePC
6) enter password for RemoteUser account (this account of course is local to RemotePC).
7) $ startkde (assuming you want to use KDE shell)

Voila! Works for me like charm.

Thank you all for bringing me up the leaning curve, it was a pleasure.

[Snowhog]

Re: Accessing another Kubuntu 9.10 just as you'd be sitting there

Nice. Now, if you will return to your first post in this thread, click the modify button, you can add SOLVED to the subject for the benefit of others.

[Passiday]

Re: [SOLVED] Accessing another Kubuntu 9.10 just as you'd be sitting there

Done.