Best way to remote control Kubuntu desktop from Windows 7 laptop?

[hackeradam]

What is the best way to remote control my Kubuntu box from my Windows 7 laptop? If it requires installing something, please include instructions on how to do it.

Thanks in advance!

[ajc00]

Re: Best way to remote control Kubuntu desktop from Windows 7 laptop?

Depending on whether you want to see your kubuntu box as a full screen or just application specific then there are a couple of ways.

Full desktop:

From kubuntu if you goto the k menu on the taskbar and type "krfb" without the quotes this is remote desktop server that comes with kde. If you click on it you should notice an icon appear in the taskbar near the time, if you click on that it will launch a window with a few minor settings, all very straight forward. There is an option to allow connections without being prompted, check this, then also check the option to specify a password for all connection requests.

Then all you need to install on your windows pc is a program called realvnc http://www.realvnc.com/products/free/4.1/download.html if you install that and then launch the application then just type in the ip address of your kubuntu box and you will be prompted with a password request, this is what you set on krfb on kubuntu.

If you want to just launch specific applications then you can do this by forwarding x over ssh. This is slightly more involved but nothing difficult.

Basically install a program on your windows pc called xming, this should then install an ssh client called putty.

The two applications talk to each other and allow you to open terminals for your kubuntu box and run commands ie firefox and it will run it on your windows pc without having to install anything else, pretty smart really but this involves setting up ssh on your kubuntu box and creating ssh keys and configuring putty, its not hard but takes a little time. For you i would personally go with the full desktop option. If you really want to do the second option let me know and ill write a step by step guide for all the installations etc.

[hackeradam]

Re: Best way to remote control Kubuntu desktop from Windows 7 laptop?

Depending on whether you want to see your kubuntu box as a full screen or just application specific then there are a couple of ways.

Full desktop:

From kubuntu if you goto the k menu on the taskbar and type "krfb" without the quotes this is remote desktop server that comes with kde. If you click on it you should notice an icon appear in the taskbar near the time, if you click on that it will launch a window with a few minor settings, all very straight forward. There is an option to allow connections without being prompted, check this, then also check the option to specify a password for all connection requests.

Then all you need to install on your windows pc is a program called realvnc http://www.realvnc.com/products/free/4.1/download.html if you install that and then launch the application then just type in the ip address of your kubuntu box and you will be prompted with a password request, this is what you set on krfb on kubuntu.

If you want to just launch specific applications then you can do this by forwarding x over ssh. This is slightly more involved but nothing difficult.

Basically install a program on your windows pc called xming, this should then install an ssh client called putty.

The two applications talk to each other and allow you to open terminals for your kubuntu box and run commands ie firefox and it will run it on your windows pc without having to install anything else, pretty smart really but this involves setting up ssh on your kubuntu box and creating ssh keys and configuring putty, its not hard but takes a little time. For you i would personally go with the full desktop option. If you really want to do the second option let me know and ill write a step by step guide for all the installations etc.

I would prefer the security that SSH provides. If it wouldn't be too much trouble, could you please tell me how to forward X over SSH? The problem is that I might also want to control my computer from school, and we have a nasty filtering proxy that's the only computer in the school allowed to connect to the internet, and I don't want the filtering company to know what I'm doing. Our proxy software isn't very popular or well-known, so there isn't much information on the Internet about exactly what they can and can't do (not even on the company's website).

[ajc00]

Re: Best way to remote control Kubuntu desktop from Windows 7 laptop?

Windows PC

Firstly on your windows pc download the latest version of putty client from:

http://the.earth.li/~sgtatham/putty/.../x86/putty.exe - Putty
http://the.earth.li/~sgtatham/putty/...6/puttygen.exe - KeyGen

(The key generator tool isnt a cracking / hacking tool, it generates ssh keys for you)

Putty doesnt have an installation process, its simply click copy and run, but i would suggest puttying it in C:\Program Files\Putty\Putty.exe and then place a shortcut to it where ever you want just to make life more organised.

Then download and install Xming from http://heanet.dl.sourceforge.net/project/xming/Xming/6.9.0.31/Xming-6-9-0-31-setup.exe. During the installation this will ask you to use Putty, just leave everything as a standard install dont change anything.

Once the installation is complete, anytime you want to forward x from windows you must have xming running in your notification area on your taskbar, so its probably best to add a shortcut to your startup folder. (Xming not Launch Xming)

Thats pretty much it for now for the install side on windows.

Kubuntu PC / Any Linux PC

Open a Konsole / Terminal

type:

apt-get install openssh-server

confirm the installation and then wait.

Once the installation is complete, check its running and listening for connections by typing

netstat -a | grep ssh

it should return

tcp 0 0 *:ssh *:* LISTEN

Windows PC

Run the puttygen tool that you downloaded with putty, this launches a small window. Click the "Generate" button.

A status bar will appear with a blank area below it, move your mouse round in that area to allow it to generate your ssh key.

1. In the key passphrase boxes type a password you want to use and confirm it
2. Click the "save private key" button, and save the file somewhere, note it is a ppk file (Putty Key)
3. In the large text box with a load of random characters, copy everything so for example it would look like:

ssh-rsa AAAAB3NzaC1yc2EAAAABJQAAAIEApAyyS4BvWxABJuE3pPeO3M GE0bXUgIPlVr8vjECInpT6CS2aYjy7ReN5Jx3M= rsa-key-20100425

This is not my key its just a random one i generated to show you.

Next if you run putty, and fill in the information:

1. host name or ip address - Your kubuntu ip address goes here
2. enter a name for the session in the saved sessions box
3. press the save button

This creates a very basic connection, then click open.

You should then initially see a small black screen and a prompt asking you to accept, just accept the message its only telling you that its the first time you have connected to your kubuntu box.

In the black window it should now ask you for a username, this is your kubuntu logon name (username), next it will ask you for a password, this is your kubuntu password.

You should now see a konsole session like what you would see if you were on kubuntu with the prompt.

Thats basically your ssh setup, now to make it more secure.

From the prompt if you type:

mkdir ~/.ssh

then

cd .ssh

now you need to create the file that holds your authentication string

so if you type:

vi authorized_keys

The screen should go blank and you are now in vi (editor), do everything step by step as its not a straight forward editor unless you have used it before.

press once on the "a" on your keyboard this puts you in append mode, because you copied the contents of that putty window earlier if you just right click with your mouse anywhere in that terminal window it will paste the long random string.

Next press esc to go back to command mode, and the type

:wq!

The above command writes and quites the file, you should now be back at the command prompt.

Thats it your ssh server is now secure for you to connect to.

if you then type exit and the terminal will close, if you re-launch putty again.

Click on your saved session and click "load", then on the right hand side, expand the ssh menu and click on "Auth" now in the "private key file for authentication" box, click browse and select your saved putty key you saved earlier.

Now go back to the ssh menu, click on the x11 option and then tick "Enable X11 forwarding".

Then go back upto the top of the menus and click on session, then save the session again.

Now each time you want to logon to your kubuntu box click your saved session, and open, type in your username and it will ask you for your passphrase, this is the password you set when you were creating your putty key.

DONT GIVE OUT YOUR PRIVATE PUTTY KEY TO ANYONE AS IF THEY HAVE YOUR PASSPHRASE THEY WILL BE ABLE TO LOGIN TO YOUR KUBUNTU BOX

Now you can login securely, if you want to make it even more secure, you can edit the sshd config file on your kubuntu box.

Kubuntu PC / Any Linux PC

Open a konsole and then launch your favorite text editor as root to edit /etc/ssh/sshd_con

Search for the line PubkeyAuthentication and make sure it says PubkeyAuthentication yes

next find the line PasswordAuthentication and change it to PasswordAuthentication no

now save the file and return to your konsole prompt

finally, restart your ssh server daemon by typing sudo service ssh restart, make sure you can still logon via putty.

Now basically what you have just done is stop all normal access to kubuntu via plain text passwords. The only way you can login remotely is via ssh with your public key.

Windows PC

Now providing that xming is running which is should be as you placed it in your startup folder, when ever you open a putty connection to your kubuntu box. In the small terminal window, you can simply type any command to launch an application and anything with a gui in kubuntu will be pushed to your windows pc, no software required.

So now you can simply type rdesktop {your kubuntu ip} and a remote desktop session will start.

Same as if you wanted to lauch Konquerer from windows you would just type konquerer and the browser would magically appear

Job Done, i hope all that makes sense

[ajk95]

Re: Best way to remote control Kubuntu desktop from Windows 7 laptop?

I am more comfortable with editing in Kate than in VI. Would kdesudo kate authorized_keys work as well?

[Snowhog]

Re: Best way to remote control Kubuntu desktop from Windows 7 laptop?

You don't need to launch Kate with kdesudo - the file is being saved in a hidden directory within your user /home directory. So, follow the instructions for creating the .ssh directory, change into that directory, and then launch kate: kate authorized_keys

[NeoGraven]

Re: Best way to remote control Kubuntu desktop from Windows 7 laptop?

Have you tried FreeNX (NoMachine)? Here is the link:

http://www.nomachine.com/download.php

Check it out, I use it constantly. Load the server on your Linux machine and the client on your Windows machine. It uses a shared key and SSH for security and gives exceptional performance.

Cheers!

[ajc00]

Re: Best way to remote control Kubuntu desktop from Windows 7 laptop?

As snow hog mentioned, sorry i should have said. Creating the .ssh folder and making the authorized_keys file has to be done by your own user, not using sudo.

My fault for not saying that sorry

[nakki]

Re: Best way to remote control Kubuntu desktop from Windows 7 laptop?

when I Open a new session, there is a prompt box opened, but after few seconds appear a dialog box say "network error: connection time out"
that make me cant loggin to my username as the step above.
did I leave any step before I open a session?
or anything should I do?

[kiraitachi]

Re: Best way to remote control Kubuntu desktop from Windows 7 laptop?

Maybe its just me...but I would Install Teamviewer on Kubuntu and from your school download teamviewer...(thanfully you can run teamviewer without installing it.) I do it all the time to control my bot in world of wacraft from my work. ^^

[claydoh]

Re: Best way to remote control Kubuntu desktop from Windows 7 laptop?

Maybe its just me...but I would Install Teamviewer on Kubuntu and from your school download teamviewer...(thanfully you can run teamviewer without installing it.) I do it all the time to control my bot in world of wacraft from my work. ^^

You beat me to it, teamviewer is the easiest thing to use and set up, AND you don't have to physically install it in windows. It worked from behind my work's firewall with ease.

[MoonRise]

Re: Best way to remote control Kubuntu desktop from Windows 7 laptop?

Wow! Never heard of TeamViewer. Nice piece of software and it's free for the Home User. Great!

[GreyGeek]

Re: Best way to remote control Kubuntu desktop from Windows 7 laptop?

One problem with a VNC is if you are connected to the Internet through a wifi connected to your cable modem. The IP address you see for your connection, if you visited grc.com's "ShieldsUp!" is the IP address given to your modem, not your computer. Your computer would probably have a 192.168.1.xxx IP address dispensed to it by the DHCP. It can connect via VNC only to other computers on the same subnet: 192.168.1.yyy.

If you take the ethernet cable from the cable modem and plug it into your computer instead of the wifi, you can make a VNC connection using the IP address assigned to the cable modem. If I were a bachelor I'd connect my laptop directly to my cable modem because I always use my computer from my recliner-table combination, which is less than 10 feet from the wifi and modem.

[perspectoff]

Re: Best way to remote control Kubuntu desktop from Windows 7 laptop?

My success with Krfb as a VNC server has always been intermittent.

I always use XVNC as a VNC server -- rock solid, fast, and never misses a pixel.

I use it with any Windows VNC client, of which UltraVNC is my favourite (but TightVNC is a close second).

Yes, Putty is the only SSH connector worthwhile in Windows, but in the past some tweaks were necessary to tune it up for OpenSSH access (at least for the security keys).

So, my setup is to have Putty as the Windows client for the SSH tunnel and OpenSSH as the SSH server on Kubuntu, and UltraVNC for the Windows VNC client and X11VNC on Kubuntu as the VNC server. (I use this every day.)

There are very detailed instructions at Kubuntuguide:

http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Natty#Remote_Access

[perspectoff]

Re: Best way to remote control Kubuntu desktop from Windows 7 laptop?

Wow! Never heard of TeamViewer. Nice piece of software and it's free for the Home User. Great!

Is TeamViewer a hosted-server type of app -- like GoToMyPC, etc.?

Those types of apps use centralised servers as the exchange point, which means the companies servers have all your information that is being shared, unless encryption on each end is used (like Skype does).

If sensitive data is being shared, I never trust such a type of data-sharing mechanism, as man-in-the-middle attacks are easy (when the man-in-the-middle is the sharing service itself).

How, exactly does Teamviewer work?