Subject: GDM and XDMCP
KC8LDO
kc8ldo at arrl.net
Tue Aug 24 00:33:45 UTC 2010
Steve;
I don't use XDMCP. In its place I installed Xrdp. This way anybody can
connect and get a GUI login screen to their account. This will handle
multiple uses all at the same time too. All you need is to use the Windows
"Remote Desktop Client" for Windows based machines of course. For Linux you
have "Terminal Service Client". If you choose to do this don't forget to
start the "xrdpd" service. The RPM package installation scripts seemed to
take care of everything else.
If you want really secure access you can run the XDP protocol over an ssh
connection using the port forwarding feature of ssh. I do this all the time
using "Putty" as my Window's based ssh GUI and the Windows Remote Desktop
Client.
To gain remote access, from the Internet, to each machine on my home LAN
each has a fixed IP address and I run the sshd service on a different port
on each one. The router uses port forwarding to route the ssh traffic to the
desired machine based on what ssh port I'm using for the connection.
Changing the default port used for ssh is also a good way to fly under the
radar from bots probing your front door looking for a way to get in using
the standard ssh port too.
Once connected you login as a normal user to your account and leave the
terminal window open. The next step is to start the RDP client application.
When the GUI login screen pops up just login like you would at the console.
That's it.
To logout out you just logout as normal from the desktop then logout from
the terminal window you left open. If you just "quit", close, the GUI window
you simply logically disconnect from the frame buffer on the remote machine.
Your apps remain running. If you log back in you will just reconnect to the
still running applications on the GUI desktop as if you never left.
If you're on a LAN you can skip the ssh part. I have a multi-user Fedora-11
system setup this way where I work so a group of people can run some custom
written engineering software. Works great.
73's
Leland C. Scott
KC8LDO
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