On Sun, 2007-01-14 at 18:38 +0000, Jason_Meers wrote: > Christoph Maser wrote: > > >> > > Actually the default logins (text mode and gdm) both show the hostname. > > Don't tell me you leave logged in sessions. > > > > No not normally, only on a few specific machines on the LAN that are > only accessible from another machine on the LAN. > > 1) Not all backup software has usable command line tools, so sometimes > you have to connect the a GUI on a logged in session. > > 2) If you look at the way remote desktop(vino-server) and vnc work it is > impossible to remote control the session if the machine is not already > logged in (the session doesn't exist). Some dirty workarounds do exist > i.e the machine uses gnome session, but vnc uses a kde session to avoid > various conflicts. > > I reported this to the vino developers in august last year: > http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=352349 > > --snip-- > Is it possible in any current or future releases of vino to connect to > the machine while it is sat at the login screen? If you use the vnc server built into X.org you have access even without a logged-in session and I find performance better than using Vino. I just recently set it up on a CentOS 4.4 workstation so I know it works with X.org in that version at least. The following page gives info on how to do it... http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Use_VNC_to_connect_to_existing_X_Sessions The important section is the following... File: /etc/X11/xorg.conf Section "Module" Load "vnc" Load "freetype" Load "type1" Section "Screen" #This tells X where to locate the VNC password file Option "PasswordFile" "/home/your_user_name/.vnc/passwd" Section "Files" ModulePath "/usr/lib/modules/extensions" ModulePath "/usr/lib/xorg/modules" Save your changes and close your editor. You will have to restart X (no need to reboot, just log out (end session in KDE), and hit CTRL-ALT-BACKSPACE when the login window comes back up, then login). You also need to create your passwd file that you specified above. Code: ~/.vnc/passwd file $ mkdir ~/.vnc $ vncpasswd ~/.vnc/passwd Password: Verify: Regards, Paul