[CentOS] vnc - single application or a "remote localhost" on Firefox

Wed Aug 12 19:04:08 UTC 2009
Frank Cox <theatre at sasktel.net>

Normally I use VNC-over-SSH to provide a complete desktop to a remote user.

Is there a way to provide a single application to a user instead of a complete
desktop?

In this case I am looking for a method to provide remote report-viewing access
to LedgerSMB for a company's outside accountant.  LedgerSMB runs through a web
browser (i.e. http://localhost/ledgersmb) so he doesn't need or want
remote access to anything other than one instance of Firefox.

In other words, normally the remote users crank up a VNC session and see their
full desktop.  For this instance I would like to have him see only a Firefox
session.

A ssh session like "ssh -X user at remotehost firefox" works.

But it's painfully slow.  On the other hand, VNC has a reasonable amount of
snap.

The other approach would be to somehow do use some kind of ssh port-forwarding
under Firefox so he could run Firefox locally on his own computer, and somehow
access http://localhost/ledgersmb on the remote machine.  Is there such a thing
as a "remote localhost" that would work like that?

I don't want to open anything other than ssh on the application server to the
big scary world.

To complicate things a bit more, the accountant runs Windows on his computer.

Maybe there is a simple way to accomplish this feat and I'm just not seeing it?



-- 
MELVILLE THEATRE ~ Melville Sask ~ http://www.melvilletheatre.com