[CentOS] KVM as a desktop

Wed Aug 29 15:12:02 UTC 2012
Les Mikesell <lesmikesell at gmail.com>

On Wed, Aug 29, 2012 at 9:38 AM, Theo Band <theo.band at greenpeak.com> wrote:
> On 08/28/2012 04:23 PM, James B. Byrne wrote:
>> I am nearing the end of a project that moved our disparate services
>> and hosts onto kvm virtualized servers.  What I am now contemplating
>> is setting up my desktop as a virtual host and using one of the guests
>> as my primary workstation.
>>
>> However, I am not sure how this would work in practice.  I am
>> accustomed to working with virtual instances via ssh (a terminal
>> window) and with my desktop system in a Gnome window manager.  Is
>> there a reference somewhere that outlines the mechanics of logging
>> into a virtual guest's graphical desktop directly from the physical
>> console of the kvm host system?
>>
>>
> I'm not sure what your benefit is to not use your host but a VM running
> on it.

One nice thing is that when you update/change/switch distros, etc.,
you can run old/new in parallel.  Another is that you can easily move
the VM elsewhere if resources are available and it is mostly
transparent to your use as a desktop.

> You could consider to use XDMP. You still need a (local) X server (gdm),
> but then choose remote logon usign XDMCP.
> On the virtual machine use gdmsetup to allow remote access or use this link:
>
> http://www.centos.org/docs/5/html/5.1/Installation_Guide/s2-trouble-remotex.html

Freenx/NX does all the same things as native remote X, but with better
remote performance and the ability to disconnect and reconnect  (even
from a different display) with everything still running.   There is
probably some memory overhead for the proxy/cache buffers, though.

-- 
   Les Mikesell
     lesmikesell at gmail.com