vincentkong.com » Xubuntu

Running GUI Software from Remote Servers with Xming

Vincent Kong — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 03:50:31 +0000

Xming provides an implementation of the X Windows System (X11 server) for Microsoft Windows. Its useful when needing to use a GUI application on a remote server that doesn’t provide remote desktop access.

Installing Xming

Installing Xming on Windows is easy; download the binary file and follow the installation wizard.

To configure Xming run XLaunch from the Start Menu, otherwise run Xming to start up the application.

When started an icon would appear on the taskbar.

Configure X11 Forwarding in PuTTY

Before establishing and SSH connection go to Connection -> SSH -> X11 in the configuration window and check the “Enable X11 forwarding” box.

PuTTY X11 Forwarding

After SSH connection has been established any GUI application can be run by executing it from the command prompt e.g. the Thunar file manager for Xubuntu

Running Thunar in Windows with Xming

More detail information can be found here.

Networking Browsing with pyNeighborhood in Xubuntu 8.10

Vincent Kong — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 04:36:56 +0000

Prior to Xubuntu 8.10 I used SMB for FUSE for networking browsing. However, after upgrading to 8.10 I found that I would get an error: Transport endpoint is not connected everytime I try to copy a file to my Windows desktop using Thunar. Apparently, this is a known bug with fusesmb, therefore after searching for an alternative solution I found pyNeighborhood.

Installing pyNeighborhood

$ apt-get install pyneighborhood

Configuring pyNeighborhood

Setup the directory which is to be mounted

$ cd /media
$ mkdir network
$ chmod 777 network

From the panel bar of Xfce select “Application”, “Network”, and “pyNeighborhood”

Select “Edit”, and “Preferences”
Under the “General” tab, enter the “Mount folder:” e.g. /media/network

Under the “File Managers” tab, remove the entry xterm -e mc, and add /usr/bin/thunar as the file manager

Adding a Mountpoint

In the pyNeighborhood under the “Network” tab, right click “Groups” to scan your network groups

Right click the network group found to scan the machines in the selected network

Right click the machine to add it to the right panel

Expand the machine, and right click on a shared folder to mount it

Creating static IP in Xubuntu 8.10

Vincent Kong — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 13:00:38 +0000

Ubuntu 8.10 ships with Network Manager 0.7, which comes with many features. Unfortunately, I had a difficult time trying to assign a static IP to my computer as it would get lost after each restart. I wasn’t the only one with this problem and here’s how it’s done:

Right click on the “Network Manager” icon and select “Edit Connections…”
Delete any “Auto” settings, and click “Add”

Network Manager

Click on the “IPv4 Settings” tab, and enter your network information.
Make sure you check the “System setting” checkbox. Click “OK” when done

Network Manager IPv4 Settings

Analyze Disk Usage on Xubuntu

Vincent Kong — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 02:58:28 +0000

To analyze my disk usage on my Windows computer I use TreeSize Free. But TreeSize doesn’t work on my Xubuntu system. To help me analyze disk usage on my Xubuntu system I use a graphic tool called Baobab. Baobab runs in any Gnome envirnoment, but will also work Xubuntu’s Xfce environment and is bundled in the gnome-utils package.

Install the gnome-utils package

$ apt-get install gnome-utils

Then add Baobab to the desktop Panel.

Right click on the Panel
Add New Item
Select launcher
For the icon enter /usr/share/icons/hicolor/24x24/apps/baobab.png
For Command enter /usr/bin/baobab

Monitoring CPU and Hard Drive Temperature on Xubuntu

Vincent Kong — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 02:33:43 +0000

I run my Xubuntu computer 24/7 a day, therefore it’s a good idea to be able to monitor the CPU and hard drive temperature. Not looking for something complicated, I decided to install an applet on the Xfce4 panel. The first hardware sensors applet I found was the xfce4-sensors-plugin package, however I didn’t find the graphics very appealing, therefore I decided to use the sensors-applet which displays hardware sensors readings in the Gnonme panel.

To get the sensors-applet working on the xfce4 panel, I had to install xfce4-xfapplet-plugin which allows Gnome applets to be plugged into the Xfce4 panel. If you have hddtemp (a utility to monitor the temperature of your hard drive) you can also display the readings in sensors-applet as well.

$ apt-get install xfce4-xfapplet-plugin

$ apt-get install hddtemp

$ apt-get install sensors-applet

Network Browsing with Xubuntu

Vincent Kong — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 16:32:52 +0000

Unlike like Ubuntu’s default file manager Nautilus for the GNOME desktop, the default file manager Thunar from Xubuntu doesn’t support samba/network browsing.

Nautilus Share

An easy workaround is to install the Nautilus Share package. When installing the Nautilus Share package other related Nautilus packages which will also included such as the Nautilus file manager which may be used to replace the Thunar file manager.

To install Nautilus Share:

$ sudo apt-get install nautilus-share

SMB for FUSE

A more complex workaround is to use SMB for FUSE packages and will allow you to keep using Thunar.

The first requirement is to have Samba installed, an easy to tigger the install is by going to the following in the Xfce desktop: Applications -> System -> Shared Folders
Install fusesmb:
$ sudo apt-get install fusesmb
Ensure that fuse module will be loaded at boot time
$ sudo nano /etc/modules
and look for fuse in the list
Reboot the server to load the fuse module
Allow users to use fuse:
- Go to Application -> System -> Users and Groups
- Click on the “Properties” button of the username
- Under the “User Privileges” tab check the “Allow use of fuse fileystems like LTSP Thin Client blockdevices” checkbox
Create a directory with the following settings to mount the network browse to:
$ mkdir /media/network $ chmod 777 /media/network $ chgrp fuse /media/network
Add your user account to the fuse group
$ nano /etc/group
or go to Application -> System -> Users and Groups, and click on the “Manage Groups” button
Reboot the server again
Go to to menu Application -> Settings -> Autostarted Applications, and add a new entry with the following command: /usr/bin/fusesmb /media/network
Open Thunar and add parent folder of the mount point e.g. network to the shortcut pane of Thunar
Logout and log back to enable to fusesmb autostart to take effect.

Troubleshooting

Can’t see a new shared computer or folder in Thunar.

In the terminal type the following to refresh fusesmb
$ fusesmb.cache

Remote Desktop on Xubuntu

Vincent Kong — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 02:40:31 +0000

Unlike remote desktop in Ubuntu, Xubuntu doesn’t come with a default VNC server. To allow for remote desktop I installed x11vnc which allows remote access to an existing X server session. The advantage is that it allows you to view the phyical display remotely and also log-in to a new session using a remote VNC client.

Installing a VNC Server

Install the x11vnc package

$ sudo apt-get install x11vnc

Install the xinetd package

$ sudo apt-get install xinetd

Add the x11vnc service to xinetd

$ sudo nano /etc/xinetd.d/x11vnc

Add the following content in the file:

service x11vnc
{
port = 5900
type = UNLISTED
socket_type = stream
protocol = tcp
wait = no
user = root
server = /usr/bin/x11vnc
server_args = -inetd -o /var/log/x11vnc.log -display :0 -auth /var/lib/gdm/:0.Xauth -many -bg
disable = no
}

Restart the xinetd
$ sudo /etc/init.d/xinetd stop $ sudo /etc/init.d/xinetd start

Creating a Password for the VNC Server

Install the vnc-common package
$ sudo apt-get install vnc-common

Create a password file
$ sudo vncpasswd /root/.vncpasswd

Add the -rfbauth /root/.vncpasswd option to server_args in the /etc/xinetd.d/x11vnc file. For example:

server_args = -inetd -o /var/log/x11vnc.log -display :0 -auth /var/lib/gdm/:0.Xauth -many -bg -rfbauth /root/.vncpasswd

Restart the xinetd

$ sudo /etc/init.d/xinetd stop $ sudo /etc/init.d/xinetd start

Connecting with a VNC Client

To connect to your remote desktop any VNC viewer can be installed. For example RealVNC or TightVNC (requires VNC password to be implemented) provides a free edition client.