vnc on linux won't connect to mac

I wanted to logon to my Mac via my Fedora 7 installation. Unfortunately, connecting to a mac from a linux box using RealVNC doesn't work:
http://www.realvnc.com/pipermail/vnc-list/2006-March/054423.html

After a bit of Googling, TightVNC seemed to be the ticket. Unfortunately, the VNC and TightVNC libraries conflict:
[root@ogre ~]# rpm -ivh tightvnc-1.3.9-1.i386.rpm
Preparing... ########################################### [100%]
file /usr/share/man/man1/vncviewer.1.gz from install of tightvnc-1.3.9-1 conflicts with file from package vnc-4.1.2-20.fc7

Therefore, I yanked out the RealVNC libraries:
[root@ogre ~]# yum remove vnc*
Loading "installonlyn" plugin
Setting up Remove Process
Resolving Dependencies
--> Running transaction check
---> Package vnc-server.x86_64 0:4.1.2-19.fc7 set to be erased
---> Package vnc.x86_64 0:4.1.2-20.fc7 set to be erased
---> Package vnc-libs.x86_64 0:4.1.2-19.fc7 set to be erased
---> Package vnc-reflector.x86_64 0:1.2.4-3.fc7 set to be erased
---> Package vnc-ltsp-config.noarch 0:4.0-3 set to be erased
---> Package vnc-libs.i386 0:4.1.2-19.fc7 set to be erased

..downloaded Fedora Core 6 tightvnc rpm from here:
http://www.tightvnc.com/download.html

..and installed the Core 6 libraries (though I run Fedora 7) just fine:
[root@ogre ~]# rpm -ivh tightvnc-1.3.9-1.i386.rpm
Preparing... ########################################### [100%]
1:tightvnc ########################################### [100%]

Now my Fedora box can logon to my Mac using TightVNC:
[root@ogre ~]# vncviewer macwired
Connected to RFB server, using protocol version 3.8
Performing standard VNC authentication
Password:
Authentication successful
Desktop name "MACLT"
VNC server default format:
32 bits per pixel.
Least significant byte first in each pixel.
True colour: max red 255 green 255 blue 255, shift red 16 green 8 blue 0
Warning: Cannot convert string "-*-helvetica-bold-r-*-*-16-*-*-*-*-*-*-*" to type FontStruct
Using default colormap which is TrueColor. Pixel format:
32 bits per pixel.
Least significant byte first in each pixel.
True colour: max red 255 green 255 blue 255, shift red 16 green 8 blue 0
Using shared memory PutImage
ShmCleanup called



Yeehaw!
'sodo

changing the default port of vnc server in Fedora

Another quicky:
To change the default port of vnc server running under Fedora Core, edit /usr/bin/vncserver. Replace all instances of 5900 with <your desired port number - 1>. That is a "minus 1" there, as vncserver will start to listen on the default port number specified in /usr/bin/vncserver + 1.

In my case, I noticed that my companies' proxy still had port 3389 open. So, in /usr/bin/vncserver, I changed the default port of 5900 to 3388. Just to confirm: 3389-1=3388. Yes.

You must then restart vncserver:
[root@computer ~]# service vncserver start
Starting VNC server: 1:root
New 'computer:1 (root)' desktop is computer:1

Starting applications specified in /root/.vnc/xstartup
Log file is /root/.vnc/computer:1.log

[ OK ]
[root@computer ~]# netstat -na | grep 'LISTEN '
tcp 0 0 127.0.0.1:8000 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN
tcp 0 0 127.0.0.1:2208 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:5801 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:111 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:6001 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN
tcp 0 0 127.0.0.1:631 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:920 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:3389 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN

Et voila!

VNC is up and running on port 3389 and I can slide through the company firewall to get to my home box! Sweet! Of course, VNC traffic is not encrypted, so a wiser solution would be to use an SSH tunnel home. But when I need to open a brief session to access content on my home box, this solution is adequate.

G'night!

VNC for OS X : Chicken of the VNC

A nice utility I've found to logon to my Fedora box from my MacBook Pro is Chicken of the VNC. Install is simple via DMG file. Here's what the config screen looks like:


Pretty easy! Here are some simple instructions if the graphic doesn't do it for you:
http://www.cs.vassar.edu/SysNews/vnc/osx.html

One tricky part is Full Screen toggle. This is done via CTRL-COMMAND-OPTION-~ (the tilde key).

Have fun!
'sodo