[nzlug] Remote sessions via xdmcp

[Michal Ludvig]

Sid Bachtiar wrote:

> I installed cygwin/x on my WinXP machine with a hope to be able to run
> XWin that connects to my Ubuntu machine. In other words, I'm hoping
> that I can work on my Ubuntu from my WinXP machine via XWin. Why?
> Because my Ubuntu machine isn't of high spec, and by using XWin from
> my high spec laptop, I'm hoping to share the load (its also handy to
> be able to access my Ubuntu machine remotely).
> 
> My questions are:
> 
> 1. Is this what XDMCP for?
> Or should I be looking for something else?
> TightVNC?

Again and again and again ... try NX from http://nomachine.com (they
have free edition in a DEB package as well). You'll need to install the
server package (NX Free Edition + NX Node + NX Client, all available
from the download page) to your Ubuntu box and windows client on your
laptop. It goes over SSH (i.e. secure), it's much more bandwidth
efficient than raw X protocol, supports caching of immutable data (e.g.
icons), can run the whole desktop or just a single application, etc. And
it's free (as in beer).

Just for record - you can run remote X session over raw X11 protocol
with or without XDMCP, but you need to enable listening on TCP in the X
server config (most distros disable it by default).

Michal