How do you install downloaded software?

[phreon]

Hi Folks,

I originally was trying ...

"I am trying to use all of my machines on one monitor. I want to view and control the desktop of all of these machines and transfer files between them. I use TightVNC on windows and I was going to run the TightVNC server on Vector. (Maybe not anymore)"

I have been successful.

Here is how I did it. (Painfully detailed, like I needed it.)

I used Gslapt to download TightVNC.

I used "installpkg tightvnc-1.3.8-i586-4vl58.tlz" to install it.

In a terminal window I used "vncserver" to start it.

It asked me to set and verify a password.

I have downloaded the VNC Viewer on my windows box. I can view any VNC Server on any machine directly or through an internet browser like Firefox. If you use a browser it takes a second for JAVA to start and then it rips.

When I opened the Vector desktop on my Windows laptop using Firefox in the address line as "192.168.2.9:5801"
VNC uses port 5800 on the server side (my Vector machine), use 580X where X is the display number. (VNC tells you the display number when it starts.)

Your browser asks for the password you had set on  the VNC server. Enter that.

Depending on your window manager (I think) it may work great.

If it does not give you a pretty Vector desktop then ...
My browser gave me a plain gray display with a Vector Terminal Window in it. Not very useful. I want to see the Vector desktop and be able to use it completely, including running apps and transfering files from my windows box.

In a terminal window tyoe "ps -aux" to get the process number of the vnc process, type "kill xxxx" where xxx is the process number.

To get a perfect display of Vector in on your browser or  windows you must edit the xstartup file in your Home directory.

Go to Home, in the view menu select "View Hidden Files". You wil see a .vnc directory.

You will see the xstartup file. right click on it and open it with Abiword.

Make the contents of xstartup look like this...


#!/bin/sh

?
unset SESSION_MANAGER
 exec /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc

[ -x /etc/vnc/xstartup ] && exec /etc/vnc/xstartup
[ -r $HOME/.Xresources ] && xrdb $HOME/.Xresources
xsetroot -solid grey
vncconfig -iconic &
xterm -geometry 80x24+10+10 -ls -title "$VNCDESKTOP Desktop" &
startx &


Save this file and restart vnc in a terminal window "vncserver"
Now go back to your windows VNC viewer or browser and there is the pretty Vector desktop.

Thats it I think. Solving this in Vector allowed me to learn a bunch about Linux and Vector. Frustrating and satisfying. I will keep at it.

Thanks to all of the committed and enthusiastic Vector Forum folks. I would have been lost without you all. (and Google)

P

[wcs]

Great that it's working now.

(if you happen to want to use vnc on an existent X-session in vector, try x11vnc from the repo; you can use tightvnc as well to view it.)

[LeeDB]

One quick comment - I know there were some strong recommendations to use only the vector packages, but sometimes a slackware package is the only solution.  I have found that the following source has many items that I have not found anywhere else:

http://ftp://darkstar.ist.utl.pt/pub/slackware/addon/slacky/slackware-12.0/

This source is already in Gslapt under preferences. It's not selected by default, but it's only a matter of checking the box to select it.  Both vnc and tightvnc are there, for example.

I use pyneighborhood to share files between the VL box and my Windows box.  I agree with the other comment that it has to be run under root in order for mounting to work.  That's a bit annoying, but not a show-stopper.

Lee

[caitlyn]

Actually, Lee, there is another good alternative.  Get the source and use the graphical vpackager to build the package.  It really does make it easy for a moderately experienced user to turn a source tarball into a package within the GUI.

[LeeDB]

Thanks for the reminder, Caitlyn.  I do want to give that a try, and I'm glad to know there is a graphical vpackager available.

Lee