Very Very easy Virtual Network Computing in Ubuntu

Million thanks to sk for posting about VNC. I wanted to do that for a long time but was plain lazy. The following "guide" explains how to setup a VNC server in ubuntu and how to connect to another VNC server from ubuntu to any other OS.

Setting up VNC server in ubuntu

Ubuntu comes with Real VNC server installed by default

Goto System->Preferences->Remote Desktop. You'll get a window that looks like this

Make sure the first option is checked. All the other options are optional. Thats it. You know have a Real VNC server running on your ubuntu box which other users can connect to using your ip. To get your ip in ubuntu open Applications->Accessories->Terminal and type in ifconfig.

Connecting to another VNC server(on any OS) from ubuntu

Thankfully Ubuntu also comes with Real VNC viewer installed by default. For example consider that the ip of the VNC server you want to connect to is 202.164.133.28

Open up Applications->Accesories->Terminal and type in vncviewer 202.164.133.28 and press enter


Note: If you are connecting to a VNC server on a windows machine and this command gives an error turn off "encryption" in the server.

If you are requested a password enter the password provided by the admin of the VNC server.

Voila! Uve succesfully connected to the VNC server.


Note there is a slight discoloration in the desktop being viewed remotely. This is because vncviewer is by default set to 8 bit color depth for increased speed during the VNC session.

The most interesting fact about VNC is that it is platform independent as VNC is written in Java which is a platform independent language. The above screenshot shows aarti's XP desktop being viewed from an Ubuntu desktop.


May the source be with you ;)