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Tim Burgess
Tim Burgess
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Xfce4 Remote Desktop - Headless Setup ClearOS 6.x

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Ever wanted a local GUI that you could connect to remotely, and do basic file administration tasks? There is a Howto on installing Gnome but I wanted something a little more lightweight

Now you can thanks to the clearos-epel and clearos-core repo's. using TightVNC and Xfce4 you can setup a graphical UI that is only required when you want it...

Installation
[ol]
  • Install Xfce4
    yum groupinstall Xfce --enablerepo=clearos-epel
    
yum install tigervnc-server

  • Create user 
    useradd -r vncuser
    
su - vncuser
    
vncpasswd

  • edit /etc/sysconfig/vncservers and add the following two lines
    VNCSERVERS="1:vncuser"
    
VNCSERVERARGS[1]="-geometry 1024x768"

  • Edit /home/vncuser/.vnc/xstartup, change twm to startxfce4, and comment out if xinitrc sections
    [ -r /etc/sysconfig/i18n ] && . /etc/sysconfig/i18n
    
export LANG
    
export SYSFONT
    
vncconfig -iconic &
    
unset SESSION_MANAGER
    
unset DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS
    
OS=`uname -s`
    
if [ $OS = 'Linux' ]; then
    
  case "$WINDOWMANAGER" in
    
    *gnome*)
    
      if [ -e /etc/SuSE-release ]; then
    
        PATH=$PATH:/opt/gnome/bin
    
        export PATH
    
      fi
    
      ;;
    
  esac
    
fi
    
#if [ -x /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc ]; then
    
#  exec /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc
    
#fi
    
#if [ -f /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc ]; then
    
#  exec sh /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc
    
#fi
    
[ -r $HOME/.Xresources ] && xrdb $HOME/.Xresources
    
xsetroot -solid grey
    
xterm -geometry 80x24+10+10 -ls -title "$VNCDESKTOP Desktop" &
    
startxfce4 &

  • Install tightvnc on client from http://sourceforge.net/projects/vnc-tight/
  • Run service
    service vncserver start

  • Run TightVNC from client and connect to hostname:1 (or ipaddress:1)
    display 1 = port 5901
    display 2 = port 5902 etc..
  • Install a local browser (optional)
    yum install firefox


    • [/ol]
    Enjoy :) screenshot below

    http://www.clearfoundation.com/media/kunena/attachments/legacy/images/xfce4.jpg
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    Wednesday, July 11 2012, 12:00 PM
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    Responses (19)

    • Accepted Answer

      Harushi
      Harushi
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      Monday, July 28 2014, 02:38 PM - #Permalink
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      Hi,

      i've installed Xfce4 and VNC-Server on ClearOS 6.5, 64bit. So far, it seems okay. But... VNC-Connection from another PC in LAN is okay (with TightVNC Viewer) but Remote-Screen is only black with the mouse-cursor. Whats wrong? Can you tell me Please?

      Thanx.
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    • Accepted Answer

      Tony Ellis
      Tony Ellis
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      Friday, April 25 2014, 11:08 PM - #Permalink
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      You can also use evince to view pdf files...
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    • Accepted Answer

      Robert Oram
      Robert Oram
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      Friday, April 25 2014, 06:30 PM - #Permalink
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      :woohoo: Update! I figured out how to install mono, and now I can use Duplicati, but only from the command line. The GUI launches, then locks up. Also, I found a simple PDF viewer, xpdf. Both install commands are below. I hope this saves someone a little Googling!


      
yum install mono-winforms expect --enablerepo=clearos-core,clearos-epel
      

      
yum install xpdf --enablerepo=clearos-core,clearos-epel
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    • Accepted Answer

      Robert Oram
      Robert Oram
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      Saturday, April 05 2014, 11:57 PM - #Permalink
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      To follow up on this idea, what is the best way to install apps that are not in the COS repos? For example, now that I have Xfce installed and working via vnc, how can I install a PDF reader? Or Mono? I tried using "--enablerepo=clearos-core,clearos-epel" but could not find a PDF reader there.

      Thanks!
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    • Accepted Answer

      Robert Oram
      Robert Oram
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      Saturday, April 05 2014, 04:07 PM - #Permalink
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      Use this command on 6.5.


      
yum groupinstall Xfce --enablerepo=clearos-core,clearos-epel
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    • Accepted Answer

      Nick Howitt
      Nick Howitt
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      Sunday, March 16 2014, 09:57 PM - #Permalink
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      Also try enabling the clearos-core repo with your yum command.
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    • Accepted Answer

      Robert
      Robert
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      Sunday, March 16 2014, 09:41 PM - #Permalink
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      Hi,

      interesting thread. I experienced a problem with clearos 6.5 64bit because of missing dependencies:

      redhat-menus
      libpoppler-glib.so.4() (64bit)
      libxklavier.so.15() (64bit)
      polkit-gnome
      librecode.so.0() (64bit)

      is there a way around those or can I maybe just skip them?

      Thanks for your help.

      Best

      Robert

      EDIT: Enable repo clearos-core did the trick.
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    • Accepted Answer

      Tim Burgess
      Tim Burgess
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      Thursday, May 09 2013, 08:13 AM - #Permalink
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      Thanks for the feedback! - I've also been experimenting with Gnome, which can now be installed in one yum command
      http://www.clearfoundation.com/component/option,com_kunena/Itemid,232/catid,38/func,view/id,49742/#51860
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    • Accepted Answer

      Paul Park
      Paul Park
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      Thursday, May 09 2013, 05:07 AM - #Permalink
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      Thanks Tim. Still works ten months since the post.

      Also for those who use wine, only the 32-bit version of clearos 6.4 has no missing dependencies at this point if repos are enabled.
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    • Accepted Answer

      Toni Mahoni
      Toni Mahoni
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      Monday, November 26 2012, 10:12 PM - #Permalink
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      herballizard wrote:
      If you wanted to remote into it and use RDP on a windows client instead of vnc you could always install http://www.xrdp.org/


      So you found out how to install it on ClearOs ?

      As i am getting closer to the setup finish i will need some remote management :)
      (Lubuntu--->ClearOs)
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    • Accepted Answer

      Toni Mahoni
      Toni Mahoni
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      Saturday, November 24 2012, 04:23 PM - #Permalink
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      Thank you, i will try
      h t t p s://127.0.0.1:81 <========= remove spaces between the letters
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    • Accepted Answer

      herballizard
      herballizard
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      Friday, November 23 2012, 10:09 PM - #Permalink
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      If you wanted to remote into it and use RDP on a windows client instead of vnc you could always install http://www.xrdp.org/
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    • Accepted Answer

      yaye
      yaye
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      Friday, November 23 2012, 03:15 AM - #Permalink
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      Maybe:

      h t t p s://127.0.0.1:81 <========= remove spaces between the letters

      or as can be seen in Tim's picture of Firefox accessing the webgui,

      h t t p s://localhost:81 <========= remove spaces between the letters
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    • Accepted Answer

      Toni Mahoni
      Toni Mahoni
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      Friday, November 23 2012, 12:31 AM - #Permalink
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      yaye wrote:
      From Tim's write up, it seems to install Xfce, you only have to run the first command:

      yum groupinstall Xfce --enablerepo=clearos-epel


      Everything else seems to be about installing and configuring the VNC client and server.


      tyvm sir :)


      One more question, how can i access the webconfig then locally, https://127.0.0.1 gives me an error (Firefox doesn't know how to open this adress).
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    • Accepted Answer

      yaye
      yaye
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      Thursday, November 22 2012, 10:53 PM - #Permalink
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      From Tim's write up, it seems to install Xfce, you only have to run the first command:

      yum groupinstall Xfce --enablerepo=clearos-epel


      Everything else seems to be about installing and configuring the VNC client and server.
      The reply is currently minimized Show

    • Accepted Answer

      Toni Mahoni
      Toni Mahoni
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      Thursday, November 22 2012, 10:35 PM - #Permalink
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      How can i use the xfce desktop without this vnc stuff ?
      Is the only thing i have to do install Xfce ?
      Or what is the easy-for -beginners version of this ?
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    • Accepted Answer

      herballizard
      herballizard
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      Saturday, July 14 2012, 03:35 AM - #Permalink
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      I have been using xrdp on a suse (kde4) desktop vm which I remote into from work, I wonder if I could do it on clear
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    • Accepted Answer

      Tim Burgess
      Tim Burgess
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      Wednesday, July 11 2012, 08:17 PM - #Permalink
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      Hi Marcel, yes I believe you can... get to a local console by pressing Ctrl+Atl+F2, then login as root, 'su vncuser' and run 'startxfce4'
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    • Accepted Answer

      x
      x
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      Wednesday, July 11 2012, 07:04 PM - #Permalink
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      Hi Tim,

      Nice how-to

      Is it possible to get a desktop on my console. My server is in the basement so when i'm in the basement i have to go upstairs to access the web interface. I know Zentyal has a lightweight desktop environment running on the console although it has a web interface. I think ClearOS also needs a lightweight desktop interface.
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