[kwlug-disc] Sharing desktop in Xubuntu

[CrankyOldBugger]

I use TeamViewer at work at home, on both Linux and Windows clients.  I
also have it on my Android phone.  It works very well!

Until recently, I was using x11RDP for connecting to my Ubuntu clients,
however this is broken in 14.04.  I have not yet heard of a fix.  But when
it was working, you could get full GUI desktops, and in my opinion it ran
faster than TeamViewer.  If they do post a fix for 14.04 I will echo to the
group.



On 24 August 2014 06:05, Paul Nijjar <paul_nijjar at yahoo.ca> wrote:

>
> We are doing a refresh of our installation mechanisms at Computer
> Recycling. One thing I would like to support is being able to securely
> help people with their Linux installs remotely. The best solution I
> know of is proprietary: TeamViewer, which has the following
> advantages:
>
> - Once TeamViewer is installed on the client, it is easy for customers
>   to share their desktops. They just run the program and tell us the
>   access code.
> - The program is only running when people need support.
> - From what I understand, communications are encrypted.
> - The users do not need to forward ports or expose anything on the
>   Internet.
> - The technician is not bound to using any particular machine for
>   seeing the remote desktop connection -- anything which supports the
>   TeamViewer client will work.
> - If necessary the technician can take control of the customer
>   desktop.
>
> I would like to find something FLOSSy that comes close to this
> functionality. I know some of you have this issue as well, so maybe
> some of you have solutions I can steal. But the problem seems more
> difficult than it looks.
>
> For example, in a previous KWLUG presentation Gordon Dey said that he
> opens up SSH on the computers he takes care of, and uses some kind of
> dynamic DNS thing to connect into those computers when he needs to
> connect in. That is not a terrible solution, but it does not work for
> us: it essentially makes a backdoor that could be exploited, and we
> are not doing full-time systems administration for every machine.
>
> Here are some of the things I have been thinking of:
>
> - There is a program called pigterm (http://pigterm.sf.net) which uses
>   XMPP to establish terminal connections between two computers. This
>   might work if we establish a Jabber server someplace (which I guess
>   we could, since we have a Linode).
>
> - Similarly, GNOME supposedly supports desktop screen sharing via its
>   Empathy client, but that does not work for us because we typically
>   are not installing GNOME on client machines.
>
> - There is some Chrome extension called "Chrome Remote Desktop" which
>   would require installing Chromium and the extension on these
>   computers. This might be the best alternative, but Google creeps me
>   out.
>
> - There is some concept called "Reverse VNC" which allows the
>   customer's computer to make an outgoing connection to the technician
>   machine, and then the technician machine can see the customer
>   computer. There is a program called x11vnc which supposedly makes
>   this easier. But this requires us to open up some port on our
>   network, which is suboptimal for us.
>
> - I keep thinking vague fuzzy thoughts about SSH tunnels. I could
>   potentially install a public key for some server on each client
>   machine, and then when people want support they could click a
>   shortcut that would make an SSH connection to a server. Either this
>   means opening up a port on our network again, or we have to use an
>   external server like our Linode to serve as a broker (after which it
>   would hopefully make a direct connection between us, which is even
>   vaguer and fuzzier to me).
>
> - Drawing on another KWLUG presentation, maybe we set up a
>   BigBlueButton server, which supports desktop sharing. But
>   BigBlueButton has very high bandwidth requirements, which we cannot
>   provide. Also the client sharing the desktop needs Java installed.
>
> I really ought to be writing out this email AFTER I have come up with
> a well-tested solution, but I am hoping that somebody else has solved
> this problem for me already.
>
> - Paul
>
>
> --
> http://pnijjar.freeshell.org
>
>
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