BIP KB:
How To Install And Configure X11 With Remote VNC Access On Centos 5

The instructions below will walk you through the process of installing the X window system, GNOME desktop environment, and configuring VNC so that you can access it remotely.

yum -y upgrade
yum -y groupinstall "GNOME Desktop Environment"
yum -y install vnc-server

As a general rule of thumb, you should never run X windows as root. In this example, we will add a system user with the username 'wkst' and configure X windows to run under that user.

adduser wkst

Next, you need to set a password for the user wkst:

passwd wkst

Next, we will drop down to the system user 'wkst' using su and configure VNC. When running the vnc server binary you will again be asked to set a password. This will be the password you use in your VNC client.

su wkst
vncserver

Next, you need to edit /home/wkst/.vnc/xstartup and uncomment the following two lines:

unset SESSION_MANAGER
exec /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc

Next, we want to restart VNC so the changes take effect

vncserver -kill:1
vncserve

That's it, you can now connect to your server using the server IP address with a: 1 (the display port) at the end of it using your VNC client.


Tags: don't wait to educate, centos 4 and 5, centos, how-to, vnc, X window, x11

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