How do I use VNC?

Start a vnc-server on the machine you want to control, with vncserver :1 (:1 means display 1). You will be asked to define a password for accessing your server and another one for just observing without interacting. After that, your server is up and running and you can connect to it with any available VNC-clients (e.g. TightVNC) by entering the hostname you want to connect to, like hostname:1.

VNC through SSH tunnel

• Start VNC Server on remote host

  • vncserver :<display#> -localhost

• Start viewer on client

  • vncviewer -via <remotehost>.ee.ethz.ch localhost:<display#>

Troubleshooting

If you are using gnome as default desktop environment and are affected by completely wrong keyboard-layout after logon to gnome (http://bugs.debian.org/476727) use the following workaround:

Directly in the line before /etc/X11/Xsession of $HOME/.vnc/xstartup add the line

export XKL_XMODMAP_DISABLE=1