VNC & Squeak

Kevin Fisher kfisher at rim.net
Mon Mar 15 18:37:09 UTC 1999


Hi All:

I just thought I'd share a little trick with the group, for those of us running
SWiki's and the like...

I have a SWiki set up on our internal lan that we in the MIS group make use of
for documentation, ideas and the like.  Initially it was running off my
personal desktop box.  I wanted to move it to a more 'server like' machine, and
yet I still wanted to be able to access the squeak desktop from my desktop
(what can I say, I'm a lazy X-windows kinda guy).  Plus, every time I had to
reset my X-server for whatever reason it would also take Squeak down.  

One solution I came up with was using VNC (Virtual Network Computing, formerly
from ORL UK, now AT&T) http://www.uk.research.att.com/vnc/ ...
This relates to the X11 version of VNC, which has a nifty X server called Xvnc.
 Essentially, Xvnc starts and doesn't 'display' on any physical display. 
Instead, you connect to the Xvnc server using the vnc client...sort of like PC
Anywhere meets X11 in reverse.  This way, I can set up apps that require a
display to be present to run on the vnc X server, and I can connect to that
server from anywhere in the building using the vnc client.

So, now I have Squeak running on a 'virtual' X-server, controlling a Swiki that
I can keep running all the time without it being tied to any display.  I'm sure
there are other solutions, but this one is the most fun. :)

Incidentally, for those who haven't used VNC before, there are windows clients
& servers available at the above link to (as well as contributed ports to
just about any hardware under the sun)...VNC has got to be one of the most
useful (free) tools out there.





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