some vnc / ubuntu questions

[Dist]

since my course im on atm is comming to an end i have more time on my hands so i thought i would use this time to set up a linux box to try things out and get a bit of experiance with linux using my old pc. First off, i only have 1 monitor, and i would rather not buy a KVM switch as i dont realy have the money, so i heared about VNC, that will allow me to remotly controll the box over a lan using my current pcs monitor/mouse/keyboard. my first question is, is it possible to get it so when i start up the pc that will have ubuntu on it that itll automaticaly run the needed vnc stuff, because if i have to manualy swap the keyboard/mouse/monitor each time i boot up the pc to start the vnc program, it would jsut be too much hassle.

secondly, if i can get all that working so when i boot the pc it autopmaticaly runs the vnc software so i can controll it from my main pc, the vnc website says that the free version lacks file transfering? does this mean i wont be able to share a folder on my windows pc and open that folder on the ubuntu machine and transfer across the file?(thats even if a linux machine can even see/access a windows shared folder).

 

[LostCorpse]

Not to sure on the spesicifs but VNC will probably onl work if you have an x sesion running and you probably wont be able to use it for heavy CMD use maybe SSH would be better?

VNC doesn't have a file transfer protocal but others like ultraVNC do. This will not stop you from sharing folders fro windows or linux. The files transfer it refers to is an FTP style file transfer.

 

[Dunky]

File Sharing would be best done via Samba (if sharing with Windows boxes), VNC only works if there's an X Server running, as stated above if it's command line stuff then best use SSH and control it remotely via that. Using SSH requires you to download an SSH client (Putty is the most popular one) for your Windows box and you connect to the Linux machine and a terminal window is displayed which executes commands on the Linux box. Should also note you can transfer files over SSH (using SCP) - although you'll need an SCP client for the Windows machine (I recommend WinSCP).

 

[ByteJuggler]

since my course im on atm is comming to an end i have more time on my hands so i thought i would use this time to set up a linux box to try things out and get a bit of experiance with linux using my old pc. First off, i only have 1 monitor, and i would rather not buy a KVM switch as i dont realy have the money, so i heared about VNC, that will allow me to remotly controll the box over a lan using my current pcs monitor/mouse/keyboard. my first question is, is it possible to get it so when i start up the pc that will have ubuntu on it that itll automaticaly run the needed vnc stuff, because if i have to manualy swap the keyboard/mouse/monitor each time i boot up the pc to start the vnc program, it would jsut be too much hassle.

secondly, if i can get all that working so when i boot the pc it autopmaticaly runs the vnc software so i can controll it from my main pc, the vnc website says that the free version lacks file transfering? does this mean i wont be able to share a folder on my windows pc and open that folder on the ubuntu machine and transfer across the file?(thats even if a linux machine can even see/access a windows shared folder).

Firstly, yes, it is possible to set up your Linux box to serve up it's X session (either an already running session, which is the easiest, or the login manager itself, so you can logon via VNC, much like on Windows) You can even set it up with a bit more work to behave a bit like a terminal server, so every time you connect to it you get a new session. The easiest way to go initially, is to use telnet or ssh to log into the machine first, and then start a Xvncserver session, which will allow you to connect to that X desktop just started. The other 2 requires more setup.

Secondly, as for file transferring: Some VNC's support file transferring as part of the VNC protocol. This has nothing to do with normal Windows file sharing etc. I would recommend you forget about VNC's file transfer support and just use Windows file sharing/Samba which works really well.

 

[Dist]

thanks for the help, but it turns out i wont be able to do anything anyway

when i finished reading the replys i started my machine, reading to install ubuntu, but turns out the built in graphics card doesnt work, making my monitor just display 'no signal' and that i cant see whats going on, so i cant install the OS to even get to the point where i can setup VNC.

thanks for the help everyone, but i guess im going to have to put of my attempt at linux for a while.