NoMachine NX is a Terminal Server and remote access solution based
on a comprising set of enterprise class open source technologies. NX
makes it possible to run any graphical application on any operating
system across any network connection at incredible speed.
NOTE: Please make sure to configure your firewall correctly to allow SSH connections (Port 22) from both sides. FreeNX
application/thin-client server is based on NoMachine’s NX technology.
It can operate remote X11 sessions over 56k modem dialup links or
anything better. FreeNX package contains a free (GPL) implementation of
the nxserver component. The following workshop describes the FreeNX
installation on a Linux Suse 10.0 server.
In the workshop setup the NX server is running behind a firewall. You can access it from outside your environment (i.e. the Internet) via an analog or ISDN MODEM or from inside you LAN.
In the workshop setup the NX server is running behind a firewall. You can access it from outside your environment (i.e. the Internet) via an analog or ISDN MODEM or from inside you LAN.
You also need to allow inbound traffic TCP to port 5000.
The workshop setup could look like this:
Step 1: Install Suse 10.0 with FreeNX support
Please download Suse 10.0 here:
http://mirrors.kernel.org/ (California, San Francisco)
ftp://mirror.colorado.edu/ (Colorado, Boulder)
ftp://ftp.cise.ufl.edu/ (Florida, Gainesville)
ftp://ftp.belnet.be/ (Brussels)
ftp://sunsite.informatik.rwth-aachen.de/ (Aachen)
ftp://ftp.uni-kassel.de/ (Kassel)
ftp://klid.dk/ (Kopenhagen)
Install the default version and follow the instruction. Prepare the network settings like explained in the documentation. If you have problems, please find here a detailed description about the steps to be taken to setup a SUSE 9.3 based server:
http://www.howtoforge.com/perfect_setup_suse_9.3
To install FreeNX use SUSE Control Center (YAST2)- Software – Installation and search for the following packages:
FreeNX (Version 0.4.4-4)
knx (0.1-15)
Freenx requires the “expect” and “tcl” packages and YAST2 will automatically ask you to install them:
Step 2: Get SSH running on the server
80% of the authorization problems are ssh related. So please make sure that you are able to login to the server using a valid username. I recommend sing PuttY to connect to the ssh server.
Download it here:
http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html
If you have problems accessing the ssh server, make sure that the sever is really running and configured properly.Start the server as root:
/etc/init.d/sshd start Check the configuration editing the following file:
/etc/ssh/sshd_config
Enable the HostKey files like this.
Additionally make sure to add the client machines to the server’s /etc/hosts file.
Step 3 – Prepare first run and check file permissions
First of all you need to setup nx for your needs. It should normally work for the most distributions like this:
Additionally we need to check permissions on /var/lib/nxserver/home/.ssh/authorized_keys2
Permissions need to be 640, otherwise you won't be able to connect and you'll receive error messages in /var/log/messages.
chmod 640 /var/lib/nxserver/home/.ssh/authorized_keys2
Now we'll need to copy the secure key that was generated onto the client machines so that your NX client can use it. The key on the server is located in "/var/lib/nxserver/home/.ssh/client.id_dsa.key".
If you are using Linux on your client machines you will need to copy it to "/usr/NX/share/client.id_dsa.key" and chmod 644 it.
If you are using Windows on your client machines you will need to copy it to
C:\Program Files\NX client for Windows\share\
on your client machine. I’m using WinSCP to get this done. Just connet to the server as root and and drag and drop the file client.id_dsa.key from right to left.
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Step 4 – Run freenx and use Linux or Windows clients to connect to your server
Please make sure that sshd is running:
/etc/init.d/sshd status
/etc/init.d/sshd start
/etc/init.d/sshd stop
/etc/init.d/sshd restart
After the rpm package installation, freenx is already running. Start, stop and restart the service using the following commands:
nxserver --start: Starts the nx server
nxserver --stop: Stops the nx server
nxserver --status: Shows status of nx server
nxserver --restart: Restarts the nx server and terminate all running sessions
nxserver --help: Shows all options
Please download it from here and install it on your Linux client:
http://www.nomachine.com/download_client_linux.php
or use the kNX client we have installed in Step 1.
Windows NX client:
Download the NoMachine NX client for Windows here and install it on your Windows box:
http://www.nomachine.com/download_fil2.php?Prod_Id=16
At
this point we should have everything on our FreeNX server setup and
ready to test. It is now time to try connecting to your new FreeNX
server. Please keep in mind that the username you are using to login to
your Freenx server, is an accessible user created on the server. Good
luck!
Download workshop in pdf format here.
Comments:
Andries van der Leij
I could't find the key on the server which must be copied to the client and thought I was doing something wrong. I found out that if you use the argument: --setup-nomachine-key no such key is generated and the default nomachine key will be used:
from http://fedoranews.org/contributors/rick_stout/freenx/freenx.txt
/usr/bin/nxsetup
This script will setup the configuration directory, the "nx" user account,
its home directory and DSA keys, and user loopback DSA keys. By default and
for security reasons, unique DSA keys are generated by nxkeygen. It is also
possible to use the key from !M. To setup this key, do the following:
/usr/bin/nxsetup --setup-nomachine-key
If you choose this method, please read the security section for possible
issues.
maybe it is my lack of experience, but it took me a while to figure this out. I got it running now so thanks! hope this will help some other linux newbie...
Download workshop in pdf format here.
Comments:
Andries van der Leij
I could't find the key on the server which must be copied to the client and thought I was doing something wrong. I found out that if you use the argument: --setup-nomachine-key no such key is generated and the default nomachine key will be used:
from http://fedoranews.org/contributors/rick_stout/freenx/freenx.txt
/usr/bin/nxsetup
This script will setup the configuration directory, the "nx" user account,
its home directory and DSA keys, and user loopback DSA keys. By default and
for security reasons, unique DSA keys are generated by nxkeygen. It is also
possible to use the key from !M. To setup this key, do the following:
/usr/bin/nxsetup --setup-nomachine-key
If you choose this method, please read the security section for possible
issues.
maybe it is my lack of experience, but it took me a while to figure this out. I got it running now so thanks! hope this will help some other linux newbie...