Comments on How to access your Ubuntu 14.04 Desktop securely over the network with FreeNX

Used FreeNX for a few years, but it didn't work on 14.04 last year when I needed it.  The good news is that x2go, also based on NX/ssh, was ready and worked. Plus x2go doesn't need any manual tweaking on the server side to work.

http://wiki.x2go.org/doku.php/doc:installation:x2goserver has perfect instructions for Ubuntu. Since it is ssh-based for the tunnel, we can setup ssh keys and not be bothered with authentication at connect time.

x2go/FreeNX is about 2x-3x more network efficient than either RDP or VNC, plus is uses ssh, so security isn't the same concern. Getting audio and file sharing between the client/server under x2go is trivial.

Downsides do exist. No viable Android NX client exists, but there are great, stable, clients for Windows, OSX, and Linux. Like all remote desktops, video isn't great, but audio does work well. Also, NX is built on some older versions of X11, so that might be a real concern.

My primary desktop is actually a virtual machine, running in a private cloud, accessed through x2go from anywhere in the world. It is THAT GOOD.

I was having issues in the past where a Unity-based Ubuntu (or Gnome 3) desktop would display, but with no icon bar, or no display at all. Will this install solve such problem, or do I have to install a different desktop than Unity or Gnome 3 ? 

Question: 

"The default port used by FreeNX is port 22 for SSH. There are chances that your port 22 might be blocked by your ISP due to security reasons, so basically we will have to change the default port for SSH" connections"

If i replace Port 22 for Port 8888 - does this not affect sshd globally?

What if i still want to be able to ssh to my machine on standard port 22 as usual, 

but would like to additionally fire up freenx and connect to it on port 8888 ?

BR/Mikael

 You can have sshd listen on multiple ports.  The method i'm using (in RHEL6) is:

As root:

ln -s /usr/sbin/sshd /usr/sbin/sshd_2

create /etc/ssh/sshd_2_configPort <some_other_port_number>AddressFamily inetListenAddress xxx.xxx.xxx.xxxProtocol 2SyslogFacility AUTHPRIVSubsystem sftp /usr/libexec/openssh/sftp-serverPermitRootLogin noUsePAM yesAllowTcpForwarding yesAllowGroups <allowed_groups>

cp /etc/init.d/sshd{,_2}Update you're new /etc/init.d/sshd_2 file, updating sshd with sshd_2

Then add sshd_2 to chkconfig.

I haven't tried it on Debian based distros, but I would assume the config files will be the same. 

sudo apt-get upgrade

Sorry, but this is wrong, this will not update your repositories but will update pending (security) updates and/or upgrade your system. What you meant is "update" not "upgrade"

I also would like to recommend X2GO server. Being a long time Remote user , I've used SSH,  RDP , Nomachine, Tunneled VNC over SSH , but I was really impressed by X2GO since it requires minimal configuration and it's light on resources and makes me feel like I'm actually in front of the computer.

   The X2GO feature I appreciate the most is that when I connect to the remote linux machine , I get a secondary graphical session generated by the X2GO server. This completely independent from any local session on that machine. (This is something  Nomachine did in it's older versions , but I can't seem to enable now in the free verion )

x2go is a much easier implementation of freenx

We obviously have x2go developers writing here. FreeNx died years ago,  and x2go wont be far off. both have done nothing except cause incompatibilities with the original NX which I am glad to see is still going strong. They have moved on, so should x2go if it wants to keep up.

I just use ssh direct rather than the extra overhead of something like NX or any other full desktop over the network application.

ssh -XC [email protected] works for me. If I need to use a GUI X over ssh is all I need. I just type the required GUI application into the terminal and interact with it.

I use ThinLinc from Cendio AB, Sweden. It's not 100% opensource (about 99% is though) but it's free to use if you stay below 10 x concurrent connections. The installation is very trivial. In addition to the dedicated clients (available for Linux, Windows, Mac OS X) it has a HTML 5 interface too (can be added as install option) so you can use any HTML 5 compliant browser to remotely access your Linux desktop. Performance is tip top. So if running partially commercial software (as I said: most components are open source; not all though) doesn't bother you too much, give ThinLinc a try? And no, I am not affiliated with them in any way. I'm just a happy user.

Mark Bohr, you should be a little more specific if you don't want your post to appear to trollish! "We obviously have x2go developers writing here. FreeNx died years ago,  and x2go wont be far off. "

Why?  There is still nothing that comes even close to the performance of NX3.  NX4 is not open, so I doubt that it will ever receive the uptake NX3 has.  X2Go will continue to be developed simply because it addresses a problem that is very real and it does so really well.So if you have real criticism, please post it, but tell us what it is.  Your comment is really meaningless otherwise.

"both have done nothing except cause incompatibilities with the original NX which I am glad to see is still going strong. They have moved on, so should x2go if it wants to keep up."So are you an NX4 developer or what qualifies you to pronouce this verdict?  NX4 is frustrating, difficult to use and I have not bothered with it since I tried it a while ago.  It clearly does not fit the bill for people that want lightweight fast remote GUI access.

I was an happy user of FreeNX.Now I moved to x2go, but I've a lot of trouble.I tryed first on Ubuntu 14.04 (Gnome) with no luck (it shows background only, with no menu, tabs...).Then I moved to Lubuntu 14.04 but Firefox continuosly hangs.Could you please suggest the optimal enviroment for x2go (I need also audio)?

Thanks!

 I tried you steps above, but the file /var/lib/nxserver/home/.ssh/client.id_dsa.key didn't exist. What's going on?

Dear all,

I am having issues getting my NXserver to run. When I start it I obtain:

Not starting freenx-server, it's already started.

I stop it and get:

NX> 500 Error: No running sessions found.

I already followed the instructions above which include created keys and copying the files into my client. However when I run my client I get and error 107. 

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks

hi i got an issue while i execute apt-get install freenx-server :

it gives error as follow :

 apt-get install freenx-serverReading package lists... DoneBuilding dependency treeReading state information... DoneE: Unable to locate package freenx-server

how can i resolve it

Should be "sudo apt-get update" instead of upgrade.