Frustrations using Linux (Mint)

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Fri Jun 27, 2014 10:12 pm

Welcome to a thread of death!

All I wanna do is have my Linux mint system somewhere in the house and log into it from my Windows desktop. That's all. I want the full 1920x1080 desktop available.

I *had* this working with the Cinnamon desktop for Mint and Tight VNC Server. Only my Mint machine power cycled when we lost power and I *think* automatically installed updates that broke it. All I get is a black screen trying to use Tight VNC.

(And trying to troubleshoot it... holy shit.)

So I thought I'd try Team Viewer. I had the Mint machine next to me. Had a monitor plugged in. Everything seemed cool. So I moved it next to the cable modem with no keyboard, mouse or monitor.

Team Viewer doesn't work unless you have a monitor. That's right. That's right. Christ!

So I could put the Mint system downstairs and give it all the fuggen monitors it wanted, only the Internet doesn't work downstairs.

It's fucking incredible how impossible it is to remote into a full desktop in Linux. And the fact that the assholes that work on this stuff release broken code with apparently no testing should get them shot.

RealNC · Post by **RealNC** » Sat Jun 28, 2014 1:10 am

I use x2go for remote desktop login. It's headless and provides an actual user-login environment, similar to Windows remote desktop login.

RealNC · Post by **RealNC** » Sat Jun 28, 2014 1:11 am

You can also use NX, which is a commercial solution (x2go is based on the core of NX, which is the only part that's free.)

The free version of NX has some limitations, but I don't think you'll need the enterprise stuff anyway.

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Sat Jun 28, 2014 7:46 am

ICJ, what are you using Linux for these days?

I've got one of my Raspberry Pi machines dedicated to emulation now. Lately I've been playing Atari 2600 and NES games on it -- runs like a champ! I've also got MAME on it -- it runs okay, depending on the ROM. I still have SCUMMVM set up on it but haven't had a chance to play many games on it. I've been dreaming of playing all the King's Quest games through. I may do that soon.

I also recently found a great tutorial on turning a RP into a dedicated security system, complete with motion capture of video and stills with the ability to stream it wirelessly to a network share. The whole thing costs less than $100 to build so I'm thinking that might be a fun summer project.

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Sun Jun 29, 2014 2:10 pm

RealNC wrote:I use x2go for remote desktop login. It's headless and provides an actual user-login environment, similar to Windows remote desktop login.

When you say headless -- are you saying you are not getting a desktop, then? You must not be, because if you didn't want a desktop, you'd use ssh.

I will look into this x2go, sir. Thank you.

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Sun Jun 29, 2014 2:13 pm

RealNC wrote:I use x2go for remote desktop login. It's headless and provides an actual user-login environment, similar to Windows remote desktop login.

Ah, it doesn't support the Cinnamon desktop. Crap.

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Sun Jun 29, 2014 3:07 pm

I feel like ALL any of these remote desktop apps for Linux can do is show a black screen.

I did everything as noted here:

http://ubuntupop.blogspot.com/2013/08/h ... linux.html

I connect.... black screen. It's sad that they don't have a reputation for this, because I think that once the devs get it working with their systems, they honestly don't care about anyone else's.

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Sun Jun 29, 2014 3:25 pm

Here's the log. Nothing about not showing up with anything, haha.

NXPROXY - Version 3.5.0

Copyright (C) 2001, 2010 NoMachine.
See http://www.nomachine.com/ for more information.

Info: Proxy running in client mode with pid '8444'.
Session: Starting session at 'Sun Jun 29 16:08:23 2014'.
Info: Connecting to remote host 'localhost:31001'.
Info: Connection to remote proxy 'localhost:31001' established.
Info: Connection with remote proxy completed.
Warning: Unrecognized session type 'unix-kde-depth_32'. Assuming agent session.
Warning: Failed to read data from the X auth command.
Warning: Generated a fake cookie for X authentication.
Info: Using LAN link parameters 1536/24/1/0.
Info: Using pack method '16m-jpeg-9' with session 'unix-kde-depth_32'.
Info: Not using NX delta compression.
Info: Not using ZLIB data compression.
Info: Not using ZLIB stream compression.
Info: Not using a persistent cache.
Info: Forwarding X11 connections to display 'localhost:0'.
Session: Session started at 'Sun Jun 29 16:08:23 2014'.
Info: Established X server connection.
Info: Using shared memory parameters 0/0K.

RealNC · Post by **RealNC** » Sun Jun 29, 2014 11:33 pm

Maybe you should be using Ubuntu if you're not a Unix wizzard.

Just saying...

ICJ · Post by **ICJ** » Mon Jun 30, 2014 12:21 am

RealNC wrote:Maybe you should be using Ubuntu if you're not a Unix wizzard.

Just saying...

I've got 10 years' experience using unix every day at work. All the real work I do is in Unix.

Dude, if the most basic instructions in the world result in a black screen when trying to use a virtual desktop, then it's the OS and software, not the users.

For all their faults, Microsoft solved this years ago.

RealNC · Post by **RealNC** » Mon Jun 30, 2014 1:18 am

Microsoft only supports one desktop. That's easy. On Linux, you have several Desktop systems (about 10 different ones, last time I checked.)

You said you're using Cinnamon. That might be the problem. But I'm not sure. All I know is that for me, it works fine with KDE, Gnome and Unity.

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Mon Jun 30, 2014 7:19 am

Yeah, it doesn't support Cinnamon. I installed Gnome... no idea if you can run two desktops like that.

There's stuff I can try. Hell, if I can get better internet downstairs, I'll use TeamViewer cos the thing will have a monitor. I have lots of OPTIONS. It just sucked that the one instruction guide gave me a zero.

Tdarcos · Post by **Tdarcos** » Fri Jul 04, 2014 5:02 pm

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:When you say headless -- are you saying you are not getting a desktop, then? You must not be, because if you didn't want a desktop, you'd use ssh.

I run my Macintosh completely headless, the only thing plugged into it is a $9 Tenda wireless adapter and a power cord. The driver for PowerPC initializes the adapter and startup, VNC is set up to run when the machine is started, and provides the Macintosh desktop as a window on Windows when I connect to it. Mouse and keyboard on my computer look and work like they're local to the Mac.

Let's not forget OS X is based on BSD.

Did you consider using a wireless adapter or buying or borrowing a really long Ethernet cable? Many wireless adapters will work with Linux, and a cable in the built-in network card always works.

RealNC · Post by **RealNC** » Fri Jul 04, 2014 5:22 pm

With headless, I meant that a screen is not required. Not even a graphics card is needed. The desktop is purely virtual.