I would like to run a remote GUI session over a LAN and possibly from outside the LAN. The LAN consists of four boxes (RH 8.0, RH 9, Win2K, and WinXP) and a black box DSL router. The RH 9 box is my main machine; the RH 8.0 box is my experimental machine and has no monitor. The Windows machines are used by the less enlightened here ;)
My questions:
1. Is the remote X method I will describe below safe to use on a LAN?
2. Would it be safe if I used the same method from outside the LAN via the Internet?
My working method:
1. Open a virtual console:
Ctrl+Alt+F1
2. Log in to an account that is present on the local and remote machines.
3. Issue the command:
$ xinit -- :1
This will start an X-server on virtual console 8 (i.e., Ctrl+Alt+F8) which is actually controlled by virtual console 1 (i.e., Crtl+Alt+F1).
NOTE: I don't remember where I found this command, and I don't yet fully understand what it does.
4. In the virtual terminal window that appears on the X-server in console, use ssh to log in to the remote machine.
5. Logged in to the remote machine, issue a command that will start a GUI desktop (e.g., gnome-session, blackbox, etc.).
