Hi everyone,

This may be a little off topic, but I would like to know if there is an application I can install on my Knoppmyth machine and be able to have full control of the PC for playing around upgrading, etc from my WinXP machine. Something like the remote desktop feature of netmeeting. Playback is on the projector now because the TV out is not hooked up yet, so I don't want to be in there with the projector on for hours every day while I play with it. Any ideas? I may have to go with a KVM switch but something software would be great.

Thanks.

There are two commonly used solutions, ssh, which gives you a telnet like shell to the box, and VNC, which gives you a remote desktop.

ssh is installed by default in KnoppMyth. All that is requried is knowing your password. Putty has worked well for me as a Windows client.

VNC is a bit more work to get going, and is not a great solution if you plan on watching TV, or Videos on another computer. I personally prefer TightVNC, as a server on the computer, then using any of a large number of clients to attach to it. I don't have a prefered one for WinXP, as I don't have a copy of that running anywhere. There is a server availabel for Mandrake, called rfbdrake that provides a server for the existing desktop. I do not know how easy it would be to re-compile that for Debian, or if there is another Remote Frame Buffer implementation available.

If you are interested in playing video to your desktop, rather than just controlling the desktop, your best option would be to have another Linux box running MythTv-Front-End. I don't know enough about setting that up to walk you through it, but it is the front end you see on MythTV. It attaches to the MythTv-Back-End running on your MythTv box, and you can do everything as if you were at that box, including scheduling recordings, watching recorded videos (and I believe live TV) etc. Depending upon what you are trying to do, this might be your best bet, (other than requiring another linux box)

If you really want do the last paragraph on a WinXP box rather than having another Linux box, you might want to see if MythTV Front End has a port to the CigWin tools to run on Windows.

-Rusty

well of those choices ssh is command line and may not be appropriate depending on what you want.

vnc does show a graphical enviornment, but not the gui that displays localy, so it also may not be appropriate.

rfb is available in the debian archive, but I have never used it and have no idea what affect it might have on the mythtv setup.

If you wanted to try it you should be able to get it installed with

apt-get update
apt-get install rfb

rfb is a vnc server that serves up the local display. Or at least that has been my experience under Mandrak. I have not used it under Debian, so I am not sure how well it will work.

yes that was my understanding too, but I have never used it, and I don't know how well it will work, I am looking at it to play around with it on my desktop (not knoppmyth) I can't find any documentation on it though. The documentation installed with the packages says just go look at the website, but the website that it points you to doesn't exist.

Thanks for the info, rusty0101 and Xsecrets. I will look into rfb. I'm not looking for a front end, just want to be able to research on my Windows box while I learn and play on the Linux box without having to go into another room or even look at a different monitor. Would love to be able to just alt-tab to my Knoppmyth box. Hopefully it works and displays the X GUI also.

Thanks again.

Been watching this thread... here's my 2 cents. ssh is the way to go But if you need the graphical portion, I can't offer anything beyond what was said here.

I will say that a long time ago I was messing around with Redhat 6 I think, and I figured out how to get a xserver running on there and then using a free xcleint for windows (can't remember which one), was able to log into gnome and see everything as if I was in front of the RH box.

Sorry I can't remember specifics, but it did work.

I actually think that a windows front end for myth would kick ass. This has been talked about and it sounds a LONG way off if it all

_________________
Retired KM user (R4 - R6.04); friend to LH users.

I use a kvm switch for a couple of desktop computers, which works fairly well. The only problem I would see for your situation is that you would need to also add a second monitor switch to split the output between your Projector and the kvm switch. Moving the cable may work, but sounds like a major anoyance.

If the output is already going into a scan converter, rather than a vga connector on the projector, this would not be a problem. However I have noticed that a scan converter gives a lousy output to my TV compared to a Monitor.