FreeNX Server and Client Installation in Debian Etch

FreeNX is a system that allows you to access your desktop from another machine over the internet. You can use this to login graphically to your desktop from a remote location. One example of its use would be to have a FreeNX server set up on your home computer, and graphically logging in to the home computer from your work computer, using a FreeNX client.

Terminology You Should know

The Server is the computer you want to connect to. This is the computer where the FreeNX server will need to be installed. The name of the Ubuntu package providing the server is “freenx”. For the example used here, the home computer is the server.

The Client is the computer from which you want to be able to access the Server. The name of the Ubuntu package providing the client is “nxclient”. For the example used here, the work computer is the client.

Install Required software

NX server needs ssh and some libraries to run. These packages are normally not installed during the basic installation process.Use the following comamnd to install

#aptitude libstdc++2.10-glibc2.2 ssh

Install Free NX Server in Debian Etch

First you need to download the .deb packages using the follwoing commands

#wget http://64.34.161.181/download/2.1.0/Linux-NoXft/nxclient_2.1.0-17_i386.deb

#wget http://64.34.161.181/download/2.1.0/Linux/nxnode_2.1.0-22_i386.deb

#wget http://64.34.161.181/download/2.1.0/Linux/FE/nxserver_2.1.0-22_i386.deb

Now you need to install .deb packages in the following order this is very important

#dpkg -i nxclient_2.1.0-17_i386.deb

#dpkg -i nxnode_2.1.0-22_i386.deb

#dpkg -i nxserver_2.1.0-22_i386.deb

If you get any errors use the following comamnd to fix

#apt-get -f install

Now you need to make sure ssh and nx servers are running if not start with the following commands

#/etc/init.d/ssh start

#/etc/init.d/nxserver start

Freenx client installation in Windows

First you need to download freenx from here 

Once you finish the installation you should be having freenx shortcut in your desktop now you need to double click on that and you should see the following screen and click next here

This will complete the connection to your server

Freenx client installation in Debian

First you need to download the client .deb package using the following command

#wget http://64.34.161.181/download/2.1.0/Linux-NoXft/nxclient_2.1.0-17_i386.deb

Install .deb package using the following comamnd

#dpkg -i nxclient_2.1.0-17_i386.deb

If you get any errors use the following comamnd to fix

#apt-get -f install

Now you need to go to Applications–>Internet–>NX Client for Linux –> NX Client for Linux once it opens you can follow the above procedure to connect

Optional Configuration

Changing SSH port Number

By default, nxserver uses port 22 for communicating over SSH. On some machines or networks, port 22 may be blocked. For example, some providers block port 22. To make the SSH server listen on port 8888, you can do the following:

Edit the file /etc/ssh/sshd_config

#vi /etc/ssh/sshd_config

Find

Port 22

and change it to

Port 8888

You then need to restart SSHD. Try

#/etc/init.d/ssh restart

Edit the file /etc/nxserver/node.conf

#vi /etc/nxserver/node.conf

Find

# The port number where local ’sshd’ is listening.

#SSHD_PORT=22

and change it to:

# The port number where local ’sshd’ is listening.

SSHD_PORT=8888

That is, change the port number to the one that sshd is listening to, and uncomment the line.