Securely Administring Remote Machines Using Freenx in Ubuntu

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.

Installing the FreeNX server in Ubuntu

You need to add the following source list to your /etc/apt/sources.list file

sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

If you are using Ubuntu Dapper you need to add the following lines

deb http://free.linux.hp.com/~brett/seveas/freenx dapper-seveas freenx
deb-src http://free.linux.hp.com/~brett/seveas/freenx dapper-seveas freenx

Once you add above sources you need to save and exit this file now you need to

You need to authenticate these packages using the following command

wget http://free.linux.hp.com/~brett/seveas/freenx/1135D466.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add –

Once you add above sources you need to save and exit this file now you need toYou need to authenticate these packages using the following command

wget http://seveas.theplayboymansion.net/seveas/1135D466.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add –

Now you need to update the source list using the following command

sudo apt-get update

Install Freenx server

sudo apt-get install freenx

this will complate all the required packages for freenx.

One more important note is you have to install ssh package in your ubuntu machine because by default freenx server will use port 22 for communicating over ssh.

Install ssh in ubuntu

sudo apt-get install ssh

On some machines or networks, port 22 may be blocked or not allowed. For example, some providers block port 22. To make the SSH server listen on port 877, you can do the following

Edit the file /etc/ssh/sshd_config

sudo gedit /etc/ssh/sshd_config

Find

Port 22

and change it to

Port 877

You then need to restart SSHD. Try

sudo /etc/init.d/ssh restart

Edit the file /etc/nxserver/node.conf

sudo gedit /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=877

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

Now this will complete the freenx server installation now you need to download freenx client from here

In this example i am using freenx client for windows and i have installed in my windows xp machine

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

Here you need to enter the session name,server name or ipaddress and port number and click next

Now you need to choose your session and screen resolution and click next

Configuration completed screen and click finish

Now you need to enter the username and password you want to connect as and click login

Connection established screen

Finally connected to the remote machine and you can see this in the following screen

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8 thoughts on “Securely Administring Remote Machines Using Freenx in Ubuntu

  1. I had the same problem but adding a forward slash “/” at the end of “http://seveas.theplayboymansion.net/seveas” fixed that problem. But now I’m getting dependency errors.
    The following packages have unmet dependencies:
    freenx: Depends: expect
    nxagent: Depends: libxcomp1 but it is not installable
    Depends: libxcompext1 but it is not installable
    Depends: nxlibs but it is not installable
    Guess I’ll track those down now.

  2. hello i setup as you wrote bu it coulndt wok
    i can connect via Ssh bu i couldn connect NX Client
    Nx client says Authentication failed user xxx
    did i miss sometihng? or
    should i make extra configuration sometihng for?
    regards..

  3. Logging into this website should be a requirement for anyone knowledgeable on earth these days…

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