[vox] Connecting to a 'headless' Windows box (Was re: OLPC XO ("$100 laptop") available to public)

[Bill Kendrick]

On Tue, Sep 25, 2007 at 12:23:07AM -0700, Scot A wrote:
> Now that I have this unit,
> I want to connect it to a windows box
> that does not presently have a monitor
> or keyboard connected to it.
> Just how the heck would I do that?

Hey Scot.  I see Henry responded to you off-list about this, before you
posted here.  His suggestion to look into VNC (Virtual Network Computing)
is probably your best bet.

It's a set of software that lets one computer view and interact with another
remotely -- sounds like just what you want.

On Linux, I've used a program called TightVNC.  If you're using Debian or
a flavor of Ubuntu, it should just be an "apt-get install" away.
(Or, if you prefer using a graphical install tool, like Adept Package Manager
on Kubuntu or, ... uh.. whatever Gnome-based tool 'regular' Ubuntu uses,
you should be able to find TightVNC easily.)

For example, on my wife's Kubuntu laptop that I'm using now,  I did a search
for the package using a command-line incantation (from a Konsole terminal
window):

  aptitude search tightvnc

One of the results was:

  p   xtightvncviewer               - virtual network computing client software

which sounds like exactly it.

Now, on the Windows side, you'll probably need to hook up a monitor, keyboard
and mouse at least ONCE, to set up the server end of the picture.  What,
exactly, you need to do there, I'm not 100% sure.  I'll leave it as an
excerise in using Google.

PS - Two things you did that were bad netiquette.  (1) replied to a thread
(my posting about the OLPC XO) with an unrelated topic, (1b) did so without
changing the Subject line, and (3) asked a technical question on our
non-tech-question list -- questions like this are more suited to 'vox-tech'.

No harm done, though; easy question, easy answer.  Just realize there are
something like 150-200 people subscribed to 'vox' who AREN'T interested in
tech questions, so keeping the Qs on the more appropriate list will keep those
readers happy.  For all the details, see the list rules/policy up on the
LUGOD site:  http://www.lugod.org/mailinglists/


-- 
-bill!
bill at newbreedsoftware.com
http://www.newbreedsoftware.com/