Is automatic login supposed to boot to a full gnome desktop?

[njtuneguy]

I'm setting up my hda now, my goal is to run headless, use VNC & ssh to administer, rsync for backups (btw anyone experienced with rsync???)... I digress... I edited the /etc/gdm/custom.conf file per the recommendation from http://wiki.amahi.org/index.php/VNC with the following (of course replacing username with my own):

#Enable Auto login to the GNOME desktop
[daemon]
AutomaticLoginEnable=true
AutomaticLogin=<username>
TimedLoginEnable=true
TimedLogin=<username>
TimedLoginDelay=0


The monitor is still connected to the hda (I wanted to make sure all is configured correctly before using it elsewhere)... My problem/question is that I expected, perhaps mistakenly, that the computer would simply boot to the gnome desktop normally, the only change being the bypass of the login prompts at boot... but what it actually does is boot to the blue fedora background with the loading/busy cursor? My VNC client logs in fine, but is this the expected result from the gdm file edit? I want to make sure auto login is working correctly, as well as not wasting resources.

Also, I plan on defaulting to "runlevel 3" per http://wiki.amahi.org/index.php/Fedora- ... mmendation -that is, when I get past automatic login; at that point, if the vncserver starts at boot, will the VNC client be able to login to a gnome desktop even though the hda hasn't started X windows?

Thanks in Advance!!

[pjcrux]

I'm setting up my hda now, my goal is to run headless, use VNC & ssh to administer, rsync for backups (btw anyone experienced with rsync???)... I digress... I edited the /etc/gdm/custom.conf file per the recommendation from http://wiki.amahi.org/index.php/VNC with the following (of course replacing username with my own):

#Enable Auto login to the GNOME desktop
[daemon]
AutomaticLoginEnable=true
AutomaticLogin=<username>
TimedLoginEnable=true
TimedLogin=<username>
TimedLoginDelay=0

good to go here (assuming <username> is actually replaced with your username) this is the output of my gdm file:

# GDM configuration storage

[xdmcp]

[chooser]

[security]

[debug]

[daemon]
AutomaticLoginEnable=true
AutomaticLogin=Peter
TimedLoginEnable=true
TimedLogin=Peter
TimedLoginDelay=0

The monitor is still connected to the hda (I wanted to make sure all is configured correctly before using it elsewhere)... My problem/question is that I expected, perhaps mistakenly, that the computer would simply boot to the gnome desktop normally, the only change being the bypass of the login prompts at boot... but what it actually does is boot to the blue fedora background with the loading/busy cursor? My VNC client logs in fine, but is this the expected result from the gdm file edit? I want to make sure auto login is working correctly, as well as not wasting resources.

the autologin should take you to the gnome desktop environment assuming you have runlevel 5 enabled.

Also, I plan on defaulting to "runlevel 3" per http://wiki.amahi.org/index.php/Fedora- ... mmendation -that is, when I get past automatic login; at that point, if the vncserver starts at boot, will the VNC client be able to login to a gnome desktop even though the hda hasn't started X windows?

the WebVNC app requires an X session to be running hence the autologin.

What exactly is it that you are trying to accomplish? A headless hda in runlevel 3 or to be able to login to the server via the WebVNC app?

[njtuneguy]

good to go here (assuming <username> is actually replaced with your username) this is the output of my gdm file:

Yes my gdm file is the same except for the comment line and my username <njtuneguy>, so like you said, good to go.

the autologin should take you to the gnome desktop environment assuming you have runlevel 5 enabled.

I haven't altered the runlevel yet. Without the autologin edit to the gdm file it boots normally to the windowed gnome desktop. When I edit the gdm file for autologin it boots/loads normally ie., the computer boots, the Fedora loading "progress bubble" fills, next the Fedora blue backgroud diplays with the mouse cursor appearing and the little rotating circle dots floating around it. That's where it stays, I'm never presented with a desktop to navigate and use.

the WebVNC app requires an X session to be running hence the autologin.

I haven't been using the WebVNC app, I'm using Chicken of the VNC for Mac. I'd eventually like to be able to login from outside of the network... I believe I read that WebVNC is limited to being used only within the home network.

What exactly is it that you are trying to accomplish? A headless hda in runlevel 3 or to be able to login to the server via the WebVNC app?

I infer from your question that it's not possible to do both (even using Chicken of the VNC)? I'm just trying to conserve resources, but perhaps my box has enough to not really make a significant difference if I start X (AMD 939x2 3800+, 4 gigs ram, (2) 1TB HD in raid0)? If it does make a big difference then I'll probably want to "login from the command line via SSH and manually start X" per the Amahi VNC link http://wiki.amahi.org/index.php/VNC#Set ... atic_Login (under heading "Setup Automatic Login "). In that case I know how to ssh into the box, but how I start and stop X? And can I enable autologin with the computer booting at runlevel 3?

Also, to start vncserver at boot I entered "chkconfig vncserver on" in terminal as root, but it doesn't start... I have to manually start it each time!!

Lol... too many questions/issues for one post???

[njtuneguy]

Per the VNC startup issues I get boot messages at the login screen saying VNC failed because there is no display configured. Where is the display config file for VNC and how do I configure it?

[moredruid]

Also, to start vncserver at boot I entered "chkconfig vncserver on" in terminal as root, but it doesn't start... I have to manually start it each time!!

hmmm have you checked this? "service vncserver status" should give you the status of the vncdaemon. It might be running in the background. Not sure, but it might have something to do with authentication (for a listening VNC server you need to specify a password). Anyway, you do an autologin, in your login scripts you can add a line to start a vnc session.

And you need to tell VNC on which "display" it should be running.

With regards to X running: this can be started either in runlevel 3 or 5. This sounds strange but you can read more about it here: http://centos.org/docs/5/html/Deploymen ... evels.html

personally I don't need the full desktop and I just start applications on my server and use X-forwarding. The server is the X-server and my client (be it windows/linux/mac) is my X-client and when you start a gui program on the server the X-server will forward the graphical info to the X-client on your local machine. The X-client then displays the application as if it were run locally.

On Windows you'll need putty & xming for this to work, linux & mac support it natively if you use "ssh -X" to connect to your server. You can then start gui apps on the command line on the server and they will be pushed to your system. You can try it with starting "gnome-system-monitor &" (I put the ampersand behind the command to make it run in the background so I can still use my terminal connection).