How to configure Vino for remote desktop access using command line

Solution Verified - Updated -

Environment

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6

Issue

  • Is it possible to set up the Desktop remote access through command line. Looking at System --> Preferences --> Remote Desktop, it is possible to set the "Allow other user to control your desktop" and then set a password? How is it possible to do the same thing with command line? What file(s) are modified?

Resolution

Setting Vino Password

  • There are a few ways in which you can accomplish this but the most straight forward is to set the password using the command:
$ vino-passwd
  • From here you can verify that the hash is recreated in the users home directory file ~/.gconf/desktop/gnome/remote_access/%gconf.xml. In RHEL 6 the hash will be required. Here is an example below:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<gconf>
        <entry name="vnc_password" mtime="1363245761" type="string">
                <stringvalue>cmVkaGF0</stringvalue>
  • You can also generate the hash on the system using an echo command as shown in the below example here when I created a hash for the password "awesome":
[root@rhel6 ~]# echo -n 'awesome' | base64
YXdlc29tZQ==
  • Once the hash is generated you can use this with the gconftool command:
$ gconftool-2 -s -t string /desktop/gnome/remote_access/vnc_password YXdlc29tZQ==
  • After completion you can view the changes in the file ~/.gconf/desktop/gnome/remote_access/%gconf.xml or tcan check by viewing the list of modes currently set in Vino. To view this run the command below and view the vnc_password field:
gconftool-2 -R /desktop/gnome/remote_access

Root Cause

  • The changes that you make from the vino-preferences interface should write to the file: /home/<user>/.gconf/desktop/gnome/remote_access/%gconf.xml

  • It's possible manually make changes to this file or use gconftool or the gconf-editor utility to set values that are defined in this file for each user. See the article below for more info on gconftool use:

  • The best way to determine how you any options you want using the preferences window and then observe the corresponding changes to the file. Setting the password can be a bit more of a pain. The reason for this is because vino generates a password hash that isn't easily appended by the file. Here is an example:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<gconf>
        <entry name="vnc_password" mtime="1363242588" type="string">
                <stringvalue>cmVkaGF0</stringvalue>
        </entry>
        <entry name="authentication_methods" mtime="1363242584" type="list" ltype="string">
                <li type="string">
                        <stringvalue>vnc</stringvalue>
                </li>
        </entry>
        <entry name="prompt_enabled" mtime="1363242014" type="bool" value="false"/>
".gconf/desktop/gnome/remote_access/%gconf.xml" 14L, 525C
  • With that said it is possible to use a command like the one below to change the value using gconftool by exicuting:
$ gconftool-2 -s -t string /desktop/gnome/remote_access/vnc_password <your-passwd>
  • The issue here is that it wont work unless its a hash. See the value change of the file after setting my password to 'redhat':
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<gconf>
        <entry name="vnc_password" mtime="1363244350" type="string">
                <stringvalue>redhat</stringvalue>
        </entry>
        <entry name="authentication_methods" mtime="1363242584" type="list" ltype="string">
                <li type="string">
                        <stringvalue>vnc</stringvalue>
                </li>
        </entry>
        <entry name="prompt_enabled" mtime="1363242014" type="bool" value="false"/>

Diagnostic Steps

Additional information:

gconftool-2 -s -t bool /desktop/gnome/remote_acess/promt_enable
  • The above worksworks but when trying to set a password you can not set the password that is not written in hash or else it will not work:
gconftool-2 --type string --set /desktop/gnome/remote_acess/vnc_password '123456'
  • This works fine on RHEL 5 but dosen't set the password for RHEL 6.0
gconftool-2 --type string --set /desktop/gnome/remote_acess/vnc_password '123456'

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