Local session sharing

[GoogleCodeExporter]

What steps will reproduce the problem?
1.Login to Linux SERVER locally into GNOME
2.Connect from remote CLIENT with NOMACHINE NX in shadow mode 
3.See that available session list is empty

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?
Supposed to see at least one active session to attach to.

What version of the product are you using? On what operating system?
NX Client 3.3.0-6 Windows Vista, NX 3.3.0

Please provide any additional information below.

Original issue reported on code.google.com by techtonik@gmail.com on 3 Oct 2009 at 2:25

[GoogleCodeExporter]

This is listed on the front page as "Local session sharing" under the "What 
Doesn't
Work" heading. I'm going to leave this open as a feature request, as it's 
useful to
point people to. I don't know of any work that's currently being done on adding 
this
feature.

Original comment by kormat on 11 Oct 2009 at 1:38

• Added labels: Type-Enhancement
• Removed labels: Type-Defect

[GoogleCodeExporter]

"Session shadowing (though only sessions belonging to you)" is now listed under 
"What 
works" -- should this bug still be open?

Original comment by luke.hutch on 20 Jan 2010 at 5:44

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I am not sure that this is not "Local session sharing" under "What doesn't 
work" 
header. If it was fixed recently - are there any recent binaries for Ubuntu 
9.10 to 
test if my use case works? I use 
https://edge.launchpad.net/~freenx-team/+archive/ppa

Original comment by techtonik@gmail.com on 20 Jan 2010 at 10:43

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Just built and tested on Fedora, and "Shadow" in NXClient still doesn't work 
for me.

Original comment by luke.hutch on 20 Jan 2010 at 11:10

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Fixing the title of this bug to match the initial description. This feature is 
still
not implemented. Session shadowing however should work, if not please file a 
seperate
bug with details. Thanks,

Steve

Original comment by kormat on 24 Jan 2010 at 3:53

• Changed title: Local session sharing

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Thanks for the update.  What is the difference between session shadowing and 
session 
sharing?  I'm guessing shadowing is read-only (no mouse/kbd input)?  Or does it 
mean 
if you start up a new NX session, you can see that NX session in multiple 
clients?

I am interested enough in session sharing that I could do the work given a list 
of 
pointers as to what needs doing and in what places.  I'm a programmer but X is 
unfamiliar to me, so I wouldn't know where to start.

Original comment by luke.hutch on 24 Jan 2010 at 5:20

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I'll be the second to ask about difference between "local session sharing" and 
"local 
session shadowing".

Original comment by techtonik@gmail.com on 24 Jan 2010 at 5:13

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I don't know for sure, but I'm thinking they are referring to the definition in
Section 9, of NoMachine's NX Server Administrator’s Guide[1].

Also you may want to check out FreeNx's How to Shadow[2].

[1] http://www.nomachine.com/documents/admin-guide.php
[2] 
http://openfacts2.berlios.de/wikien/index.php/BerliosProject:FreeNX_-_HowtoShado
w

Brian

Original comment by jbrianm...@gmail.com on 24 Jan 2010 at 5:45

[GoogleCodeExporter]

From NX Admin Guide: "Desktop sharing allows the sharing of any of the native 
displays 
on the node, while session shadowing allows the sharing of any of the NX 
sessions 
running on the node."

Is it possible to login on local machine and immediately open new NX session 
that is 
shadowed? On other words locally login into NX session instead of usual Desktop.

Original comment by techtonik@gmail.com on 24 Jan 2010 at 5:54

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I had the same idea as techtonik, just work through NX even for local 
connections.  
There's no reason that shouldn't work, I think NXClient takes parameters on the 
commandline as to which session to start up, because it can create desktop file 
shortcuts to start a session, and you could probably have it start in 
fullscreen by 
default.  The only thing you'd have to worry about is that it would make sense 
to 
log in as a new user B to start sessions with the target user A if you're using 
gnome, because some gnome applets seem to die if there are multiple desktop 
connections open at the same time to the same user account.

Original comment by luke.hutch on 24 Jan 2010 at 8:14

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Session shadowing:
User A starts an NX session on a server, user B is able to also connect to the 
same 
session, simultaneously. (Bear in mind, neatx only allows user A to connect to 
user 
A's sessions, but commercial NX allows any user)

Local session sharing:
User A logs into X on a workstation. User A is then able to connect to *that* X 
session from another machine, using NX.

I hope that's clearer.

@techtonik:
That's basically a client question. You can set things up so that you run 
nxclient 
instead of a window manager. By default though, nxclient will require you to 
enter 
your password.

Original comment by kormat on 9 Feb 2010 at 8:47

[GoogleCodeExporter]

kormat: Thanks, that's much clearer.  I really would like to be able to do 
local 
session sharing, and am happy to do the work given a few pointers as to what 
needs to 
be done and where to start.

Original comment by luke.hutch on 9 Feb 2010 at 8:52

[GoogleCodeExporter]

kormat: Good explanation, worthy a FAQ. Interesting, how many users may access 
shared 
local and shadowed sessions simultaneously? How do they share keyboard and 
mouse 
resources? Is it possible to share any other devices?

Original comment by techtonik@gmail.com on 9 Feb 2010 at 9:43

[GoogleCodeExporter]

@luke.hutch: Excellent -) So, the first thing i'd do is install !M NX, and get 
it to 
do local desktop sharing. When that works, save a copy of 
~/.nx/temp/<pid>/sshlog 
from the client. That will tell you what commands the client sent to the server 
in 
order to start the session. Also, i'd find out what arguments were passed to 
nxagent 
on the server, and what the session options file contained. If you get those 3 
pieces 
of information, that'll put you a long way towards figuring out what changes 
need to 
be made to neatx.

@techtonik: Good point re: faq, we should really add one to the front page. I 
don't 
know what the user limit is, it would be determined by the NX libs from 
NoMachine. 
Re: sharing, each users has their own keyboard and mouse locally, the server 
just 
takes whatever they send. There's no real sharing.

Original comment by kormat on 12 Feb 2010 at 5:52

[GoogleCodeExporter]

so are you able to set NX as the window manager, so when you type in startx, it
creates a new X11 environment that is connectable remotely as an NX session?

I primarily use archlinux, and have successfully setup a ubuntu environment to
connect to display:0 via the freenx vnc sharing feature.
But under arch the display:0 session doesn't show up when connecting in shadow 
mode,
which I assume is due to lack of a login manager.

I would prefer though to have display:0 as an actual NX session, but am unsure 
of how
to set this up.

Original comment by Bond...@gmail.com on 31 Mar 2010 at 10:30