The X2Go project is a fairly efficient way to provide a graphical remote access to a Linux box. It is based on the excellent NoMachine free libraries, which is the technology behind the NX server and the FreeNX project, which seems not developped anymore.
A client will then only need a SSH access to the server to get a full featured graphical remote desktop.
Available for many Linux flavours, MS Windows and Mac OS X, the installation on a Debian client or server is really easy and straightforward, thanks to the packaging effort done by X2Go, and all the relevant information can be found on the wiki of the X2Go project.
Common tasks (client and server)
Add the X2Go repository to APT and its associated GnuPG key:
apt-key adv --recv-keys --keyserver keys.gnupg.net E1F958385BFE2B6E echo "deb http://packages.x2go.org/debian squeeze main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/x2go.list apt-get update apt-get install x2go-keyring
Client-side
Install the x2goclient package:
apt-get install x2goclient
That’s it. Run the x2goclient command to launch the graphical interface.
Server-side
Install the x2goserver package:
apt-get install x2goserver
It will install the various X packages altogether if needeed. The only thing to care about is to choose and install a graphical environment; for a fast and light one, I’ll pick LXDE:
apt-get install lxde
That’s it, enjoy!
