Sunday 8 July 2012

NoMachine - Installation & Configuration

I use NoMachine's NX Client to connect to my FreeNX server: it's fast and accurate and gives the user an almost local desktop experience. As I'm just loading it onto my 1501 (running Kubuntu), I thought it would be useful to record the installation & setup process.

First, head over to NoMachine's Download page and select the NX Client for Linux. You can download this either as a .tar or a .deb package - I'm going with the DEB!

Click on the download icon and you'll be taken to the download page (yes, it is a bit clumsy) and there select the Download Package option. Once the package is downloaded, navigate to the download location and click on the file: the packager installer should open automatically.

Click the Install Package option.

Use your file browser to navigate to /usr/NX/bin and click on the nxclient application: this should start the NX Connection Wizard.

  1. Your Session name can be anything you like. For instance, if you want to set up two sessions, one behind your router (LAN) and one for when you're outside your router (WAN), you could call them Local and Remote respectively.
  2. Your Host name will depend on how you intend to connect to your server:
    • From inside your LAN, you'll probably connect using your LAN IP address - something like 192.168.x.x (where x is a number).
    • If you are outside your LAN and have a static IP address, you can connect using the ISP issued address - you'll find this from your router/modem interface.
    • If you don't have a static IP address and use a DDNS service like No-IP, you'll use the human friendly name that you allocated to your server when you signed up for the service. It'll be something like; host.no-ip.org or whatever subdomain you chose.
  3. NoMachine uses SSH as its connection agent so the default port is 22. You can change this port number by amending the /etc/ssh/sshd_config and (perhaps) the /etc/nxserver/node.conf files: you'll find instructions on how to make these amendments here
  4. Unless you have a specific reason, leave the Internet Connection Type as ADSL.
  5. Click Next
  6. In the Desktop dialog, leave the OS type as Unix but change the desktop type to Custom and then click the Settings... button
  7. Select the Run the following command radio button and enter the following command in the dialog box below:

    gnome-session --session=ubuntu-2d

    Now select the New virtual desktop radio button in the Options dialog and click OK. Don't change the Disable encryption option!
  8. Choose the display sizes as appropriate and click Next.
  9. Now click Finish

Finding the client depends on what version of Ubuntu you're running: in 12.04 just use the dashboard and type nxclient; in 11.04, you'll find it lurking in the Internet menu (as you will with Kubuntu).

When the client starts you'll be prompted to authenticate yourself by providing your username and password. Use the Session drop-down to select the session type and enter your details. Then simply click the Login button.

Sources & References:

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