If you have gotten comfortable with Ubuntu and want to continue using Gnome as the main environment, you can do so by using Linux Mint 11 (Katya). It has the same repositories as Ubuntu and you can even use the ubuntu-restricted-extras and build-essential packages which lets you obtain some of the fonts, codecs and libraries that Ubuntu fetches for you.

Ubuntu is starting to put more emphasis on making their release into an eye-candy, at the cost of reduced functionality. Having used Ubuntu since Dapper Drake days, its sad to ditch it for another distro. IMO Ubuntu 10.04 was the cleanest distro they put out – things have been going downhill after that. Linux Mint on the other hand picked up at the point when Ubuntu started to go dysfunctional. It has everything that Ubuntu should have been. There isn’t much to write about Mint 11. Its very similar to Ubuntu 10.04, has a newer kernel 2.6.38.xx, clean graphics, and the same repositories as Ubuntu. The transition is very easy, and things look a lot more neater in Mint.

To recap: If you are currently using Ubuntu and are afraid to upgrade to the 11.10 release, your fear is quite justified. Make a backup of your /home folder and go for a clean install of Linux Mint instead. I moved to Mint about a month ago and have had a rather smooth sailing so far.

For your xstartup file in ~/.vnc (the “.vnc” folder in

your home directory), you need the following:

#—————————–

#!/bin/sh

# Uncomment the following two lines for normal desktop:

# unset SESSION_MANAGER

# exec /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc

[ -x /etc/vnc/xstartup ] && exec /etc/vnc/xstartup

[ -r $HOME/.Xresources ] && xrdb $HOME/.Xresources

xsetroot -solid grey

vncconfig -iconic &

xterm -geometry 80×24+10+10 -ls -title “$VNCDESKTOP Desktop” &

gnome-session &

# twm &

#————————

instead of uncommenting the lines as the script suggests, you change the window manager to gnome-session

make sure restart vnc4server

The line which got Gnome working was “gnome-session &”

========================================

Now for all the steps involved (works in Karmic Koala Alpha 2, Ubuntu 9.10, kernel 2.6.30-10)

1. Install ssh server, ssh client, VNC viewer, VNC server, and xinetd

sudo apt-get install openssh-server openssh-client vnc4server xinetd vncviewer

2. Setup the ssh password for your login

ssh-keygen

3. Test out the ssh server by typing in

ssh localhost or ssh your_login@your_ip_address

4. Then create a vnc password

sudo vncpasswd ~/.vncpasswd

5. Edit the xstartup file in ~/.vnc directory

For your xstartup file in ~/.vnc (the “.vnc” folder in

your home directory), you need the following:

—————————–

#!/bin/sh

# Uncomment the following two lines for normal desktop:

# unset SESSION_MANAGER

# exec /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc

[ -x /etc/vnc/xstartup ] && exec /etc/vnc/xstartup

[ -r $HOME/.Xresources ] && xrdb $HOME/.Xresources

xsetroot -solid grey

vncconfig -iconic &

xterm -geometry 80×24+10+10 -ls -title “$VNCDESKTOP Desktop” &

gnome-session &

# twm &

————————

instead of uncommenting the lines as the script suggests, you change the window manager to gnome-session

6. Create a VNC desktop

vnc4server :1 -geometry 1024×768

7. Then to tunnel into your VNC desktop, first create a SSH tunnel by logging into SSH with the comand:

ssh -L 5901:your_ip_address:5901 your_username@your_ipaddress

8. Finally, load up your VNC desktop

vncviewer localhost:1

And now you are ready to use connect to your machine remotely and use administer the computer remotely.

P.S: If you are using a firewall (hardware or software, you need to get enable port forwarding and unblock ports 22 and 5900-5999 on the Ubuntu machine to allow SSH and VNC to be accessed.

For your xstartup file in ~/.vnc (the “.vnc” folder in
your home directory), you need the following:
—————————–
#!/bin/sh

# Uncomment the following two lines for normal desktop:
# unset SESSION_MANAGER
# exec /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc

[ -x /etc/vnc/xstartup ] && exec /etc/vnc/xstartup
[ -r $HOME/.Xresources ] && xrdb $HOME/.Xresources
xsetroot -solid grey
vncconfig -iconic &
xterm -geometry 80×24+10+10 -ls -title “$VNCDESKTOP Desktop” &
gnome-session &
# twm &
————————

instead of uncommenting the lines as the script suggests, you change the window manager to gnome-session

make sure restart vnc4server

The line which got Gnome working was “gnome-session &”

========================================

Now for all the steps involved (works in Karmic Koala Alpha 2, Ubuntu 9.10, kernel 2.6.30-10)

1. Install ssh server, ssh client, VNC viewer, VNC server, and xinetd

sudo apt-get install openssh-server openssh-client vnc4server xinetd  vncviewer

2. Setup the ssh password for your login

ssh-keygen

3. Test out the ssh server by typing in

ssh localhost  or ssh your_login@your_ip_address

4. Then create a vnc password

sudo vncpasswd ~/.vncpasswd

5. Edit the xstartup file in ~/.vnc directory

For your xstartup file in ~/.vnc (the “.vnc” folder in
your home directory), you need the following:
—————————–
#!/bin/sh

# Uncomment the following two lines for normal desktop:
# unset SESSION_MANAGER
# exec /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc

[ -x /etc/vnc/xstartup ] && exec /etc/vnc/xstartup
[ -r $HOME/.Xresources ] && xrdb $HOME/.Xresources
xsetroot -solid grey
vncconfig -iconic &
xterm -geometry 80×24+10+10 -ls -title “$VNCDESKTOP Desktop” &
gnome-session &
# twm &
————————

instead of uncommenting the lines as the script suggests, you change the window manager to gnome-session

6. Create a VNC desktop

vnc4server :1 -geometry 1024×768

7. Then to tunnel into your VNC desktop, first create a SSH tunnel by logging into SSH with the comand:

ssh -L 5901:your_ip_address:5901 your_username@your_ipaddress

8. Finally, load up your VNC desktop

vncviewer localhost:1

And now you are ready to use connect to your machine remotely and use administer the computer remotely.

P.S: If you are using a firewall (hardware or software, you need to get enable port forwarding and unblock ports 22 and 5900-5999 on the Ubuntu machine to allow SSH and VNC to be accessed.

For your xstartup file in ~/.vnc (the “.vnc” folder in
your home directory), you need the following:
—————————–
#!/bin/sh

# Uncomment the following two lines for normal desktop:
# unset SESSION_MANAGER
# exec /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc

[ -x /etc/vnc/xstartup ] && exec /etc/vnc/xstartup
[ -r $HOME/.Xresources ] && xrdb $HOME/.Xresources
xsetroot -solid grey
vncconfig -iconic &
xterm -geometry 80×24+10+10 -ls -title “$VNCDESKTOP Desktop” &
gnome-session &
# twm &
————————

instead of uncommenting the lines as the script suggests, you change the window manager to gnome-session

make sure restart vnc4server

The line which got Gnome working was “gnome-session &”

========================================

Now for all the steps involved (works in Karmic Koala Alpha 2, Ubuntu 9.10, kernel 2.6.30-10)

1. Install ssh server, ssh client, VNC viewer, VNC server, and xinetd

sudo apt-get install openssh-server openssh-client vnc4server xinetd  vncviewer

2. Setup the ssh password for your login

ssh-keygen

3. Test out the ssh server by typing in

ssh localhost  or ssh your_login@your_ip_address

4. Then create a vnc password

sudo vncpasswd ~/.vncpasswd

5. Edit the xstartup file in ~/.vnc directory

For your xstartup file in ~/.vnc (the “.vnc” folder in
your home directory), you need the following:
—————————–
#!/bin/sh

# Uncomment the following two lines for normal desktop:
# unset SESSION_MANAGER
# exec /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc

[ -x /etc/vnc/xstartup ] && exec /etc/vnc/xstartup
[ -r $HOME/.Xresources ] && xrdb $HOME/.Xresources
xsetroot -solid grey
vncconfig -iconic &
xterm -geometry 80×24+10+10 -ls -title “$VNCDESKTOP Desktop” &
gnome-session &
# twm &
————————

instead of uncommenting the lines as teh script suggests, you change the window manager to gnome-session

6. Create a VNC desktop

vnc4server :1 -geometry 1024×768

7. Then to tunnel into your VNC desktop, first create a SSH tunnel by logging into SSH with the comand:

ssh -L 5901:your_ip_address:5901 your_username@your_ipaddress

8. Finally, load up your VNC desktop

vncviewer localhost:1

And now you are ready to use connect to your machine remotely and use t