README to go with fabfile for VNC connections - https://gist.github.com/1080774

README

These are files to make it easy to set up VNC connections.

QUICK GUIDE TO GETTING GOING
============================

The person who starts the connection should do:

    fab startvnc

Anyone else wanting to join who has this fabric script can do:

    fab joinvnc

PREREQUISITES
=============

This assumes you are running linux and have the following packages installed 
(debian/ubuntu package names used):

* fabric
* tightvncviewer

To ensure they are installed you can just do:

    sudo apt-get install fabric tightvncviewer

WHAT IT DOES
============

startvnc will:

* ensure your remote account has the standard VNC password
* check the display is available and suggest another one if not
* start the VNC server for your account remotely
* start the VNC viewer for you locally
* when the VNC viewer exits it will kill the VNC server remotely

joinvnc will:

* start the VNC viewer for you locally.

OPTIONS
=======

Display Number
--------------

One option is to vary the display number. By default we use display number :1
(which means port 5901). But other people can join you, so we can have
multiple VNC sessions if required. Just add the display number to the end.

So for the first person:

    fab startvnc:2

And anyone else joining:

    fab joinvnc:2

Use SSH
-------

You can use a ssh tunnel to make the session more secure - if you don't then
anything you do will be visible to any eavesdropper.

So for the first person:

    fab startvnc:use_ssh=True

And anyone else joining:

    fab joinvnc:use_ssh=True

You can also combine the arguments, eg

    fab startvnc:2,use_ssh=True

Note that the ssh tunnel can be a bit slow. To turn on compression (currently)
requires you to add the following to ~/.ssh/config

Host vnc.example.org
    Compression yes