Xvnc and Retroshare

Retroshare is a great program for sharing videos with friends and family.  The command line version leaves a little to be desired.  What Retroshare really needs is a client/server architecture so that you can remotely connect to it.  In the absents of that change, I have found that xvnc makes for a suitable stopgap.

Xvnc/Tightvnc is a vnc server that exports a virtual x server over the vnc protocol.  It is a kind of virtual framebuffer.  Think of it like GNU Screen for x windows.  You can disconnect then reconnect from a different location.  Any running processes continue to run.

I have set up xvnc on my home server.  Xvnc is in the Gentoo portage tree so it was easy to install and configure.  After installing xvnc, I created a filesharing user.  I added the user to /etc/conf.d/xvnc and created a vnc password for the user.  After starting xvnc, I was able to connect to the xserver with tigervnc on my laptop.  Once connected, the first thing you notice is an open xterm with no window manager.  You may want to start a window manager.  For xvnc, I recommend icewm since it is pretty lightweight.  3d transitions and compositing may not work well over the vnc protocol.

The next thing to do is configure xvnc to start your window manager of choice and any other software you want started.  My xvnc starts icewm and Retroshare on first login.  With the vnc init script, all your users auto-login.  This means Retroshare starts up when the computer boots up.  Retroshare requires a password to log in, but you can opt for Retroshare to remember your password.

At this point, you can disconnect from xvnc.  After you disconnect, Retroshare is still running!  You can reconnect later from another computer, a tablet, or even your cell phone.  It is not recommended to open up your firewall to allow vnc connections from the internet.  To remotely access your xvnc server, you should probably set up a good home VPN, like OpenVPN.