Questions[freenx](ubuntu)

I'm using the NoMachine provided NX client on Ubuntu 10.10 running on a laptop. I'm connecting to a FreeNX server that happens to be running on openSUSE.

I'm having trouble with keys being incorrect in the remote session. The most noticable example is that when I press up cursor, the screen shot dialog appears instead. As far as I can gather easily, the cursor keys and delete are affected.

It's worth noting that it doesn't display the same behaviour if I dual boot to Windows XP, or from a different machine using openSUSE.

I'm not really sure where to begin looking. Any suggestions?

I was following the instructions but got this:

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:freenx-team
Executing: gpg --ignore-time-conflict --no-options --no-default-keyring --secret-keyring /etc/apt/secring.gpg --trustdb-name /etc/apt/trustdb.gpg --keyring /etc/apt/trusted.gpg --primary-keyring /etc/apt/trusted.gpg --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv F3A662B57D580D3A2E98E5152A8E3034D018A4CE
gpg: requesting key D018A4CE from hkp server keyserver.ubuntu.com
?: keyserver.ubuntu.com: Connection timed out
gpgkeys: HTTP fetch error 7: couldn't connect: Connection timed out
gpg: no valid OpenPGP data found.
gpg: Total number processed: 0

UPDATE

Apparntley this was a proxy issue. See https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/software-properties/+bug/443404. I solved it by:

$ sudo http_proxy=http://myproxy:8080 add-apt-repository ppa:freenx-team

and continued following the instructions. Now I have another problem:

$ sudo /usr/lib/nx/nxsetup --install
------> It is recommended that you use the NoMachine key for
        easier setup. If you answer "y", FreeNX creates a custom
        KeyPair and expects you to setup your clients manually. 
        "N" is default and uses the NoMachine key for installation.

 Do you want to use your own custom KeyPair? [y/N] 
/usr/lib/nx/nxsetup: line 140: .: filename argument required
.: usage: . filename [arguments]
Setting up  ...mkdir: missing operand
Try `mkdir --help' for more information.

We have set up a Ubuntu workstation with accounts for all the group members.

Nxserver from nomachine seems to be what we need, but it is restricted to two users. FreeNx isn't easily installable and doesn't seem very reliable. VNC seems to be usable for log in to an existing open session, but not for remote logins on a single workstation.

To be clear, we need a solution to log in on a workstation. Desktop maintenance isn't necessary at all.

I know Ubuntu comes with a "Remote Desktop" option that appears to be a straightforward VNC server, and I'm trying to understand the alternatives. Here are the possibilities I've heard about so far:

• VNC
• VNC + SSH Tunnelling
• NX Server, free edition
• FreeNX
• NeatX
• X2Go
• X11 Forwarding over SSH
• xrdp

I'm coming at this from a Windows user's perspective: To the best of my experience, RDP (aka Terminal Services) is a reasonably secure (barring mitm/server spoofing), efficient desktop sharing protocol with well-supported clients, that can be exposed to the internet when necessary without major fears of intrusion. To the best of my knowledge straight VNC is none of those things, which is where I get confused - why wouldn't a better desktop sharing technology be developed or used in the open-source world? I know VNC can be wrapped with SSH, but that seems beyond the reach of a casual user. X11 forwarding over SSH may be more or less efficient, I have no idea, but is definitely even more complicated, and doesn't (as far as I know) give you access to already-running stuff (no desktop sharing as such, just remote application running).

So, I'd like any feedback/preferences amongst these or any other "Free" desktop sharing options, using these criteria and/or any others:

1. Security (esp. for access across internet)
2. Efficiency (bandwidth usage, responsiveness, etc)
3. Free-ness, as in Speech (not sure where RDP or FreeNX lie for this)
4. Free-ness, as in Beer (are there any commercial solutions with usable dependable free offerings?)
5. Ease of use (server and client side)
6. Cross-OS Client availability
7. Cross-OS Server availability
8. Support for independent sessions and shared (and/or "Console") sessions
9. Ongoing support/maintenance/development

Thanks!