[lug] VNC and gdm

[Harris, James]

Hi all-

I've been trying to setup a VNC server to be run from gdm.  I've dug around
the net a whole bunch and everyone seems to be having the same problem: they
set it up, the vncXserver gets launched, but no gdm login screen is actually
presented -- just a blank screen as if X doesn't have a window manager.
I've added VNC to xdm, and it works just fine, but I'm trying to sell the
idea to some management and xdm is "too ugly."

Here's what I have in gdm.conf:
[servers]
1=/usr/local/bin/Xvnc :1 -depth 8 -geometry 800x600 -httpd
/usr/local/vnc/classes

Here's what I put in Xservers for xdm that works:
:2 local /usr/local/bin/Xvnc :2 -depth 8 -geometry 800x600 -httpd
/usr/local/vnc/classes

I've searched through Google, newsgroups and a whole bunch o' other
resources and it appears that no one has the answer.  Has anyone here
battled this and found one?  I've looked at the inetd option for VNC, but I
can't see any way that I would use it to provide a web accessible session?
Does anyone have any ideas on how I could use it in this manner?  The
ultimate goal is to get a clean gdm style login using a web browser -- and
the compression advantages of VNC would be nice for remote administration.

I guess if I find out that I'm SOL, I'll try to spiff up xdm a bit ... But
it's been a looong time and I'd prefer the flexibility of gdm.

As usual, thanks a million!

James Harris
Systems Administrator
Network Operating Systems Group
EDS @ Maxtor Corporation
303.702.3853