[mythtv-users] Problems Running Headless MBE/FE with Fedora 15/Gnome 3

[mythtv at blandford.net]

>>
> Please realize here that people are talking about several different
> things here, and perhaps some are getting them confused.

I am not confused on the potential solutions.  I think there are just 
various solutions being provided.  So far I haven't seen a compelling 
reason to run X on the console.  Since that isn't a hard requirement, 
VNC seems to be the easiest solution.

> * When you ssh in and then export X to somewhere else, the X server is
> running on that somewhere else.

Correct.  For X11, the "server" is the application that is actually 
doing the display of the X window system.  The computer running the 
application is the client.  This is a source of much confusion for people.

> * When you want to use VNC, that means that a VNC X server is running on
> the headless machine.

Correct.  It is running an X server, but it is not running on the 
console.  It doesn't connect to any real video device.

> * It sounds to me like you want the headless machine to have the mythtv
> user do an autologin and start the GNOME desktop.

That is my understanding as well.

> Believe it or not, that's a different matter entirely. Typically
> autologin is a function of the display manager, though it can be done in
> other ways. The display manager requires a display, or at least an X
> server, and I don't know of a way to make the VNC server fill that bill.

Edit /etc/sysconfig/vncservers.  Create a display name and user pair. 
Then turn on the vncserver service.  It is easier than configuring Xdm, 
GDM, etc and still doesn't require any Xorg.conf or the use of the local 
video card.

Michael