VNC on the XO - Remote Control Computing
So I’ve had my XO for a few days now. The included applications or “activities” in OLPC terms, are great and I’m not done exploring them all.
However one thing that surprised me was that the XO ships virtual network computing capable. To use this you need a server software package installed on the computer you’d like to control. My boyfriend recommended TightVNC which is free and runs on Windows or Unix. It was a quick download and set up, pretty much just needing me to set a password, select preferences and run the application.
On the XO the process is even simpler. First make sure you have TightVNC running on the computer you’d like to control. Then on the XO you just launch the XO activity “Terminal” and at the prompt type in “vncviewer”. It launches and asks for your server, you supply the IP of the computer on the network you’d like to control and you get to the next screen which has a field for a user name (greyed out) and one for the password. Type in the password you set up earlier. Hit Enter.
Bingo, instant computer within a computer. Use it to access your home computer from the road or you can control your media center / HTPC while at home 
December 28th, 2007 at 11:45 pm
That’s very cool!!
However, I’m curious what else you can do from there. I’m discovering that while my XO can do a lot of things, it can only do them well one at a time. So, I’m curious how much can be done with the XO controlling a PC.
December 29th, 2007 at 4:47 pm
Excellent, I’m going to want to do this when I get my OLPC. If you can figure out and post instructions for using VNC through an SSH tunnel, you’d be my hero.
December 29th, 2007 at 8:35 pm
Saskboy, I’m interested in the SSH tunnel option too for the “on the road” part. I’ll post if I get it.
December 31st, 2007 at 8:47 am
Hi Frika!
Thanks for your comment on my Flickr about install Adobe Flash, do share about the tip to speed it up. I would love to try that too.
this is the photo
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thomashan/2148596460/
January 3rd, 2008 at 5:07 pm
Have you been able to do the opposite? I’m trying to figure out how to control the XO from my PC. I will be donating my XO to a non-profit I’m supporting: http://www.for1world.org and I would like to be able to remotely administer it.
January 4th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
Sorry to bother you, but I tried following your instructions and once i run “vncviewer”, it puts up a window that asks for “vnc server”. I had a friend help me by telling me to go to “ip chicken” to find out my external ip address, and that didn’t work. Then I went to “ipconfig” on the command line and found my internal ip address and that didn’t work either. I never got a box asking for ip address and password.
Can someone please help me through this?
Thanks,
Charlie
January 4th, 2008 at 3:42 pm
Dan I haven’t tried it the oppsite way, here’s some information on it but with the slant of doing it for presentations where you will still be able to physically see the XO, it might help you though: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Vnc
January 4th, 2008 at 8:57 pm
Charlie, you should be able to use the IP address of the computer running TightVNC in the field asking for your “vnc server”. In the next screen it should show the user name greyed out and then have a field for your password.
January 4th, 2008 at 9:16 pm
ThePete, the speed is reliant on the computer you’re controlling. It doesn’t matter if you run multiple applications as long as your computer can handle it, the XO is mainly just handling graphical input streaming from your main computer. So say having Firefox open to many tabs and also running a Word document in the background etc won’t affect the XO. However if you want to play a movie on your main computer and watch it on your XO you’ll run into graphic quality issues.
But of course, as I know you know, you can just use mPlayer to play a movie on your XO.
January 4th, 2008 at 9:33 pm
Charlie: I added in more information to the original article. One thought occurred to me, did you have TightVNC running before typing “vncviewer” in the XO Terminal? If it wasn’t running it wouldn’t work.
January 5th, 2008 at 1:13 pm
OMIGOD - you nailed it, thanks! This is SO cool. When I came in this morning, I rebooted and noticed the “V” in my system tray. Tried again and it worked like a charm!
I’m looking forward to my sticker (I emailed you thanking you a couple of days ago.)
Back to playing with the BEST TOY IN THE WORLD!!!
Charlie
January 21st, 2008 at 4:56 am
Hi Thanks for the article. On our XO the image is smaller that your illustration. It is only the middle part of the screen. Is there any “magic” to get the vncviewer to display in the full screen of the XO.
John
January 21st, 2008 at 2:16 pm
John, I didn’t have to anything special. However you might want to check Properties in VNCViewer, go to the Display tab and choose “Full desktop” as your Sharing Area on the off chance that that changes the display on the XO.
February 9th, 2008 at 2:15 am
HI,
I am not able to connect. VNCviewer trows the message ‘unable to connect at host: No route to host (113)’ at me. I am on a wireless network.
Can you help me?