[FreeNX-kNX] HOWTO Install FreeNX on a Windows Box

[Doug Burks]

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Problem:
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Let's say you want to be able to connect to a remote Windows 2000/XP
box over a low-bandwidth connection that is not sufficient for VNC
(even TightVNC).  If we could compress the VNC traffic with NX, then
performance would be acceptable.  Now suppose that we can't install a
separate PC to run Linux and FreeNX.  How do we install FreeNX on the
Windows box itself?

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Solution:
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No, there isn't a native Windows port of the NX server
components...yet :)  For the time being, however, you can run CoLinux
on your Windows installation and then install FreeNX on the CoLinux
instance.  Here's how:
1.  Go to the CoLinux Download page:
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=98788
and download:
-the latest release of CoLinux (currently 0.6.1)
AND
-a RootFS Image (Fedora Core 1, Debian, and Gentoo images are
available).  I will be using FC1 in this procedure.
2.  Install CoLinux.exe.
3.  Configure your CoLinux instance by following the README in your
CoLinux directory.  Also refer to the CoLinux FAQ:
http://www.colinux.org/wiki/index.php/coLinuxFAQ
CoLinux User Configs:
http://www.colinux.org/wiki/index.php/UserConfigs
and CoLinux Networking page:
http://www.colinux.org/wiki/index.php/coLinuxNetworking
You have two choices for networking:  TAP and bridging.  Bridging allows your
CoLinux instance to have direct access to the network and its own IP
address.  This is the easier method for this project (but note that
you can't use bridging if the Windows box in question is directly
connected to a cable/DSL modem; it must be on a LAN).
4.  Once your CoLinux instance is running and has network access, do a
"yum update" (remember I'm using the Fedora Core 1 image).
5.  Then do:
yum install XFree86 XFree86-tools libjpeg man nc expect
6.  Now download and install Rick Stout's Fedora Core 1 RPMs:
wget http://fedoranews.org/contributors/rick_stout/freenx/freenx-0.2.5-0.rh.1.noarch.rpm
wget http://fedoranews.org/contributors/rick_stout/freenx/nx-1.4.0-0.rh.2.i386.rpm
rpm -Uvh *nx*.rpm
7.  Copy the newly-generated client.id_dsa.key from the CoLinux
instance to the NX client.
8.  Configure the NX client to connect to the IP address of the
CoLinux instance and do a VNC session to the IP address of the Windows
box.  (If the Windows box has Terminal Services, then you could
instead do an RDP session to the IP address of the Windows box.)
9.  Success!

Please note that another scenario where this procedure could come in
handy is if you want to try FreeNX but you only have a Windows PC and
don't want to dual-boot.  Since the CoLinux Fedora Core image is
extremely minimal, you will want to:
yum install kdebase
and configure your NX client for a KDE session.  (Or GNOME if you prefer.)

Also note that all of this could be duplicated using VMware instead of
CoLinux.  However, if you're a FreeNX user and unwilling to pay for
the commercial NX server, then you're probably unwilling to pay for
VMware :)

Doug