Installing NXServer to Ubuntu Feisty Fawn

Just installed the Ubuntu Feisty Server to a new machine and remote access is one of the first few things that I need. Below are the steps I have taken. I am by no means the original author that figure out the installation process but I am providing a summary and solution on the different issues that you may encounter.

1. Download the NXClient, NXNode and NXServer from the website of Nomachine, you can use the DEB version provided. The sequence DOES matter, so, please follow accordingly.
   
   
   
   • Install nxclient
     
   • Install nxnode
     
   • Install nxserver
     
   
   
2. Load up your /etc/ssh/sshd_config file into an editor:
   
   

   
   sudo nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config
   

   
   
   Add the following line & save the file
   

   
   AuthorizedKeysFile /usr/NX/home/nx/.ssh/authorized_keys2
   

   
   
   Restart sshd by typing:
   

   
   sudo /etc/init.d/ssh restart
   

   
   
   
3. Done! Now verify NXServer is running properly by typing:
   

   
   sudo /usr/NX/bin/nxserver --status
   

   
   
   This should return:
   
   

   
   NX> 900 Connecting to server ..
   NX> 110 NX Server is running.
   NX> 999 Bye.
   

   
   
   
4. Now comes to the part that ppl start having problem, configure the NXClient on your client machine, start the connection and after the point of "Authentication", the whole client apps disappear. The fix is sort of funny, it is done by adding a hostname "unix" to the host file, example as follows,
   
   

   
   127.0.0.1 localhost unix
   

   
   
   The reason for the change is NXServer tries to look for the display from unix:xxxx and the system cannot resolve the host name "unix" which results in failed connection.
   
   
5. It works OK already in the local network but I find myself failed to get back to the office from home. I get an error message like
   
   

   
   "Could not yet establish the connection to the remote proxy"
   

   
   
   By digging around the web, I noticed an article from Nomachine.
   
   The error is due to a firewall was set in between my home and office machine. By turning on the SSL flag on my OS X client and the connection can be established right away.
   

By following these, you should have the NXServer installed properly. But you may want to join the discussion if you still encounter problems upon following the procedures. Below are the 2 that I locate all the information above, kudos to the contributer over there.

Step by step guide and also discussion on the installation process

This thread discuss the issue of the client that cannot connect to the server

Comments

[Kevin Jackey]

A few errors in the above:

1) Installation chain is nxclient, nxnode, nxserver

2) Item 3 not working on my system, I had to do the following:
cd /usr/NX/bin/
sudo ./nxserver --status

3) I did not need this step, may want to indicate which host file is being referred to.

[ronnie]

Kevin,

Thanks for the reminder. I have the procedures updated.

For the host file, I need to update the /etc/hosts on my Ubuntu server. I have read posting that they don't need this step also but it doesn't work in my case.

[Don Ziesig]

I installed as per the instructions. When I try to get status I get:

$ sudo /usr/NX/bin/nxserver --status
NX> 900 Connecting to server ...
NX> 204 Authentication to NX server failed.
NX> 110 NX Server is stopped.
NX> 999 Bye.

And when I try to connect (locally) I get the following:

NX> 203 NXSSH running with pid: 31131
NX> 285 Enabling check on switch command
NX> 285 Enabling skip of SSH config files
NX> 285 Setting the preferred NX options
NX> 200 Connected to address: 127.0.0.1 on port: 22
NX> 202 Authenticating user: nx
NX> 208 Using auth method: publickey
NX> 204 Authentication failed.

This is a brand new installation of ubuntu 7.04. I had NX working under 6.06.

Any suggestions?

[ronnie]

Are you using the certificate provided by NXClient or you are generating your own? It could be permission issue, or the certificate on the server differs from the one used by the client.

[petre]

Hi, Don
I met the same problem as you after I reinstalled the NX server with new keys generated. Here is the solution:
On the client side, use the new generated key /usr/NX/share/keys/default.id_dsa.key when configuring the session. You can import the key under General tab of Configuration. Then you should not have have problem connecting to the NX server.
On the server side, when running nxserver --status, you still got the authentication failed error. To solve this, replace the /usr/NX/share/keys/server.id_dsa.key file with the new generated /usr/NX/share/keys/default.id_dsa.key file. Then you can get server status.

Hope this will help.