zarthan (8/7/2007)

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I'm not sure that there is a big win here. vncserver is so easy to install and if you install a desktop it is probably already there. No complicated setup either. Just run it, add a password. I think there are a lot of variables and that you may end up chasing a feature for very little gain. Think about the firewall issues, on by default. vncserver can launch multiple times which means multiple possible ports. vnc isn't secure so the user will need to do some configuring anyway.

How about remote command execution as there is for Windows. Perhaps it could allow for remote execution of a script which did a vncserver install or any of a million other tasks. Solves many management tasks.

It isn't the firewall blocking the ssh connection. It is usually enabled. The installer would also need to add port 5901 to the firewall and restart the firewall. vncserver needs to be started if it wasn't already installed and started. The first time it is run it needs to have the password set. Other than the firewall what about dependencies. What if vncserver is already installed. What version? Is an Xserver installed? You are going to need a lot of feedback to the user.

I'm not saying it shouldn't be done. I am saying don't focus on remote installation focus on remote execution and let others come up with scripts that could help overall server management not just vnc. Rather than copy files to the server, run the installer, set the password, open the firewall, restart the firewall, etc. let a script run the updater whether that be yum or apt or . . . resolve dependencies etc. Personally I don't think vnc is safe enough to be used without tunneling. I hope others don't as well. That would a lot of other decisions about an install.

And besides if you need to add scp to the mix to transfer files to the server you might as well add the SSH client. ;D

zarthan (8/10/2007)

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I can make several LINUX distributions available to you for testing if you like.