Built-in VNC server issues - Mint 14 XFCE

[darkstrike]

Hi guys - two questions to ask on VNC if anybody could kindly provide me with some assistance!

I've got the built-in VNC server set up and working well on my netbook now, except for two things. I can remote into it just fine from any of our family's Windows boxes or my tinker Linux boxes. However, sometimes I will remotely connect to a computer for an extended period of time and then minimize it as I won't need it for awhile - I won't disconnect though because I may sporadically check on something on the computer I am remoted into, or I know I will need to control it again later.

1. When using VNC to connect to my Windows machines, this hasn't been an issue as I can connect and leave the VNC window minimized for as long as I want, then simply bring it back up and go back to work. However, on my Linux Mint netbook, although I can connect just fine, it seems after awhile (it seems to stop working after my display goes to sleep...?) my VNC connection will simply close and then trying to reconnect does nothing until I restart the computer (although I presume restarting the VNC server service would fix it too, but I haven't tried that yet)....the above defies the point of remotely controlling the computer though, as I have to be physically at the comp to restart it or the VNC service as I can't reconnect remotely. Is there any way to stop my VNC service from doing this?

2. My second, and lesser issue with VNC is that sometimes I need to restart the machines I am remoted into. On my Windows machines, the VNC service starts before the user is actually logged into the desktop, meaning even if I restart the computers, I can just remote in and then sign in as the user I want to be at the login screen. On my Mint netbook, if I restart the machine, the VNC service seems to start AFTER the user logs in, meaning if I restart it, I can't remote into the computer again until I physically go to the computer and log in as a user. How would I go about getting the VNC server to start BEFORE a user logs in so I could then sign in as whichever user I needed at the login screen?

Thanks for any and all help - this forum has a great userbase, you're all very kind and friendly!

[usbtux]

1. turn off the screensaver/screen blank/sleep on the pc you are loging into.

2. No, thats the way ubuntu (Linux?) works (AFAIK) you cannot loginto vnc before the user logs on. You can set vnc to login with a password or without. - you could setup mint to login automatically - which solves the login prob.

[darkstrike]

@ usbtux

Ok, I can understand the answer to the second question, as that makes sense for security reasons, however, your first answer seems hard to believe to me (I don't mean I'm upset / angry at you or anything! , I'm just surprised that's how it works in Linux...why couldn't the computer just send a signal to the display to turn back on / end the screensaver when it gets a signal from VNC as Windows does...?) It seems an odd setup that if the display goes to sleep / screensaver, one could no longer sign in to VNC EVER until the system is restarted or until somebody manually restarts the VNC service, as my computer is doing...?

I could turn off the screensaver, yes, but as it's a netbook, I don't want to turn off that setting that shuts off the display after a few minutes because sometimes it is running on battery and having the display turn off saves power. Plus, sometimes I have to lend the netbook to my mother who is not so computer literate, and I need to be able to remotely log into it to fix issues from afar, so you can understand my reasoning for needing both, haha!