A.2. Enabling Remote Access to the Installation System

A.2. Enabling Remote Access to the Installation System
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You may access either graphical or text interfaces for the installation system from any other system. Access to a text mode display requires telnet, which is installed by default on Fedora systems. To remotely access the graphical display of an installation system, use client software that supports the VNC (Virtual Network Computing) display protocol. A number of providers offer VNC clients for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS, as well as UNIX-based systems.

	Installing a VNC Client on Fedora
	Fedora includes vncviewer, the client provided by the developers of VNC. To obtain vncviewer, install the `vnc` package.

The installation system supports two methods of establishing a VNC connection. You may start the installation, and manually login to the graphical display with a VNC client on another system. Alternatively, you may configure the installation system to automatically connect to a VNC client on the network that is running in listening mode.

A.2.1. Enabling Remote Access with VNC

To enable remote graphical access to the installation system, enter two options at the prompt:

linux vnc vncpassword=qwerty

The vnc option enables the VNC service. The vncpassword option sets a password for remote access. The example shown above sets the password as qwerty.

	VNC Passwords
	The VNC password must be at least six characters long.

Specify the language, keyboard layout and network settings for the installation system with the screens that follow. You may then access the graphical interface through a VNC client. The installation system displays the correct connection setting for the VNC client:

Starting VNC...
The VNC server is now running.
Please connect to computer.mydomain.com:1 to begin the install...
Starting graphical installation...
Press <enter> for a shell

You may then login to the installation system with a VNC client. To run the vncviewer client on Fedora, choose Applications → Accessories → VNC Viewer, or type the command vncviewer in a terminal window. Enter the server and display number in the VNC Server dialog. For the example above, the VNC Server is computer.mydomain.com:1.

A.2.2. Connecting the Installation System to a VNC Listener

To have the installation system automatically connect to a VNC client, first start the client in listening mode. On Fedora systems, use the -listen option to run vncviewer as a listener. In a terminal window, enter the command:

 vncviewer -listen

	Firewall Reconfiguration Required
	By default, vncviewer uses TCP port 5500 when in listening mode. To permit connections to this port from other systems, choose System → Administration → Security Level and Firewall. Select Other ports, and Add. Enter `5500` in the Port(s) field, and specify `tcp` as the Protocol.

Once the listening client is active, start the installation system and set the VNC options at the boot: prompt. In addition to vnc and vncpassword options, use the vncconnect option to specify the name or IP address of the system that has the listening client. To specify the TCP port for the listener, add a colon and the port number to the name of the system.

For example, to connect to a VNC client on the system desktop.mydomain.com on the port 5500, enter the following at the boot: prompt:

linux vnc vncpassword=qwerty vncconnect=desktop.mydomain.com:5500

A.2.3. Enabling Remote Access with Telnet

To enable remote access to a text mode installation, use the telnet option at the boot: prompt:

linux text telnet

You may then connect to the installation system with the telnet utility. The telnet command requires the name or IP address of the installation system:

telnet computer.mydomain.com

	Telnet Access Requires No Password
	To ensure the security of the installation process, only use the `telnet` option to install systems on networks with restricted access.