Xen users - Jan 2009 - Have to log in to start vino and guests

Installed CentOS with xen, have linux guests working fine.
However, in the services, I don''t see the vino desktop service, only
vnc.

When I restart the server, vino and the guests never restart until I log into
the desktop and I can''t seem to figure out why. I know it''s
because, or at least, seems to be because the services are only starting once I
log in but of course, I need them to start immediately.

Any input/help is most appreciated.

Mike



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On Sat, Jan 17, 2009 at 4:04 AM, lists@grounded.net <lists@grounded.net>
wrote:
> Installed CentOS with xen, have linux guests working fine.
> However, in the services, I don''t see the vino desktop service,
only vnc.
>
> When I restart the server, vino and the guests
Do you mean vino ON the guest?
>never restart until I log into the desktop and I can''t seem to
figure out why. I know it''s because, or at least, seems to be because
the services are only starting once I log in but of course, I need them to start
immediately.
This is more of a RHEL/CentOS issue then Xen. Anyway, what do you need
it for? The solution might be different depending on your requirement.

Vino is started by gnome-session, thus it''s only available after a
user logs in. You CAN setup gdm/kdm to automatically login as a user
everytime it starts, but I don''t think this is what you want.

If you need vnc access to your guests (e.g. to monitor its startup
process), both HVM and PV domU can have a framebuffer or "GUI console"
that is accessible via vnc. The thing is you have to access dom0''s IP
address instead of domU''s. A faster, text-only console is also
available, but it''s not accessible via vnc.

A third alternative is to setup vnc (not vino) service on domU.
Depending on how you set it ip, this would usually be the equivalent
of Windows Terminal Service instead of a console.

Which of the three do you need?

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>> When I restart the server, vino and the guests
>> 
> Do you mean vino ON the guest?
I mean on the server, both vino and the guests aren''t starting until I
log into the desktop. I would have done this without the desktop but
I''m so under the gun lately that I thought doing it via the desktop
would be easier.

The problem is such as some services on windows that don''t start until
you log in.
 
> This is more of a RHEL/CentOS issue then Xen. Anyway, what do you need
> it for? The solution might be different depending on your requirement.
Figured others might be having the same problem otherwise, would have and likely
will ask in some other forum.
 
> If you need vnc access to your guests (e.g. to monitor its startup
> process), both HVM and PV domU can have a framebuffer or "GUI
console"
I need access to the server desktop which contains the guests. Like I said, I
just decided to quickly look at xen to see if it''s something I could
get better results from than VMware Server for redundancy.
> The thing is you have to access dom0''s IP
> address instead of domU''s. A faster, text-only console is also
> available, but it''s not accessible via vnc.
Reaching the guests aren''t a problem :). 

Mike


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On Sat, Jan 17, 2009 at 7:16 AM, lists@grounded.net <lists@grounded.net>
wrote:
>>> When I restart the server, vino and the guests
>>>
>> Do you mean vino ON the guest?
>
> I mean on the server, both vino and the guests aren''t starting
until I log into the desktop. I would have done this without the desktop but
I''m so under the gun lately that I thought doing it via the desktop
would be easier.
>
> The problem is such as some services on windows that don''t start
until you log in.
>
So let me get this straight. :
- guests (a.k.a. domU) doesn''t start automatically
- You need to access the SERVER (a.k.a. dom0) via vnc, which is why
you need vino
- vino on dom0 doesn''t start until you login

If that''s right, then you have two different problems.
First, about domU not automatically starting.
I assume you''re using Centos 5.2. In that case domU''s
autostart is
controlled by the service xendomains. Verify that that the service
autostart using the command

chkconfig --list xendomains

(there''s a GUI for this, but I prefer command line method).
Next, you probably should edit /etc/sysconfig/xendomains and change
the line that says

XENDOMAINS_SAVE=/var/lib/xen/save

to

XENDOMAINS_SAVE
This will make sure that during shutdown, domUs are shutdown instead of saved.

Next, the service only starts domUs whose config is located under
/etc/xen/auto. Other distros/systems (e.g. opensolaris) uses a
different method, but for Centos that directory is where you want to
look. So for example, if you have a domU named "test", whose config
file is on /etc/xen/test. You can make it autostart by doing something
like this

cd /etc/xen/auto
ln -s ../test

Test that it works using the command

service xendomains restart

All running domUs should stop, and all domUs whose config file is
under /etc/xen/auto will be started. Just a side note, autostarting
domUs has nothing to do with a GUI desktop or whethere a user logs in
or not.

Second, about vino not starting on the server (dom0).
As I said earlier, vino is started from gnome-session. In other words,
it''s only available after you log in. If you ABSOLUTELY need to access
the server using VNC without having to login manually, you can try one
of these :
- setting gdm/kdm to automatically logs in the default user during
startup. Not recommended, really, for security reasons
- Try xrdp from Dag''s repository. By itself it doesnt let you access
the console, but it does provide Remote Desktop-like functionality.
http://dag.wieers.com/rpm/packages/xrdp/ Note that with xrdp you
access it using Remote Desktop Client instead of vnc client.
- Try setting up vnc-server. http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/VNC-Server
provides lots of information. It actually gives you three kinds of
different setup. I''d suggest you start reading from "5. VNC-Sever
setup with no hassles with vnc-ltsp-config". This has the similar
effect with using xrdp

Hope that helps

Regards,

Fajar

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