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Is there a free/open source alternative to teamviewer that will allow me to help a friend running Ubuntu 14.04 with the default unity desktop?

Some years ago Ubuntu had a way to share screen/mouse built in (I think it was called "share desktop") but I can't find it in 14.04.

Notes:

  1. I want a shared desktop session not a separate one. I'm already able to VNC to a separate session but I need to see and click what my friend sees.
  2. I don't want to change my friends Unity desktop. He has trouble adapting to such changes.
ndemou
  • 2,370

2 Answers2

5

If you're able to log in to your friend's machine over ssh, you can create a shared VNC session.

First, when you're ssh-ing, forward the VNC port too:

ssh -L 5900:localhost:5900 username@your-friends-machine

Then, on your friend's machine (ie, in the ssh session) run x11vnc to serve a shared-desktop VNC session:

x11vnc -safer -localhost -nopw -once -display :0

Then, on your local machine, connect to this VNC session over the forwarded port:

vncviewer -encodings 'tight copyrect' localhost:5900

[the -encodings 'tight copyrect' argument isn't strictly required, but it prevents vncviewer from disabling compression, which it will do when connecting to localhost]

Jeremy Kerr
  • 27,829
1

Gnome Empathy (installed by default until 16.04 and available to install in 16.10*) has a "Share My Desktop" feature.

I have only tested with a Jabber account but it works. I used accounts at movim.eu.

See the official gnome help for instructions on how to use this feature

Notes:

*: On 16.10 use the software centre or sudo apt-get install empathy

ndemou
  • 2,370
shiftee
  • 141