I have a PS3 with YDL 5.0.1 installed on my home network along with various Windows PCs. The PS3 is connected to my home theater projector -- the only high-def display I have which supports HDCP. While having a 140" diagonal screen is nice, I don't want to use it all the time.
This is how I access the remote desktop of my PS3 running YDL 5.0.x using a PC running Windows XP (should work for Windows 95/98/ME/2000/XP/Vista).
These instructions assume you are running Yellow Dog Linux 5.0.x on a PS3, you’re running a GNOME desktop, and that you installed the default apps. Also, it will help if your YDL PS3 is set up with a static IP address instead of requesting one automatically from your router’s DHCP server, but it isn’t absolutely necessary.
1. On the PS3, Select ‘Remote Desktop’ from the System / Preferences drop down menu. This will bring up the Remote Desktop Preferences window. Make sure you have “Allow other users to view your desktop” and “Allow other users to control your desktop” checked. Uncheck “Ask for confirmation”. Check “Require the user to enter this password” and enter a good password. Select Close and your VNC Server setup will be complete.
2. If you want to make sure your Remote Desktop / VNC Server is up and running, start VNC Viewer from the Applications / Accessories menu. In the resulting VNC Viewer window, enter localhost.localdomain:0 for the VNC server. This will bring up a VNC window with a duplicate of your desktop in it. Oooooh... shiny... Don’t be surprised if you see some strange effects – you are looking at a copy of your desktop which has a copy of your desktop which has … well, you get the idea. Close this window and proceed to Step 3.
3. While you’re still at the PS3, make sure you have an SSH Server running. Go to the drop down menu item System / Administration / Server Settings / Services. It will most likely ask you for your root password before opening the Service Configuration window. In the bottom left corner, scroll down until you see a service called sshd. It should be checked. Close the Service Configuration window.
4. Before you move to your Windows PC, make sure you know the IP address assigned to your PS3. If you have already assigned a static IP this won’t be necessary since you already know it, I hope. To determine your IP address, open a terminal window and enter the following commands:
su -l root
(This will prompt you for your root password. Not necessary if you are already logged in as root)
ifconfig
Your PS3’s local IP address should be on the second line of output, something like this:
inet addr:192.168.1.104 (this number will vary)
In this case, the IP address would be 192.168.1.104
5. Moving to your Windows PC, you’ll need a program called PuTTY, a Telnet and SSH client with port forwarding capabilities. Download the Windows installer from here and install it:
http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html
When PuTTY is started it will open a PuTTY Configuration window. Categories are listed on the left, and options on the right.
Go to the SSH / Tunnels Category. Enter 5900 for the Source Port.
Enter localhost:5900 for the destination.
Click Add, and this line should show up in the Forwarded ports list:
L5900 localhost:5900
5900 is the default port used for the VNC traffic.
Now go back to the top category, Session. Under ‘Host Name (or IP address)’, enter your PS3’s IP address (sticking with the example from Step 4, it would be 192.168.1.104).
Under “Saved Sessions” enter PS3 (or whatever you want to call it) and click Save.
Now try to open a connection to the SSH server on your PS3 by clicking on ‘Open’ at the bottom of the PuTTY configuration window.
If we’ve done everything correctly you should get a terminal window showing ‘login as:’
Enter the username you normally use to access your desktop on the PS3, followed by the password for that account on the next line. Now you should be logged in to secure shell server on your PS3. Leave this window open – you will need to remain connected as long as you’re running the VNC Viewer to access the desktop on the PS3.
6. Now you need VNC Viewer on your Windows PC to access the remote desktop / VNC Server on your PS3. Download and install the latest version from http://www.realvnc.com. There is a free edition with reduced features that works fine.
Once you have VNC Viewer installed (you don’t have to install the Server software if you don’t think you’ll want to access your Windows PC from your PS3), start the VNC Viewer program.
For server, enter:
localhost:0
And click OK to connect.
If all goes well, it should ask you for the password for the Remote Desktop you created back in Step 1, and in a moment you’ll see the desktop of your PS3.
Conclusion:
You are accessing your PS3's remote desktop with VNC Viewer through an SSH tunnel. All this trouble could be avoided by "poking a hole" in your YDL firewall under the menu item System / Administration / Security Level and Firewall, adding port 5900 to the list, but the free version of VNC Viewer does not provide any encryption.
PuTTY has some options to play with, some of which will improve the experience. The free version of VNC viewer from RealVNC.com does not support scaling, so you may have to scroll around the desktop depending on the resolution of your Windows PC.
References:
Securing a VNC connection with OpenSSH
http://trekweb.com/~jasonb/articles/vnc_ssh.shtml
Updated 11/17/07:
Thanks to oz2kso for a fix under Step 5.