Re: [Qemu-devel] Using QEMU as a terminal server?

[Michael McConnell]

Alexandre Leclerc wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I was thinking to something weird, but I don't know if it is totally
> doable. So I ask your expertise. (Being under Linux to use W2K
> images.)
>
> - ssh login.
> - then the login script launch a qemu session without the X session
> (running without visual).
> - there would be UltraVNC server inside the OS
> - find a way to catch the nat ip address of this new qemu session
> - trhu the ssh tunel, connect UltraVNC viewer to server.
>
> Here we go I have a nive 'Terminal Server' connection.
>
> Ok, if the ssh thing is not working, or simply, let us remove this
> aspect; would such a thing be possible?
>
> Having something like that would be amasing because then doing
> windows-like terminal server on linux becomes possible. You map the
> sessions in read-only to a master image file and there you go.

I do something very similar.

My localnet uses IPs in 192.168.a.0/24, and my QEMU sessions operate on 
separate 192.168.b.x/30 subnets, and for my Win2000 QEMU session I have 
ipchains NATing outbound connections and transparently forwarding a 
192.168.a.y address that is aliased on the host's eth0 (the host handles 
192.168.a.z as normal) to the 192.168.b.x/30 address used within QEMU. I 
then just open a VNC connection to 192.168.a.y port 5900, and it all 
works fine.

This forwarding means my net-facing box which handles inbound SSH from 
the internet can "see" the QEMU virtual machine without requiring a 
second level of port-forwarding.

My ssh looks something like this, from the outside world:

ssh -L5944:192.168.96.y:5900 -C address@hidden

The -C compresses, and despite VNC doing a lot of compression on its 
own, this does help, especially on low-bandwidth connections (e.g. 
dial-up, GPRS)

If you want to use user-mode networking instead of the tunnelling 
device, use the "-redir tcp:5900::5900" option for QEMU, then the host's 
port 5900 will be forwarded into the QEMU VNC server.

Hope that's of some help.

--
-- Michael "Soruk" McConnell
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