[coulterp]

I have VNCServer running on a Linux (CentOS 4.2) server.
I use VNCViewer from a WinXP box to remote in unto the Linux server.
Except ... in order to be able to do this I have to have first started a terminal session on the Linux box from a terminal (monitor, keyboard, mouse). In other words it is not possible immediately after a reboot of the Linux box to remote in from a WinXP box without first having started a terminal session on a locally attached terminal. This is something of a disadvantage if I want to do it all remotely.

I'm pretty sure that at one point I was able to configure things so that on boot I could set to auto-login on a selected user account on the desktop and was then able to remote in from the WinXP box immediately after a reboot as required. But I've forgotten how I did this and I cannot find the menu option on the GUI that allowed me to do this. (I'm using the default GUI after installation, i.e. not KDE). There is of course a security consideration with auto-logon but in the circumstances it is acceptable.

I would really rather have the server with no attached monitor/keyboard/mouse if at all possible. Can some-one point me to the right area in the various GUI configuration options to look for this? Or indeed provide any suggestions as to how I could what I want to achieve here. Or is what I want to do just not doable?

TIA.

[linuxphile]

A better and probably considerably more secure approach would be to use FreeNX. FreeNX allows you to forward an X session to a Windows desktop without having to install Cygwin or a proprietary XWindows server for Windows. Linux Journal has done a series of articles on FreeNX. Check them out at http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/8477.