Tonight, I set up amaroK and FreeNX. You can find them both mentioned in the latest Linux.ars article.

amaroK

amaroK is a KDE music app that is reminiscient of iTunes or Rhythmbox, but with more features. It tells you when you last played a song, when it was first played, how many times it has been played, and even recommends other songs based on what you’re listening to.

Lyrics can be viewed through the playlist window and your recent playlist can be pulished on the internet through Audioscrobbler. Free registration, email not required. My profile can be found here.

To install amaroK for Ubuntu, here’s what you need to do:
sudo apt-get install amarok amarok-xine

Once you start amaroK you’ll be asked to configure it. It’s relatively straight forward, and will ask you whether to use a mysql database or sqlite. If you know how to use mysql, it is a good idea to do so, as it will be faster. If not, just select sqlite.

Next, you’ll be asked what folders to check for music and watch, select the folders where you put your mp3s. amaroK will find the files and watch them for new files.

Once the scan is complete, you’ll want to go to the settings menu and choose “Configure amaroK”. The important part of this is choosing the engine. In the pull down list, choose “xine Engine”.

If you want to use Audioscrobbler, set up an account and fill in the information under the Scrobbler section. Check out the rest of the settings, and configure to your liking.

FreeNX

FreeNX is a protocol that allows a user to get a low-bandwidth and responsive remote session on a machine. It is effective enough that one can get smooth scrolling in Firefox over even a dial-up connection.

Installation in Ubuntu is pretty easy:

First, we need to add the repository to apt, and then install the server and client.
sudo vim /etc/apt/sources.list

Add the following line:
deb http://kanotix.com/files/debian/ ./

Then the install:
sudo apt-get install freenx nxclient

You’ll then be prompted through a curses based configuration tool to choose a key method, I recommend using the nomachine key for simplicity, however it is a security risk. If you do not want to use this machine, you’ll have to carry the public key around with you to each machine.

After that, you’ll need to tell the nxserver to allow your user to connect.
sudo nxserver --adduser

Now, open nxclient on the local machine to make sure everything is all set up.
nxclient

When you start the client for the first time, you’ll be asked a number of questions.

Name of the session (Call it whatever you want).

The address of the server.

The connection type.

The next window then prompts for the OS, what desktop environment to use and the size your remote desktop should be.

You’ll then be asked whether you want to create an icon on your desktop (personal choice) and whether or not to show the Advanced Configuration dialog (check this).

You’ll then be given a dialog to select advanced features. Click the Advanced tab and check the setting for “Enable SSL encryption of all traffic.”

You can then adjust the other settings to your taste.

Once this is done, hit save and try to connect.

If your connection fails, and you receive the following error message:

NX> 203 NXSSH running with pid: 684
NX> 200 Connected to address: XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX on port: 22
NX> 202 Authenticating user: nx
NX> 208 Using auth method: publickey
NX> 204 Authentication failed.

you have one of two problems:
1) You chose not to use the no-machine key and did not copy it to the machine you’re connecting from
2) You did use the no-machine key and there’s something else wrong.

I’m going to cover how to fix number 2. First, we’re going to reconfigure the nxserver to make sure everything is happy:
sudo nxsetup --install --clean --setup-nomachine-key

Try connecting again, if it still fails, we need to reinstall the OpenSSH server (I’m not sure why, but this is what fixed it for me, the config files were identical). Note, this will end up removing the OpenSSH server, and FreeNX (along with anything else that depends on the server – make sure to note what those are to reinstall them, and save the config files if need be).
sudo apt-get remove --purge openssh-server
sudo apt-get install openssh-server freenx nxclient

Then, readd yourself as a user:
sudo nxserver --adduser

Start the client back up and you should be able to connect.

Handy shortcut:
Alt+F4 – suspend the session