Using a laptop as a monitor for another computer

[dashcloud]

(Sorry if this is the wrong forum- I wasn't sure which one would be correct here.)

Is there anything I should know before attempting to use my laptop as a monitor for media computer which will sit on my desk? I'd like to get rid of the monitor, but occasionally I still need to see what's going on with the media computer, so it would be very convenient to just use my laptop as the monitor. It looks like it would be possible from a hardware point of view.

Thanks!

[Redeeman]

any reason you are not just using some remote control software?

[Jade]

If you are up to some experimentation, you could try x2x.

x2x allows the keyboard, mouse on one X display to be used to control another X display. It also shares X clipboards between the displays.

Not sure if you can make it work with one of the computers headless.

Actually, I am day dreaming....

All you have to do is rlogin / ssh into the main computer and export the X-display to the laptop. I can't remember the actual commands,... maybe someone else can fill in the details for you.

[crispy]

(Sorry if this is the wrong forum- I wasn't sure which one would be correct here.)

Is there anything I should know before attempting to use my laptop as a monitor for media computer which will sit on my desk? I'd like to get rid of the monitor, but occasionally I still need to see what's going on with the media computer, so it would be very convenient to just use my laptop as the monitor. It looks like it would be possible from a hardware point of view.

Thanks!

Let me get this straight: you want to output display from your media center to your laptop over network right?

I dont think thats a viable solution as the output on the laptop screen would probably be lagging quite alot if youre watching movies. If youre just using the media centre as a jukebox, VNC or a combination of SSH and dcop calls to amarok would do the trick to control whats playing.

If, however, you already got a screen connected to your media centre with the intention of playing movies etc (which is the normal usage of a media centre anyway) I can strongly recommend using Synergy. It basicly lets you send input (like mouse and keyboard) to another computer via lan. Just move the cursor out of the side of the screen and the other computer will start recieving that input instead of the computer youre sitting at. Really really handy for controlling a media centre.

Anyway, if you just need to manage the computer sometimes use VNC, its really easy, but there will be some lag.