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Is it possible to tap into or monitor a user session from say a root user? Meaning, observing the user's GUI desktop and all? This would be similar to the Windows Assistance Tool.

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With or without their knowledge? Requiring them to intiate a session or not? – music2myear Jul 12 '11 at 18:44
Without. It is for a legitimate application. – Code Monkey Jul 12 '11 at 18:46
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If I got the right impression, you could install rdesktop and have similar functionality to RDC.

Alternatively, VNC is always a nice option. If you are looking for something more specific functionality, mention it and I'll update this answer.

The best tutorial to configure a monitoring setup w/multiple screens at once is here: http://thetechnologyteacher.wordpress.com/vncthumbnailviewer/

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Would this lock out the current user session or see what the user is doing? – Code Monkey Jul 12 '11 at 18:49
VNC allows shared sessions, i've done and used it it on Xvnc a few times in the past... – Drav Sloan Jul 12 '11 at 18:51
Re: lockout - it depends on OS. If it's a server edition, rdesktop spins a new session. For desktop systems it locks out other users. If you want to play it safe, you should run VNC. – mjb Jul 12 '11 at 20:21
@mjb: My other question is does this allow a supervisor to monitor? – Code Monkey Jul 13 '11 at 13:21
Absolutely - The full tutorial you would want is here -- thetechnologyteacher.wordpress.com/vncthumbnailviewer I'll add that to the solution. – mjb Jul 13 '11 at 14:56
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