Cool new way to VNC with bugfix (new to me, anyway)

[segflaunt]

I found something sooooo cool... tightvnc-4.0_beta has a vnc.so X11 module. This would replace gemsvnc, which can be awkward. That would be SOOOOOO cool!!! Instructions follow... (some stuff gleaned from http://xf4vnc.sourceforge.net/doc.html)

The benefits to this method are that once you do it...

1. It's ubiquitous. You can vnc into the gdm login screen. You need to modify /etc/X11/gdm/Init/Default to do it with gemsvnc.
2. It's not crashy, and you'll never end up having two running and fighting for the display like with gemsvnc.
3. Having multiple displays running simply means port 5900 for :0, 5901 for :1, and so on.

Once vino comes out, and the XDAMAGE extension makes it into mainline xorg, use that. Gnome will simply rock over VNC then. Until that day comes, tunneling this over ssh with compression is the absolute best for controlling existing X sessions in my experience. I just wish there was an NX server like this...

In order to actually use jpeg compression, though, you have to work around a bug in how the X11 module is compiled, or you'll get undefined symbol crashes when your tightvnc client tries to initialize jpeg compression in the session.

1. emerge the beta tightvnc, and after it's done, start emerging it again, and switch to another window
2. cd /var/tmp/portage/tightvnc-4.0_beta20031113/work/vnc-4.0b4-unixsrc/xc/programs/Xserver/vnc/module
3. wait till symlinks appear here, then interrupt the emerge
4. type "make"
5. re-run the following line like in the "make" output, but add a "-ljpeg" at the end.

Code:

c++ -o vnc.so -shared  vncExtInit.o vncHooks.o xf86vncModule.o XserverDesktop.o ../../../../../rfb/librfb.a ../../../../../Xregion/libXregion.a ../../../../../network/libnetwork.a                   ../../../../../rdr/librdr.a -ljpeg

6. copy "vnc.so" to /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/extensions/vnc.so
7. create some kind of /some/dir/.vnc/passwd and use it in the XF86Config (or xorg.conf) Options line near the bottome of this post

In your /etc/X11/XF86Config file (or xorg.conf), you add lines like:

[mojope]

Cool!

I am just looking for the right implementation for my box to remotely administrate it.

Have you tested it with ssh tunneling?


- Morten

[segflaunt]

[gondoi]

I'm having some problems here and it's driving me crazy.. I've followed the directions here and other places, but I can't seem to get this to work.

When I try to connect it says connection refused. I checked the X logs and the module loads, but further down I see this

[mindwarp]

Remove the localhost line and see if you connect. The localhost part says it doesn't accept outside connections. I just use putty to setup a ssh tunnel and it worked pretty good for me.

Also I get the same error messages as you, that is because the video card driver doesn't know how to use them, but they are eventually used.
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[gondoi]

Thanks, that worked...

But that seems weird to me, I was using putty also and tunneling the connection so it should have seemed like it was coming from the localhost... Oh well, got it working at least.
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[Mr. Atoz]

Has anybody emerged this tightvnc beta that is ALSO running x.org in place of XFree86? I am running x.org, and the emerge has downloaded and appears to be compiling XFree86. It was not listeed as a dependancy when I did a pretend, and I don't think it is goiing to install XFree86. Perhaps it is just a compile time dependancy? Perhaps this will be addressed in a future ebuild?

Any others experienced this?
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---Atoz

[gondoi]

I saw that too and was a bit concerned, but I think that there are just simply some sources that the tightvnc has to compile against in order for it to be a module. And apparently it doesn't depend which you are using at the moment (x.org or xfree)

I'm thinking it's kinda like compiling a module in the kernel.. you have to have the sources there but really you are just compiling the module and the particular sources that the module needs (the includes).

At any rate, to answer your question, yes it works in x.org.. I am using it now.
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[JJacobsson]

This was realy cool! I used to run Xvnc on a new display, with a diff window manager etc...

But with this I can just vnc to the gdm screen! No more "Ooops, I left the vnc server running and logged in via gdm again and screwed up my desktop".

Only problem is when I tried it I couldent type anything on the keyboard, but the mouse worked. And while I was clicking away (on the gdm login screen) wondering why the keyboard dident work I managed to click System->Shutdown->Ok without thinking :oops:

And since I was at work at the time it made turning it back on kinda problematic...

Oh well... reading this post explains why the keyboard dident work anyway... wonder why the mouse worked... cause I dident have those bits in my xorg.conf
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- Cake please.

[lots]

Why not just forward the xsession over ssh? Why bother putting vnc on your system at all if the functionality is already there with X.org or Xfree86 installed and ssh? All thats needed is an X server running on your local system..

EDIT:

ssh -Y host

thats all you need..

[emorphix]

Not everyone strictly runs X some my run Windows and would like to be able to VNC to their existing X session.

Too bad TightVNC 4.0 Beta no longer exists in portage.

Good thing I kept the compiled vnc.so with jpeg compression all I had to do is install xf4vnc 4.3.0.104 and then copied the vnc.so module over and now I can use tight compression again

However I get this strange error whenever my VNC session times out

http://www.tripodbox.com/emorphix/xerr

when my Tight VNC client thats connected to my X session times out due to inactivity it shutsdown the entire X server, so my session is closed and I have to restart it via SSH and then login with Tight VNC once again. I have been using the TightVNC 1.2.9 Viewer to connect from Windows I tried the 1.3dev5 TightVNC Viewer as well (worked awesome with tightvnc4.0 that was in portage) but that for some reason hangs and never prompts me for a password.

If anyone has experienced this issue before or has any insight on what I could do to try to remedy the issue I would greatly appreciate it.

Thank you.
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[lots]

[emorphix]

Not sure what your point is. But setting up CYGWIN on a Win2k Corporate computer is a no no.

Like I said not everyone can use X Forwarding.

This post is about VNC not about X Forwarding.
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[dasalvagg]

what happened to tightvnc? Their website says 1.3 is the development branch. Where did 4.0beta come from(and go)? Can the vnc.so be compiled from the 1.3 code?

[JoSSa]

xf4vnc seems to provide the same functionality that existed in tightvnc-4.0-beta. It is also in portage.