Can I use TurboVNC Client to share the session currently running on the console?

[torsten]

Hi,

sometimes I sit at the console of my Ubuntu workstation. But most times I work from remote using TurboVNC on that host. Formerly the workstation were running Windows. So with RDP I had remote access to my Windows session currently running on the console. Now the workstation has Ubuntu, and I use TurboVNC for remote working on it. But when I have some running applications on the console, I have no access to their windows from remote using TurboVNC. And vice versa, when I have some running applications in the TurboVNC session, disconnect from it and go to the console, I have no access to the windows in the TurboVNC session. So, is it possible somehow to use the same session on the console and alternatively from remote using TurboVNC?

Perhaps is this possible, if I use TurboVNC Client on the console too? I tried to get access to the TurboVNC session using Remmina, but had no success. If it is possible, what conditions must be met?

Many thanks in advance and Kind Regards
Torsten

[DRC]

To access a running TurboVNC Server session from the console, you can
simply run the TurboVNC Viewer on the console, as you suggested, and
enter "localhost:{n}" as the display (where {n} is the X display number
that the TurboVNC Server session is using.)

To do the reverse (accessing the console remotely), you can still use
the TurboVNC Viewer, but you'd need to use another type of server (a
screen scraper.) This could be x0vncserver, TigerVNC's X.org module, or
x11vnc. You can probably also run Remmina on the console and access it
remotely via the TurboVNC Viewer, although I have no idea how well that
performs. The TurboVNC Server itself doesn't provide screen scraping
capabilities.

[DRC]

Correction: Remmina is just a remote desktop client. I was thinking of
the built-in GNOME VNC server, Vino. The TurboVNC Viewer should work
fine with Vino.

[Torsten Kupke]

Hi DRC,

many thanks again!

Am 15.04.2018 um 22:39 schrieb DRC:
> To access a running TurboVNC Server session from the console, you can
> simply run the TurboVNC Viewer on the console, as you suggested, and
> enter "localhost:{n}" as the display (where {n} is the X display number
> that the TurboVNC Server session is using.)

Could I use Remmina instead of the TurboVNC Viewer on the console? Since
Remmina can work as VNC client too, doesn't it?

> To do the reverse (accessing the console remotely), you can still use
> the TurboVNC Viewer, but you'd need to use another type of server (a
> screen scraper.) This could be x0vncserver, TigerVNC's X.org module, or
> x11vnc. You can probably also run Remmina on the console and access it
> remotely via the TurboVNC Viewer, although I have no idea how well that
> performs. The TurboVNC Server itself doesn't provide screen scraping
> capabilities.

Before TurboVNC I used RDP/xrdp. With that I had issues, since Qt
applications need the XKEYBOARD extension, which the default vncserver
used by xrdp doesn't support. So I would need a VNC server supporting
both, the XKEYBOARD extension and screen scraping. Do you know, which
one this does?

Regards
Torsten

[DRC]

> Could I use Remmina instead of the TurboVNC Viewer on the console? Since Remmina can work as VNC client too, doesn't it?

Yes, but it’s probably quite a bit slower than the TurboVNC Viewer.

> Before TurboVNC I used RDP/xrdp. With that I had issues, since Qt applications need the XKEYBOARD extension, which the default vncserver used by xrdp doesn't support. So I would need a VNC server supporting both, the XKEYBOARD extension and screen scraping. Do you know, which one this does?

When you are using a screen scraper, the X server is the one running on the console, so the same X extensions will work. The only time you need to be concerned about X extension support is when using an X proxy like xrdp or Xvnc. The TurboVNC Server is an implementation of Xvnc. The three most common Xvnc implementations (RealVNC, TigerVNC, TurboVNC) all support XKEYBOARD.