Problem with VNC, can't get desktop to come up.
Braun Brelin
I'm running two X86 machines, using RH 7.1 and VNC. I can start the
vncserver
and vncviewer with no problem, however, no matter what I do, the
vncviewer only shows a single xterm in a gray background. I was under
the impression that VNC should actually display remotely the desktop
of the machine running the server, is that not correct? That's how it
seems to work with a Linux viewer and a Windows server. I've tried
playing around with the xstartup file but I can't seem to get it to
work correctly.
Any thoughts?
Thanks,
Braun Brelin
bbr...@yahoo.com
David Konerding, Ph.D.
Create a file ~/.vnc/xstartup which is chmod +x.
In it list the commands you want to run when vncserver starts.
Mine looks like:
!/bin/sh
xrdb $HOME/.Xresources
fvwm2
Wayne Throop
: I'm running two X86 machines, using RH 7.1 and VNC. I can start the
: vncserver and vncviewer with no problem, however, no matter what I do,
: the vncviewer only shows a single xterm in a gray background. I was
: under the impression that VNC should actually display remotely the
: desktop of the machine running the server, is that not correct?
: That's how it seems to work with a Linux viewer and a Windows server.
The two operate in a fundamentally different way. Windows display
operations are done to "the display"; there's a fundamental assumption
that there's only one person operating the computer. Unix X display
operations are are done to one of many possible screens, and unix
expects to be able to run processes for multiple users sitting at
multiple displays.
Therefore, starting the unix server starts a completely new virtual
display implemented in software, while starting the windows server
operates by "peeking" at what windows is doing to the physical hardware.
IMO, it's not called out explicitly enough, but if you look at
http://www.uk.research.att.com/vnc/start.html and
http://www.uk.research.att.com/vnc/faq.html#q21
you'll find this difference mentioned in passing.
snip from http://www.uk.research.att.com/vnc/start.html
With a normal X system, the main X display of a workstation called
'snoopy' is usually snoopy:0. You can also run as many VNC servers
on a Unix machine as you like, and they will appear as snoopy:1,
snoopy:2 etc, as if they were just additional displays.
In faq#21 and 22, it mentions the xstartup script,
and also mentions an implementation of a vnc server designed
to export X display :0, so that it acts more like the windows server.
: I've tried playing around with the xstartup file but I can't seem to
: get it to work correctly.
Did you remember to kill the vnc server and restart it after you
edited the .vnc/xstartup? I don't mean merely quitting the viewer
and restarting it; did you "vncserver -kill :1" and then
"vncserver" to start a new server to read your new xstartup?
Wayne Throop thr...@sheol.org http://sheol.org/throopw
David Konerding, Ph.D.
>: bbr...@yahoo.com (Braun Brelin)
>: I'm running two X86 machines, using RH 7.1 and VNC. I can start the
>: vncserver and vncviewer with no problem, however, no matter what I do,
>: the vncviewer only shows a single xterm in a gray background. I was
>: under the impression that VNC should actually display remotely the
>: desktop of the machine running the server, is that not correct?
>: That's how it seems to work with a Linux viewer and a Windows server.
>
> The two operate in a fundamentally different way. Windows display
> operations are done to "the display"; there's a fundamental assumption
> that there's only one person operating the computer. Unix X display
> operations are are done to one of many possible screens, and unix
> expects to be able to run processes for multiple users sitting at
> multiple displays.
>
> Therefore, starting the unix server starts a completely new virtual
> display implemented in software, while starting the windows server
> operates by "peeking" at what windows is doing to the physical hardware.
I didn't read the original message closely enough; I thougth the user just wanted
to get a window manager running.
But x0rfbserver actually gets the user the semantics they expected; it's like VNC but works on the root display.