VNC image distorted

[Dan Stromberg]

Hi folks.

I'm still having some TigerVNC trouble.  Specifically, the image is either solid black, or distorted, or part solid black and part distorted.  I've attached an example screenshot - in this case a picture is worth a thousand words.

On the CentOS 7 host I'm using: tigervnc-1.12.0.x86_64.tar.gz

On the mac I'm using: TigerVNC Viewer 64 bit v1.12.0

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

[Dan Stromberg]

It's possible this isn't a TigerVNC problem.

It could be a Cinnamon problem.

In my $(hostname):1.log, I'm seeing a LOT of:

dconf-CRITICAL **: 14:01:44.101: unable to create directory '/run/user/0/dconf': Permission denied.  dconf will not work properly.

repeatedly.

I'm wondering if Cinnamon thinks I want to run as root, but cannot, because I'm starting "vncsession dastromberg :1" as root.

I'd kind of like to try just running fvwm2 or something under vnc, mostly as a test but also as a fallback if Cinnamon doesn't work out.  But I'm googling a bunch of not finding how to do it.  In the past, I would invoke fvwm2 from my ~/.vnc/xstartup, but that doesn't appear to work anymore (?).

Thanks!

[Dan Stromberg]

Also, is there a way of trying a different bit depth?  In the past, I would've fed that to vncserver on the command line, but vncsession does not appear to support such things, and vncserver appears to be gone for good.

On Wed, Dec 15, 2021 at 8:31 AM Dan Stromberg <stro...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Dan Stromberg]

unset XDG_RUNTIME_DIR

...prior to:

vncsession dastromberg :1

...helped a LOT.  Now I get a decent TigerVNC session with cinnamon in it.  :)

Cinnamon /might/ be crashy run under VNC - not completely sure about that yet.

I'm still interested in how to run fvwm2 under TigerVNC 1.12, in case Cinnamon turns out too unstable.

Thanks!

On Wed, Dec 15, 2021 at 8:31 AM Dan Stromberg <stro...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Pierre Ossman]

On 16/12/2021 00:14, Dan Stromberg wrote:
> unset XDG_RUNTIME_DIR
> ...prior to:
> vncsession dastromberg :1
> ...helped a LOT. Now I get a decent TigerVNC session with cinnamon in it.
> :)
>

You should not be calling vncsession directly (unless you *REALLY* know
what you are doing), so that might be the source of your issues.

Sessions should be started via the vncserver@ service, which makes sure
they are started in a proper environment that has everything your
desktop needs.

There's a brief HOWTO on how to use the service here:

https://github.com/TigerVNC/tigervnc/blob/master/unix/vncserver/HOWTO.md

Regards
--
Pierre Ossman Software Development
Cendio AB https://cendio.com
Teknikringen 8 https://twitter.com/ThinLinc
583 30 Linköping https://facebook.com/ThinLinc
Phone: +46-13-214600

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