vmware-view and rdesktop - Graphics and cursor limitations of rdesktop

[acarwile]

My work desktop is debian Linux and I use rdesktop directly to a
Windows 7 PC (not virtual). A colleague uses vmware-view (and
therefore rdesktop) to a virtual Windows 7 PC. The rdesktop app is
limited to 16-bit color and the resulting Windows UI programs lose a
lot over a direct-connected monitor. (1) First, text is displayed as
"un-aliased". Anti-aliased text is much easier to read in most
cases. (2) Second, cursors display very poorly sometimes, perhaps due
also to aliasing... to the point where it's difficult to find the
cursor.

So, can vmware-view be used with some other client implementation of
the remote desktop protocol? Is there any "richer" implementation of
a Linux rdp client? Perhaps a related open source project? Is there
any serious effort to enhance "rdesktop" to support better than 16 bit
graphics? Perhaps a companion open source project should be launched.

The Microsoft RDP application for Mac OS X delivers a higher quality
presentation. I use this from my home computer. Unfortunately my
work Linux system is where I spend more hours and so I'm stuck with
unaliased text and wimpy cursor graphics. I'm not do fine color
imaging or high end computer graphics which would be impractical all
together.

Does vmware-view do anything that makes the graphics better for Linux
users accessing vm windows systems, or is the presentation all handed
off to rdesktop, and therefore limited in the same ways?

I can switch over to using a physical windows PC by hitting the
buttons on my monitors, but my colleague with a virtual windows PC
cannot.

Thanks,
Alan Carwile

[jgr...@vmware.com]

Hi Alan,

Rdesktop can handle a variety of color depths, not just 16-bit, and
View Open Client will ask for the best depth available on your Linux
desktop (it uses the gdk_visual_get_best_depth() API). You can
experiment by passing an override option when you start vmware-view:

> vmware-view --rdesktopOptions="-a 24"

This will add an additional -a option after the one created by the
code.

But there might be something else going on related to your Linux
installation or the Windows desktop you are connecting to. I would
check your client and remote desktop configurations to see whether
either one is limiting the color depth.

jim

[Fernando Freire]

Jim,

Like you suggested, I now launch the Open Client via "vmware-view --
rdesktopOptions="-a 32"". Even with this setting, however, I notice
that fonts and cursors are still not aliased. I've tried looking up
both the man pages and the Google code page, but I've yet to turn up
*any* sort of documentation. Am I just not looking in the right
places?

This certainly isn't something that prevents me from doing work, but
it would be nice to save a few years on my eyes ;)

-FF-

[jacob berkman]

On Wednesday, November 23, 2011, Fernando Freire <dogonth...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Jim,
>
> Like you suggested, I now launch the Open Client via "vmware-view --
> rdesktopOptions="-a 32"". Even with this setting, however, I notice
> that fonts and cursors are still not aliased.

I suspect you mean they are still aliased; you probably want them anti-aliased.

as mentioned, the client automatically detects your bit depth, but I think the -x option is what you're looking for. so, try using --rdesktopOptions="-x l" on your command line.

cheers,
-- jacob