[NBLUG/talk] Problems with X and VNC

[Andrew]

Thanks to you all for your suggestions so far (I'm going to let
that snicker about Debian slide, Bob... this time :).
Unfortunately, I haven't made any real progress with this at all,
except to find out some of the stuff that *doesn't* work. I've
tinkered with .vnc/xstartup, making it as basic as I dared while
still having it do something. I've also tried making xstartup a
symlink to /usr/bin/X11/startx, as the FAQ suggested I try. And
I've tried running it as root as well as a normal user. More
details and questions follow:


On Mon, 19 May 2003 09:15:41 -0700
Mitch Patenaude <mrp at sonic.net> wrote:

> vncserver doesn't use the stardard X startup scripts.  It uses
> the file $HOME/.vnc/xstartup.

Do you know what tells Xvnc to source this file? I grepped for
"xstartup" in /etc/vnc.conf and in /usr/bin/X11/vncserver, but
came up with nothing. Is it hard-coded in the binary or is it
listed in some other script or config somewhere?

> By default, this uses a very old-fashioned window manager twm,
> and a very spartan desktop, that includes a gray backgound.  By
> default it also starts up an Xterm though,

Turns out, I had neither TWM nor Xterm installed. A quick
"apt-get install twm xterm" did the job. However, I still can't
get them to start up.

> You can modify the xstartup script to start Gnome or
> KDE, but if the Xterm isn't running, then chances are that they
> won't work either.

Exactly.

> A good first diagnostic step is to check the log file at
> $HOME/.vnc/<hostname>:N.log

See below.

> Some likely problems to check:   Make sure that you haven't
> hardcoded a value for "DISPLAY" in one of your shell rc
> scripts.   

Check.

> Check to see if your PATH includes /usr/X11R6/bin.

Check.

> Use the error messages in the logfile as guidance from there. 
> If you can't figure it out, post the log file here and maybe
> somebody else can spot the problem.

The log file and my xstartup are attached below. Personally, I
see nothing amiss in the log file.

> A final practical note.  If you're actually planning to use
> this over any network slower than 100 Mbits/sec, don't use the
> fancy themes or pretty window decorations.

I expected as much. I was planning to go with something sensible.

> 
>     -- Mitch


My xstartup:

#!/bin/sh
xrdb $HOME/.Xresources
xsetroot -solid grey
xterm -geometry 80x24+10+10 -ls &
twm &


The logfile:

19/05/03 16:53:56 Xvnc version 3.3.3r2+tight1.2.2
19/05/03 16:53:56 Copyright (C) AT&T Laboratories Cambridge.
19/05/03 16:53:56 All Rights Reserved.
19/05/03 16:53:56 See http://www.uk.research.att.com/vnc for information on VNC
19/05/03 16:53:56 Desktop name 'X' (lhasa:1)
19/05/03 16:53:56 Protocol version supported 3.3
19/05/03 16:53:56 Listening for VNC connections on TCP port 5901

19/05/03 16:54:24 Got connection from client 192.168.1.3
19/05/03 16:54:24 Protocol version 3.3
19/05/03 16:54:28 Pixel format for client 192.168.1.3:
19/05/03 16:54:28   8 bpp, depth 8
19/05/03 16:54:28   true colour: max r 7 g 7 b 3, shift r 0 g 3 b 6
19/05/03 16:54:29 rfbProcessClientNormalMessage: ignoring unknown encoding 16
19/05/03 16:54:29 Using hextile encoding for client 192.168.1.3
19/05/03 16:54:29 Pixel format for client 192.168.1.3:
19/05/03 16:54:29   16 bpp, depth 16, little endian
19/05/03 16:54:29   true colour: max r 31 g 63 b 31, shift r 11 g 5 b 0
19/05/03 16:54:29   no translation needed
19/05/03 16:55:02 Client 192.168.1.3 gone
19/05/03 16:55:02 Statistics:
19/05/03 16:55:02   key events received 1, pointer events 434
19/05/03 16:55:02   framebuffer updates 442, rectangles 1050, bytes 957914
19/05/03 16:55:02     hextile rectangles 1050, bytes 957914
19/05/03 16:55:02   raw bytes equivalent 3353030, compression ratio 3.500346