VNC development plan - discuss

[Adam Tkac]

Callum Lerwick napsal(a):
> How about a usage case:
>
> I have a desktop machine. It runs multihead, 1400x1050 on a 19in CRT and
> 1280x960 on a 17in CRT. That's 2680x1050.
>
> I have a laptop. It has a 1024x768 LCD.
>
> Sometimes I want to access my desktop's existing X session from the
> laptop.
>
> Problem: The vast difference in resolution. As well as the difference in
> font size. I use a font size that is comfortable on the desktop but
> looks huge on the laptop. Scrolling around a massive area staring at
> huge fonts is painful. Its like trying to use my desktop looking through
> a straw.
>
> Possible solution: randr the desktop machine down to 1024x768 and scale
> the font size down when connected. This can be awkwardly done manually
> through the gnome preferences panel through vino. The server side
> libvnc.so module does not understand randr at all. Score: vino 1,
> libvnc.so 0
>   
You have trully right. libvnc has some gnats whose are very annoying. 
Bug exists (https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=167827)
> Possible solution: Scale the whole screen down server side. Neither vino
> or libvnc.so support this. Score: vino 1, libvnc.so 0
>
> Possible solution: Scale the whole screen down client side. vncviewer
> does not support this. No VNC client that I know of supports this on
> Linux. TightVNC and some others support this on Windows. Score:
> vncviewer 0, TightVNC on Windows 1, TightVNC on Linux 0
>
> Possible solution: Implement a vnc server as a compositing manager, that
> internally re-composites all windows to a virtual 1024x768 screen, with
> window positions independent of the real desktop. Status: Just some
> crackrock idea I had.
>
> So, sounds like vino wins? Except:
>
> Vino's performance is complete and total ass. vino 0, libvnc.so 1
>
> Vino spews an enormous amount of shit over the network, when nothing is
> even happening. What, I don't know and I don't care enough to find out
> because of the previous point. vino -1, libvnc.so 1
>
> Vino isn't available when not logged in. vino -1, libvnc.so 2
>
> Cursor modification doesn't seem to work in vino. vino -2, libvnc.so 2
>
> In Vino, ctrl-click in Galeon to open a link in a new tab doesn't work
> for some reason. vino -3, libvnc.so 2
>
> After being rock solid for many years, recently libvnc.so has started
> randomly crashing the X server when I connect to it. I initially assumed
> it was fglrx, but no, it happens with nv, nvidia, and radeon drivers as
> well.
>   
Main problem is that original libvnc.so is designed to working with 
monolitic server (XFree86). In early releases of modular X it doesn't 
matter but when next and next version of modular incomes module becomes 
more unstable. Badly broken module isn't my work :) I'm doing 
investigations what could be wrong but I don't have any ideas yet :(

> Final score: vino -3, libvnc.so 0
>
> So, yeah. I guess I should file some bugs or something if no one else
> has already.
>   
Overall vnc is primary designed to have Xserver on headless machines and 
module is for users who wants good performance but don't want special 
features (be patient, this is on my task list...).

Regards, Adam