replace Xvfb with Xvnc or Xdummy when using xpra

[Antoine Martin]

Xvfb is old and it is missing a number of useful X11 extensions, also the alternatives may offer better keyboard support?
The idea of using those as an alternative to Xvfb is not new either, see ​x11vnc faq-xvfb

Information about dummy driver is scarce, but there is some in ​XorgTesting

The easiest way (which seems to work ok) is to use ​Xdummy (GPLv2+)

One of the most important benefits is that these alternatives also support randr so we could envisage resizing the buffer to the size needed by the client currently connected rather than the default huge size we have at the moment.

[Antoine Martin]

We now support using Xdummy instead of Xvfb since r3648

Still TODO:

• Randr support in xpra to resize as needed
• packaging it... that's going to be difficult:
  • build Xdummy.so is ok
  • must copy Xorg to Xorg-Xdummy as post-install?
• reduce RAM usage to maximum usable size VideoRam 64000 should be enough for 3840*2560*32bpp
• define enough resolutions in xorg-xdummy.conf so we can always find one appropriate

OR: get Xorg to make an Xdummy binary (would take a while before it ships) - asked ML: ​dummy driver and maximum resolutions, config hacks via LD_PRELOAD, etc

[Antoine Martin]

For detailed instructions on using xpra with Xdummy, see ​http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/msg00478.html

[Antoine Martin]

The dummy dimensions patch has now been merged by xorg.

Added more details as an xpra bug ​here

[Antoine Martin]

Moved all the Xdummy info to ​xpra ticket 10

This is the way to go, closing here.