Supporting the vino vnc server?

[robert.waters]

I would like to run winswitch on two current ubuntu (oneiric) boxes, both running the vinagre/vino-server VNC client/server combo.
The 'Desktop Default' section in server configuration ui reads 'None available' (ui/config_server.py: populate_session_types()), and 'Start Desktop Session' is disabled.

I tried trivially adding the vinagre/vino paths to VNC_COMMAND/XVNC_COMMAND in util/commands_util.py; that did not work.

The problem persisted even after installing the tightvnc viewer.

Any hints would be appreciated.

Thanks!

[Antoine Martin]

What you want to do is tell winswitch to use a specific command for 'vncviewer' / 'Xvnc', no need to change the source for that! This is stored in your settings which were detected the first time you started winswitch.

• You can change the vncviewer in the UI: 'Configuration' -> 'General' (tick 'Advanced Options' to be able to override paths) then go to 'Configuration' -> 'Protocols' and set your vncviewer path there.

• The Xvnc command is used by the server and cannot be changed via the UI yet, look for it in your .winswitch/server/server.conf under xvnc_*, this is what it looks like in my config for example:

  xvnc_command="/usr/local/bin/Xvnc"
  xvnc_options[0]="+extension"
  xvnc_options[1]="RANDR"
  xvnc_options[2]="-br"
  

Other relevant options, ie for shadowing existing displays:

vncshadow_command="/usr/local/bin/x0vncserver"
vncpasswd_command="/usr/local/bin/vncpasswd"

I will now do some tests with vinagre and vino server to confirm if they work properly out of the box (command line compatible with other binaries) or if I need to tweak the code specifically for them. Will post the results here.

[Antoine Martin]

Sorry but it looks like:

• vinagre does not support any useful command line options for setting password (or password file), window names, etc. See vinagre --help and man vinagre
• vinagre uses a ".vnc" configuration file format which is totally undocumented ​Connect with a .vnc file (except for telling you should click on the file!)
• a quick google search tells me that there is currently no way to set the password in said configuration file

So it may have a pretty interface and have lots of pretty web pages talking about it, but there is very little we can do with this piece of software as it is.

Please try with tigervnc-viewer/tigervnc-server which is known to work and is included in the debian/ubuntu repository.

[robert.waters]

Replying to antoine:

So it may have a pretty interface and have lots of pretty web pages talking about it, but there is very little we can do with this piece of software as it is.

Thank you for your prompt, informative, and hilarious assistance!