On 12-Dec-2000 Erik Steffl wrote: > Manegold wrote: >> >> Alson van der Meulen wrote: >> > >> > > When it comes to controlling a Linux X display, I'm a little more >> > > hazy. >> > > >> > > Near as I can figure, if you want to control a Linux box using >> > > VNC, you >> > > don't run your normal X server. Instead you run vncserver from a >> > > non-X >> > > environment. This starts the VNC server, but you don't see any GUI >> > > locally. To see a local GUI, you then have to do some magic to get >> > > your >> > > window manager to run on the VNC server; this means that you're >> > > not >> > > running your accelerated X server, so you may see some speed >> > > issues, >> > > etc. Then from the second Linux (or Mac, or Windows) box, you run >> > > the >> > > VNC client and connect like in Example 2 above. >> > > >> > > In other words, as far as I can tell, you can't run your >> > > super-duper >> > > accelerated, hot-off-the-press, XFree86 server locally if you want >> > > to >> > > see the same desktop locally and via remote control. This is not >> > > the >> > > (semi-equivalent) case on Windows, but it seems to be the case on >> > > Linux. >> > > >> > > I may very well misunderstand how the thing works, but this is the >> > > conclusion I've come to after trying it three or four times over >> > > the >> > > past couple of years. >> > how about xvncviewer connecting to localhost, from using the >> > super-duper >> > accelerated, hot-off-the-press, XFree86 server >> >> As I have come to understand, that will give you two desktops. One >> under >> the super-duper ... XFree86 Server and one via VNC (running in a >> Window, >> liken an application, on that said super-duper X-Server). >> >> Also you always get a whole Desktop (even if it's in a window), while >> with X you get only the window for the respective application. That >> seems to be preferrable, if you want to run 5 apps on 5 different >> computers, since with VNC you would then have 5 Desktops on one screen >> (one for each computer). >> >> >From what I learned off the web page of VNC (thanks for the link to >> >to >> poster!), I can't use VNC as a replacement for X (unless you get the >> non-X vncviewer to work on the console), which would have been >> interesting because of the footprint of X. Also it seems that VNC is >> not > > well, vnc server IS X server (on unix machines). > > so you are not avoiding X, you are replacing one X server (+ the rest > of X) by another one (you still need the rest of X like fonts, > programs, > utilities etc., whether you use the ones that come with xfree86 or some > different one) > >> as efficient via Network as X, but I don't really understand why. >> Maybe >> someone can elaborate on that. > > it depends, some operation are more efficient some are less. > basically > vnc transfers bitmaps, X transfers 'commands' (very simplified). > > for example the moving of a window - if you have X window, the moving > is done locally (by local X server), with vnc the moving is done in vnc > server and is only displayed locally, which is of course slower (much > more network traffic).
I guess that's why vnc hasn't replaced the X window system yet. > >> Making the X Desktop accessible / transferrable via VNC, as is >> possible >> with Windows, is not possible with UNIX/Linux. > > ??? > > windows have no X desktop. true. > > if you mean that you can use vnc to view windows desktop but not to > view your 'normal' linux X desktop, that's sort of true, it's not > possible with 'straight' vnc, but I've just seen ITP on debian-devel > for > a program that does that (not sure how well it works). Yes that's what I meant. I would like to run my normal local display system (X), but also have the option to kind of teleport my display to some other computer that I happen to be at. When I'm done I want to be able to return to my computer and find everything the way I left it when I left the other computer. vnc does that. As a display I still seem to need X locally though, since the console vncviewer does not work with my graphics card. I don't know if I would save much overhead as long as I'm working with vnc locally compared with normal X. But starting X plus windowmanager, vncserver (running another windowmanager and the apps on that display), and also xvncviewer, is certainly quite a footprint. It would do what I described above. Greetings Thorsten -- \\|// ( o.o ) \(_)/ ----------------oOOo-------------------------oOOo------------------- E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: 12-Dec-2000 Time: 20:18:23 CET PGP Keys on public keyservers KeyID: 0xBEACCF0D -------------------------------------------------------------------- __/ / \ \__ (___| |___)