Sitaram Iyer ()
Tue, 17 Mar 1998 00:41:27 +0530
---------------------------- :r README -------------------------------
SVNCVIEWER 0.1
16/3/98
This is a alpha port of vncviewer to svgalib based on the X client.
You no longer need to start X to use vnc ! Even that old 4MB
386 which you've got in the corner can be used as an X terminal.
It can also be used on a single-floppy Linux - not quite the answer
to the QNX challenge, but good enough for me.
#include "../LICENCE.TXT"
Installation:
Unpack the vnc sources first.
cd vnc
tar xzvf <thisfile>
cd svncviewer
xmkmf
make
chown root svncviewer;chmod 4711 svncviewer
Usage:
Usage and options are similar to vncviewer. Options which aren't there:
-listen and of course -display.
Alt-Fn switches consoles, as is usual with svgalib apps.
Ctrl-Alt-Backspace kills the viewer.
Some hints on getting svncviewer working for you :
1. First of all make sure your card is supported by svgalib at the higher
resolutions like 640x480x256. Otherwise you can only use 320x200x256
2. Sometimes svgalib incorrectly detects the card or doesn't detect it
at all and defaults to the VGA driver. In this case you might have to
edit /etc/vga/libvga.config (this is Redhat's svgalib config, your
distribution might have it elsewhere) and uncomment the line corresponding
to your chipset. Cards I've had trouble autodetecting:
Cirrus Logic 5446 - uncomment the chipset Cirrus line.
Trident TVGA 8900 - incorrectly detected as Mach64. uncomment TVGA.
Chips and Technologies - add the line
chipset C&T
(Note: It seems some distributions don't have svgalib compiled with
C&T support. You might need to recompile svgalib).
3. If you get something like read error: broken pipe, it means the remote
Xvnc has closed the connection, usually because the client's parameters
like bpp are not acceptable. Check out the Xvnc logs.
4. There is a workaround in svga.c which disables use of acceleration.
You might want to comment out NO_ACCEL and see if acceleration works.
5. If your mouse doesn't work, make sure that /dev/mouse is rw-able by you.
This is because svgalib opens the mouse O_RDWR and we give up suid perms
immediately after vga_init and before opening the mouse. Redhat's default
is 660, you might want to make this 666.
TODO:
1. The viewer is not flexible about selection of graphics mode. It selects
the closest possible to the server geometry/depth. It bails out if a
resolution = server geometry is not available.
2. Only the std. keymap works, for other keyboards you might have to
hack keys.h which maps Linux keycodes (different from X keycodes) to
X keysyms.
3. Mouse middle button doesn't work (svgalib problem ?)
4. Keyboard LEDs
Please mail bug reports/patches etc. to
In your bug report, please include the following information:
Linux distribution, kernel version, svgalib version.
Graphics card and whether other svgalib apps work at *high* resolutions.
What parameters Xvnc was started with.
What parameters were used for svncviewer.
Exact error messages, snippets from log files where applicable.
For the latest in svnc, check
Lastly, a BIG thank you to the ORL guys for making vnc freely available.
VNC rules !
Ganesh Varadarajan <>
Sitaram Iyer <>
Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay.
This archive was generated by on Wed Feb 03 1999 - 15:32:59 GMT