VNC Server

but it should work fine in all true colour modes (although performance will generally be slower, especially in 16M colour modes).

Excellent update. Run on BB-xM (with defaults initially) and installed/ran VNCviewer. Connect to IP, prompted for password and just worked.

Now going to test on and off for the evening, across a wireless link from the laptop in the living room, with an iPhone providing interference on the local wifi.

Does it still work with the VNCSvr front-end, pictured above

Anyone any idea where the front-end can be downloaded from?

Had a play with it now. It’s excellent on the Panda and Beagle xM, much improved on the Raspberry Pi too! Great work, Jeffrey, but now you’ve started, how about that GraphicsV driver version?! :-)

Anyone any idea where the front-end can be downloaded from?

As I’m sure you’re aware, it’s listed here but there’s no download link. I have it on my hard drive(s) (and SD cards!) but not the original download so don’t know if it’s possible to share it. Anyone have contact with Steve Potts? It’s a very useful front-end.

Had a play with it now. It’s excellent on the Panda and Beagle xM,

I’ve somehow triggered a state where intermittently you have a black view. Initially the BB-xM was in exceptions off mode and I was running for a while with no issue.
I will revert to the initial state and see if I can still get the fault.
Bit pushed for time so I may take a while.

As I’m sure you’re aware, it’s listed here but there’s no download link.

Yup.

Does anybody have a Raspberry Pi – Risc OS image with the new vncserver installed and enabled. – Thanks

I’ve somehow triggered a state where intermittently you have a black view. Initially the BB-xM was in exceptions off mode and I was running for a while with no issue.
I will revert to the initial state and see if I can still get the fault.

OK, CPU mode settings make no difference it would seem.

Glitches and disconnects provoking the black screen have been common using the RealVNC client but changing an “Expert” setting to PointerEventInterval 10 (10 milliseconds, default is 0) seems to improve things so the mouse/keyboard receive buffer in the server is suspect.

I suspect I’m using a much older version of RealVNC than you, but I have noticed that unless I enable the “Rate-limit mouse movement events” option the mouse (as seen on the machine running the server) moves in a rather sluggish fashion, as if something is buffering up all the events and then playing them back at a fixed rate (but too slowly for it to be in sync with the movements on the host). So there’s definitely some room for improvement there.

I suspect I’m using a much older version of RealVNC than you

Downloaded shortly before my first post, so pretty much spangly new.

As I’m sure you’re aware, it’s listed here but there’s no download link. I have it on my hard drive(s) (and SD cards!) but not the original download so don’t know if it’s possible to share it. Anyone have contact with Steve Potts?

I dropped steve a mail at the link on the site and got a response pre-christmas that the absence of the links was deliberate as he had little time to maintain the software.

However, anyone who goes and looks at the site now will note that an updated VNCSrvFE is available now.
RunImage is date stamped 02 Jan 2015.

anyone who goes and looks at the site now will note that an updated VNCSrvFE is available now.

Downloaded the FE but when I try to run it I get “An older version of ABCLib is already loaded”.

Downloaded the FE but when I try to run it I get “An older version of ABCLib is already loaded”.

What version of ABCLib do you have in Modules.310?

The version in the current HardDisc download is 4.15 which is what the FE is looking for

Thanks Steve. I’ve downloaded & merged !Boot from the latest beta nightly HardDisc4 & checked that ABCLib is v4.15 but !VNCSvr still says the same thing and won’t load. !Locate cannot find any other version of ABCLib on my system, BTW. However, if I double click ABCLib first !VNCSvr will then load. But, although it loads, the password will not survive a quit/reload. Worse, the RealVNC client on the PC says (after me typing in the password) that the connection has been refused. If however I do a ‘Force restart’ from !VNCSvr’s icon bar menu the client on the PC will then successfully connect. All this with random freezes on the Panda along the way, necessitating a hard reset at times.

I’m running a Pandaboard ES, RO 5.21 (28-Sep-14) and the vncserver module v0.12 (07 Dec 2014) from Jeffry Lee, which continues to work faultlessly when used on its own.

When you get the ‘older ABCLib loaded’ message, what does the command *Help ABCLib show is loaded?

*Help ABCLib begets “No help found” and even after I’ve double clicked on the ABCLib module it still returns the same. Is this unusual?

what does the command *Help ABCLib show is loaded

Nothing of course! The module filename and the module title are not always the same.

The calling syntax in !VNCSvr.Modules is self explanatory.

| ABCLib
  RMEnsure ABCLibrary 0.00 RMLoad System:Modules.ABCLib
  RMEnsure ABCLibrary 4.15 ERROR An older version of ABCLib is already loaded

The module title is ABCLibrary and its filename is ABCLib. The correct syntax to find the currently loaded version is therefore :-

*help ABCLibrary
==> Help on keyword ABCLibrary
Module is: ABCLibrary      4.15 (06 Jun 2004)
*

Verma is a splendidly useful tool for obtaining module information, note the patch required for ARMv7.

Hope this helps.

Thanks David, that is indeed helpful.

*Help ABCLibrary
==>Help on keyword ABCLibrary
Module is: ABCLibrary   4.15 (06 Jun 2004)
==> Help on keyword ABCLibrary
Module is: ABCLibrary      4.12 (21 Oct 2002)
*

Verma says 4.12 is in RMA. Forgive my ignorance but how do I correct that?

Verma says 4.12 is in RMA. Forgive my ignorance but how do I correct that?

In the past it was not uncommon for applications to have their own local copies of some modules, 4.12 is quite an old version so it is probably some app from way back that is messing up the works.

The easy way to find all instances of the ABCLib is to have !Locate to search the whole hard drive for “Object name = ABCLib” and “Files of type Module”. (A quick look on my Raspberry Pi found 7 ABCLibs in addition to the one in !System, but none of them would have been actively loaded in preference to the !System instance.)

Locate will give the locations of the spurious ABCLibs and from that we will be able to work out which is the guilty party and fix it.

Click menu over Locate’s Objects found window, then Save > Path names > FileNames and paste that here.

P.S. Crap alert A plain wrong amendment within this post has been deleted.

Thanks again David – the clues you provided put me on the track of the culprit. It wuz LockDir wot done it, m’lud!
VNCSvr now loads OK since I updated the ABCLib module in LockDir.

However…

- in VNCSvr the password isn’t preserved between sessions
- trying to connect the client results in authentication failure unless I Force Restart in VNCSvr
- when VNCSvr is loaded the machine suffers from freezes, most often when trying to reboot after Shft-Ctrl-f12

As an aside, I feel I’ve learned so much from this forum since getting a Pi and then more latterly a Panda (whether my poor old brain will be able to retain the knowledge is a different matter…)

PS I didn’t see your amended posting before (wrongly?) accusing LockDir. I’ll try running VNCSvr without Aemular later & report back.

I didn’t see your amended posting before (wrongly?) accusing LockDir.

Actually that was correct. The amended post introduced a further blunder on my part. To avoid confusion the incorrect amendments in the previous post have been deleted. It was right the first time.

!LockDir 1.06 is a problem, it will attempt to load its own copy of ABCLib 4.12 which will inhibit a later load of !VNCSvr. (The other answer is to ensure that !LockDir gets it ABCLib from !System.)

My next mistake was to interpret the double *Help ABCLibrary the wrong way round. (I do know never to rely on my memory, but I keep forgetting.) The 4.12 ABCLib was in 32bit space, Aemulor is not a problem.

LockDir was the problem and was the only problem. Neither Verma or VNCSvr are being intercepted by Aemulor. LockDir, Verma and VNCSvr are all 32bit.

Sorry I managed to confuse things.

The amended post introduced a further blunder on my part

Does that mean your crap alert will have to have a crap alert? :-)

To return to being serious, I’m very grateful for your help over the ABCLib issues – many thanks!

Again being serious, would you be able to restore/revert back to your original comment David? You were right first time and I found it really helpful. Others may too in future when searching the forum for a solution to similar problems but as it stands may skim over it because it’s struck through.

would you be able to restore/revert back to your original comment

The duff stuff has been stuffed and the original right stuff restored. As far as I can see the thread still makes sense and is accurate.

It all reads well. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction – it’s been good learning (and it makes me realize I really should read Locate’s !Help file!)

Is there a way to start the VNC server automatically when the RPi boots, like in Raspbian?
What VNC client are you using, in Windows for example?