Displaying a RISC OS desktop on ZOOM

Preparing for Saturday, does anyone have an idiots guide to displaying a RISC OS desktop on ZOOM please?
If not, a few pointers would be gratefully received!
I suspect http://www.phlamethrower.co.uk/riscos/vnc_serv.php is what I need for the RISC OS end
Any recommendation for the Windows 10 PC end.

I just used RPCEmu for the ROUGOL talk. Not good to show new RISC OS-running hardware of course :-)

If you are using VNC make sure its from a Pi4, as it’s fairly responsive, unlike previous Pis and the iMx6 which update less rapidly.
I don’t know how well Titanium or IGEPv5 systems work with VNC.

Thanks for the info. What about the Windows side?

UltraVNC (and the portable edition) works nicely here.

Windows :spit:, Linux all the way here. Using a fairly meaty x86/64 laptop with the Zoom app and the Remmina VNC client.

As an alternative: There are hdmi video capture USB sticks available for only a few bugs. So you don’t have to rely on any software solution. You just plug in the HDMI cable into the USB stick on your PC and display the video stream. You can then share the application displaying the screen. That’s how I think it works. I ordered a stick but it didn’t arrive yet.

Chris – I use VNCviewer on PC. It’s the free viewer portion of “RealVNC”. It allows a set of “favorite” VNC sessions to be remembered, so you can just click on different screenshots to access different machines on the network. It seems to work fine. On the RISC OS end, I use vnc but automated as part of our software so that I can just tick a box and share my systems headlessly.

I can run the VNC server from phlamethrower.co.uk on RISC OS using ‘Start’ and the config file seems to be loaded. Though I’m not sure what if anything I should change the [[servers]] entry to?
A name, an IP address or ?
[[RapidO]]
[[192.168.1.100]]
[[192.168.1.200]]

Should I remove the inner []?
e.g. [RapidO]

192.168.1.100 is the RapidO’s IP address
192.168.1.200 is the WindowsPC’s IP address

I get failed to start server or failed to reinitialise server if I change ‘servers’ to anything like above!

Saying ‘servers’ plural makes me realise I don’t understand this.

In the config file how do I choose/know what Port Number to use?

I think I’ve read all the relevant sections of the readme but am none the wiser.

On the PC I’ve downloaded and done a default install of UltraVNC 1.3.2

I’ve eventually found that to run the viewer ‘vncviewer’ on the PC I need run it from: ‘Program Files/uvnc bvba/UltraVNC it asks for Port:
Any clues please?
There is a uvnc_settings program I can run but the options are myriad and I haven’t a clue.

The documentation I found at https://www.uvnc.com/docs/uvnc-viewer/71-viewer-gui.html
Seems nothing like what I see when running the viewer!

All help very gratefully received.

Just seen Andrew’s post. I’ll have a look at VNCviewer in the morning. Thanks for the pointer.

@Chris.

In the interests of your time (I’m sure you have a lot to do before Saturday!) I’ve sent you a private email with settings and software. If you don’t receive it, let me know.

Thanks very much Andy I’ve got your email with ZIP. I’ll give it a trial later.
Chris

With the software and info Andy sent I seem to be getting further. (UltraVNC viewer 1.2.0.1 & VNCSvr with Steve Potts GUI front end)
The host name that the PC will be looking for is that the Host name as entered in Configure → Internet configuration → Host names → Host name ?
Do I need an entry in the Hosts text file?
or?

I’ve tried both, on the PC Status says connecting…, then reports Failed to get server address.

Presumably once a connection is made it will ask for the password then?

n.b. I’ve removed UltraVNC 1.3.2 and rebooted both computers

Different software but the same sort of requirement.

I’m using TightVNC on Windows to access VNCserver on several rPi’s. The name is the entry in the hosts file here.

(I’m using hosts, before I get shot down, because sometimes this network has to operate without a router present, i.e. in a marquee in a field. It also makes cloning cards for rPi’s easy, define all the address/name pairs in hosts, set “name from hosts file” and clone. After starting, in network config, change the name. Job done.)

The requirement is that the name can be resolved, so if ping works, so should a VNC viewer.

The host name that the PC will be looking for is that the Host name as
entered in Configure ? Internet configuration ? Host names ? Host name ? Do I need an entry in the Hosts text file?
or?

If you’re using manual IP addresses, you can just enter the IP address of the RISC OS machine, if you know it.

I use DHCP and just use the Host name as it is when configuring the network from Configure. Check it on your DHCP server or router.

I’ve tried both, on the PC Status says connecting, then reports Failed to get server address.

Sounds like it can’t resolve the entered Host name to an IP address.

Presumably once a connection is made it will ask for the password then?

Yup. A little box pops up!

Chris,

On the RISC OS machine, open a TaskWindow and run `ifconfig -a` – this will return the IP address(es) bound to the various network interfaces on your machine.

Typically, this will be a `192.168.×.y` address with most standard router setups.

Then, in your Windows VNC client, use this IP address as the Host – no need to deal with name resolution.

VNC port by default is 5900

I’ve just uploaded a short-ish Youtube video which shows a VNC connection from the out-of-the-box vnc_serv running on a Pi3 connecting to a Windows 10 PC using the RealVNC Google Chrome plugin with the steps to find the IP address of the RISC OS machine and then switching to the Windows machine.

For info, this was recorded using my Blackmagic ATEM Mini which supports capture of up-to 4 HDMI sources and presents them as a USB webcam which is another way of doing it.

Using the RapidO IG’s IP address rather than name I’m very glad to say works. Thanks very much for everyone’s help.

Nice succinct video Matthew!

Sounds like it can’t resolve the entered Host name to an IP address.

Which in many cases can come down to not specifying the name correctly.

Sitting in a typical home network the registration the name of your PC (or other device) on your home network is not “MyPC123” but “MyPC123.home”
FQDN is the way things work not simple netname unless your router supports the short form.

A quick peek at IPCONFIG /ALL output on the PC will show you the local domain name in the DNS search list.

So here I’m using the TightVNC client on Windows to connect to several different RISC OS machines which run VNCserver. TightVNC titles each window as “RISC OS desktop”. It appears to be getting this from VNCserver.

Is there a way to get VNCserver to use or include the host name here?

edit: I see it’s hard coded in the server.c file. As I don’t have a C compiler, or any knowledge of C, I can’t change it.

VCNServer 0.22 was a big overhaul to the configuration – it now uses a config file instead of *Commands, and one of the settings is for the server/session name.

http://www.phlamethrower.co.uk/riscos/vnc_serv.php

(although it looks like I forgot to update the year on the website, this new version is from 2021, not 2020)

Eeek, could only see the mouse on the left and right quarters on the screen on the mini.m and it was very jerky, could not see it at all on the Pi4. Clicking the pinboard solved it on both, then I remembered reading about this on https://www.riscosopen.org/forum/forums/11/topics/16644

Oh, and a request to enable upgrading on headless systems; an obey file called restart containing this:-

<Obey$Dir>.stop
<Obey$Dir>.start

and one of the settings is for the server/session name.

Thanks for that – almost perfect.

It doesn’t seem possible to use name = <Inet$Hostname> or name = “<Inet$Hostname>”

The first produces an error message, the second sets the session name to the literal <Inet$Hostname>

As I’m cloning the SD cards, and up to now the only thing I have to change is the hostname in the network config panel, it would be nice if one of the above could be made to work.