missing tightvnc in OpenBSD 5.0

[mayuka]

Hi.

I wanted to upgrade my OpenBSD from 4.6 to 5.0 and noticed that tightvnc is missing. What happened to it?

Are there any (better) alternatives for using vnc on an OpenBSD home office box?

[Carpetsmoker]

It seems TightVNC was replaced with net/ssvnc

From the commit log:

drop tightvnc and allow ssvnc-viewer to replace tightvnc-viewer.

- tightvnc-server is based on a really old X release - it barely
works on i386, but doesn't support most X clients - and fails on most
other arch (it's neither LP64 nor big-endian clean).

x11vnc is a suitable alternative for some users, anyone interested
in the exact same type of functionality (standalone RFB X server)
should look at porting tigervnc.

- ssvnc-viewer is a significantly improved fork of tightvnc-viewer
and basically a drop-in replacement (same filename for the viewer).

ok dcoppa@ and supported by weerd@ and various ports@ readers

[comet--berkeley]

It seems TightVNC was replaced with net/ssvnc

It looks like there was a discussion of this last summer in the openbsd-ports mailing list:

http://marc.info/?l=openbsd-ports&m=130954821006576&w=2

Many OpenBSD mailing lists are archived at
http://marc.info/

[mayuka]

Oh this is really sad. It's not about ssvnc. I need the vncserver that can be started on a machine without monitor.

x11vnc is quite complicated to run on a headless (monitor less) server. Maybe Xvfb is a solution. I don't know. Nobody tried this before?

I'll try to get tigervnc to compile. Hopefully it isn't not too complicated.

[ocicat]

Originally Posted by mayuka

I need the vncserver that can be started on a machine without monitor.

Perhaps the question needs to be asked. Why not simply use ssh(1)?

[mayuka]

Originally Posted by ocicat

Perhaps the question needs to be asked. Why not simply use ssh(1)?

Because the software should keep running after I log out.

[ocicat]

Originally Posted by mayuka

Because the software should keep running after I log out.

ssh(1) connections could be maintained within a tmux(1) session.

[mayuka]

Originally Posted by ocicat

ssh(1) connections could be maintained within a tmux(1) session.

Isn't tmux basically the same as the old "screen"-util? I don't see the option to maintain X11 apps. Maybe I just should try...

[adamk]

Originally Posted by mayuka

I don't see the option to maintain X11 apps.

It's not. Not sure why ocicat would even bring it up.

[mayuka]

First. I'm trying to build tigervnc manually (./configure --prefix=/usr/local --with-x --with-libintl-prefix=/usr/local) right now and it fails with something like this:

vncviewer-vncviewer.o(.text+0x1004): In function `main':
/usr/src/tigervnc-1.1.0/unix/vncviewer/vncviewer.cxx:275: undefined reference to `libintl_bindtextdomain'
vncviewer-vncviewer.o(.text+0x100c):/usr/src/tigervnc-1.1.0/unix/vncviewer/vncviewer.cxx:276: undefined reference to `libintl_textdomain'
vncviewer-vncviewer.o(.text+0x1034):/usr/src/tigervnc-1.1.0/unix/vncviewer/vncviewer.cxx:286: undefined reference to `libintl_gettext'

I manually added #include <libintl.h> and now it seems that linking doesn't work. Any clues?


Second: I can start Xvfb and use the virtual screen with x11vnc:

xinit -- /usr/X11R6/bin/Xvfb :1 -screen 0 1120x700x16 -dpi 75 &
x11vnc -display :1 -rfbauth .vnc/passwd &

However, it works but it doesn't seem very sophisticated.

[jggimi]

Mayuka, you could always extract the most recent tightvnc port from your nearest CVS repository, and build from that. It was removed 2 July, so a CVS update of the net/tightvnc branch of the ports tree using an earlier date (-D option) should work, if tightvnc still functions with X.

You'll need to start with a CVS working directory of the ports tree for either 5.0-release or 5.0-stable, per FAQs 15.3.2 and 5.3.3.

[mayuka]

Originally Posted by jggimi

Mayuka, you could always extract the most recent tightvnc port from your nearest CVS repository, and build from that. It was removed 2 July, so a CVS update of the net/tightvnc branch of the ports tree using an earlier date (-D option) should work, if tightvnc still functions with X.

Yes I know that. When I update again in a year or so, it probably won't work because there were too many changes in openbsd/xorg since then. That option sadly is not for the long run...

Tigervnc seems to me like the right decision because it's actively developed. However I just can't get it to compile.

[jggimi]

Tigervnc gets a mention in a couple of ports@ threads. It appears no one is actively attempting to port it: http://marc.info/?l=openbsd-ports&w=...s=tigervnc&q=b

The key comment that might help is from Stuart Henderson: http://marc.info/?l=openbsd-ports&m=130920310423104&w=2

TigerVNC would be more convenient but it needs
to be combined with the Xorg source tree to get it building.

[mayuka]

TigerVNC would be more convenient but it needs to be combined with the Xorg source tree to get it building.

Well. That's true. However, a script that automatically fetches every needed file is already in place. Building is made as easy as possible. If it only wouldn't fail to compile...

I totally agree that tightvnc is outdated and probably not the best written code. Currently there is no real alternative in openbsd and tigervnc could fill the gap. Either that or a well done x11vnc script... However, tightvnc really proved to be stable. It never crashed during the last 2 years as I recall it correctly.

If someone could point me to a rock-solid x11vnc using Xvfb, it'd be happy too.

[Oko]

Originally Posted by mayuka

Oh this is really sad. It's not about ssvnc. I need the vncserver that can be started on a machine without monitor.

x11vnc is quite complicated to run on a headless (monitor less) server. Maybe Xvfb is a solution. I don't know. Nobody tried this before?

I'll try to get tigervnc to compile. Hopefully it isn't not too complicated.

This is an interesting problem. TightVNC was removed due to security reasons but I am not aware how difficult is to run x11vnc in your particular set up. Besides TightVNC and TigerVNC and already mentioned x11VNC I am aware of UltraVNC and proprietary RealVNC. Can you try to compile UltraVNC maybe?

You can always do

ssh -Y username@yourserver.domain.name

but you will need a serious bandwidth do real work with it.

I personally dropped VNC in favor of NX X protocol with is compression wrapper around ssh. It works amazingly fast comparing to VNC let alone to ssh -Y The problem is that proprietary version of NX server is not running on OpenBSD but that is not problem for me since I only use to connect to my cluster which runs RedHat Linux. There is a free version of the NX server FreeNX which you should be able to compile on OpenBSD. Google also has an unfinished version.

OpenNX open source NX client is ported to OpenBSD and works like a charm.

[mayuka]

Originally Posted by Oko

This is an interesting problem. TightVNC was removed due to security reasons but I am not aware how difficult is to run x11vnc in your particular set up. Besides TightVNC and TigerVNC and already mentioned x11VNC I am aware of UltraVNC and proprietary RealVNC. Can you try to compile UltraVNC maybe?

realvnc works but without the Xvnc server. UltraVNC is Windows only. In fact I'm on powerpc here and not i386.

I've never had security issues so far. The vncserver listens on localhost only and I connect via a ssh tunnel. VNC is available on any system (Windows, Mac, even the iPhone have native clients). So I can connect from everywhere ssh-tunneled to it.

Originally Posted by Oko

I personally dropped VNC in favor of NX X protocol with is compression wrapper around ssh. It works amazingly fast comparing to VNC let alone to ssh -Y The problem is that proprietary version of NX server is not running on OpenBSD but that is not problem for me since I only use to connect to my cluster which runs RedHat Linux. There is a free version of the NX server FreeNX which you should be able to compile on OpenBSD. Google also has an unfinished version.

The compression of vnc is very limited. It is not blazingly fast over an internet connection. I know that *NX has a far better protocol but the client isn't available on any architecture. Name me an iPhone client for *NX... AFAIK you need a running xsession/xserver for *NX too... On OpenBSD there's opennx but I don't know if it works as expected. If you know an iPhone client I'd gladly switch to opennx if it works.