Defindit Docs and Howto Home

This page last modified: Dec 03 2010
keywords:vnc,tigervnc,osx,mac,apple,x11vnc,screen,sharing
description:Notes about installaiton, set up, and configuration for tigervnc and x11vnc on Fedora 14
title:Linux vnc server with Apple Macintosh OSX screen sharing client

My conclusion is that currently tigervnc is unusable. It has a key
repeat bug and it locks up. Either issue is a show stopper. x11vnc
seems to work, but I couldn't figure out how to get vnc to tell
X-windows to make the display larger. With tigervnc, the display
automatically resized to 1600x1200 (or something close since it wasn't
running in full screen mode). Maybe soon tigervnc will be stable
enough to use, but not right now with Fedora 14.


# Install tigervnc on Fedora 14

yum -y install tigervnc-server.x86_64 tigervnc.x86_64
emacs /etc/sysconfig/vncservers 

[root@tull ~]# tail /etc/sysconfig/vncservers
# Use "-nolisten tcp" to prevent X connections to your VNC server via TCP.

# Use "-localhost" to prevent remote VNC clients connecting except when
# doing so through a secure tunnel.  See the "-via" option in the
# `man vncviewer' manual page.

# VNCSERVERS="2:myusername"
# VNCSERVERARGS[2]="-geometry 800x600 -nolisten tcp -localhost"
VNCSERVERS="1:twl8n"
VNCSERVERARGS[1]="-geometry 1600x1200 -nolisten tcp -localhost"
[root@tull ~]#

# still working as root:

vncpasswd
service vncserver start
Starting VNC server: 1:twl8n 
New 'tull.lib.virginia.edu:1 (twl8n)' desktop is tull.lib.virginia.edu:1

Creating default startup script /home/twl8n/.vnc/xstartup
Starting applications specified in /home/twl8n/.vnc/xstartup
Log file is /home/twl8n/.vnc/tull.lib.virginia.edu:1.log

# On OSX see: 
System/Library/CoreServies/Screen Sharing.app
# Get Info, check "Run in 32 bit mode"

# In a terminal on OSX as the normal (non-root) user run:
ssh -L 5902:localhost:5901 tull

# Double click the screen sharing icon Screen Sharing.app and connect
# to localhost:5902

# Hint that I didn't get to try: use vncconfig to make the clipboard
# sync.

There were massive key repeat problems with tigervnc, and when I tried
to run xterm, the entire session froze. It is un-usable with the current bugs.

x x11vnc

# Installing this seems to have messed up the tigervnc install. Unlike
# tigervnc, using x11vnc seems to require starting X.

http://www.karlrunge.com/x11vnc/

# as root:

yum -y install x11vnc
telinit 5
x11vnx -storepasswd
x11vnc --localhost -display :0 -auth /var/gdm/:0.Xauth -rfbauth .vnc/passwd -forever

# from local Mac, ssh tunnel to display 0 which is 5900. Local display is 1.

# On OSX use settings somewhat different from tigervnc
ssh -L 5901:localhost:5900 tull

# On the local Mac connect to localhost:5901 which is tunnelled to
# 5900 on the remote


Starting vnc on display:0

http://www.realvnc.com/v4/x0.html