VNC Viewer for maemo now available
 

I'm pleased to announce the first version of a VNC Viewer maemo port. Some other developers have announced ports of VNC in the past, but these were strictly builds of the RealVNC vncviewer client and were not GTK/maemo software applications. As such, they lacked certain GTK/maemo amenities, the biggest being no text input methods.

This new port is a true GTK/maemo port that basically provides most of the support that one might expect from a maemo-ized VNC viewer. I'm still working on adding some features, and there certainly is room for optimizations, but I'm pretty happy with the way it has turned out so far.

It's available at http://www.aracnet.com/~alevinsn/vncviewer_0.3_arm.deb.

Here's some brief documentation:
-- Press the Select/Confirm button to turn on and off the text input method window (just like in xterm).
-- Use the Zoom out (-) button for middle mouse button clicks.
-- Use the Zoom in (+) button for right mouse button clicks.
-- Use the Cancel/Close button to send an Esc key.
-- The other hardware buttons operate similar to how they operate in xterm.
-- Turn on/off the toolbar from the View menu.
-- It is possible to double-click, but it might require a little practice/multiple attempts.

Note: this original post refers the 0.1 release of the software. Since then, I released versions 0.1.1, 0.2, and 0.3, and more information about these versions can be found in later posts to this thread. I updated the link in this post to point to the latest package.

Aaron Levinson

I am the first to thank you for this. This is why i bought my 770.

Aaron, is it possible to add the following 2 functions:

1. remember last login ip
2. scaling/zoom function

You are a hero. Thanks !
(I just had to tap this on the 770 for once :)

Well done!

You were even able to implement the online keyboard functionality.

Thank you VERY much AaronL
Yet another reason to buy a 770 guys!!!
Anybody else is releasing anything before the end of the year? ;)
Happy New Year!

Great work, AaronL!

Do you plan to release the source code? I want to port rdesktop, maybe I can learn a few tricks from you :)

Trying to use the VNC between my 770 and a PC running Widows XP Pro.
Have installed VNC on the 770.
Have installed VNC from RealVNC UK, on one of my PC.

But I can’t get the 770 and the PC to connect.

No problem when I connect my 770 to my IIS server.

VNC and IIS running on different PC.

Any suggestions?

Windows Firewall?

Thanks, but even with the Firewall off, no result.

Have just to start reading all the documentation of the VNC more carefully.

TTP

ttpcomp- have you tried connecting to the PC using VNC on another PC? That would be my first diagnostic if you can connect through http from the Nokia. Maybe also try disabling authentication in VNC server? Works fine on mine, thanks Aaron. (rdesktop would be nice tho!)

Thanks Blorg, tryed that, but got a messages:
VNC VIEWER : Error
unable to connect to host: connection refused (10061)

All fierwalls off.

VNC server on one PC
VNC viewer on an other PC

Well I will keep at it.

TTP

Do you get any error messages when trying to connect to XP Pro?

Btw, I've tested VNC from the 770 to a XP Pro machine with TightVNC 1.3dev7 and it works very well.

I think I have fond the source of the problem; it's probably the Router.
Have to look at that.
Firewalls, in the OS, in Routers or in Firewalls program, often give you more problems and the help you expect.

TTP

Works beautifully for me, however, I am seeing somewhat random crashes where the app just exits on its own back to the Nokia desktop. No clear pattern on the conditions that cause the crash. Any suggestions for tests I can do to give more information?

I get that with Notes and the web browser too.

:) Got it running on my 770 to access several intranet servers. I second having a history of the last 5 or so connections as typing in IP addresses can get tedious after a few disconnects.

In the time between the second person posting here, I have gotten it working with my XP and am ready to post to the blog. And, what, 12 people have already jumped in!?!

Fantastic! Congratulations!

And thanks!

Roger

VNC viewer working on Nokia 770
 

double-clicking on a folder etc is much easier if you click on the icon rather than the text.
i second(or is it fifth by now?:)) a desire for a zoom function and last few access list.

Thanks, I was able to get it to work with windows in a moment, but I can't make it work with ubuntu.
At first the real desktop popped a window, asking for permission, when given, vnc just disappeared, so at least it tries to connect. So I turned off the ''ask for permission'' option, and vnc simply dies when the connection is attempted.
My experience with linux is very limited, so I don't know whose fault it is, or even if it is supposed to work with gnome/ubuntu at all.
Anyway great work,

1. Definitely, and it will remember more than just the last server.
2. We'll see....

Aaron

Regarding the problem with ununtu and problems that others have been having, it looks like this vncviewer doesn't work with vino, which I think is what is being used by default on GNOME. Here's an e-mail I submitted to the maemo-developers list, which may be helpful:

Also, I only tested when a password is set, so I suggest that you continue to use a password.

Aaron

Yes, I plan on releasing the source code, as I indicated in my original e-mail to the maemo-developers list. I'd like to clean it up a bit first.

Regarding the port to rdesktop, I examined the source code for rdesktop last weekend, and it looks like the port should be relatively straightforward. In rdesktop, the user interface is implemented separately from the underlying protocol, so it's just a matter of adding a new user interface implementation. I was thinking about working on this port myself. If I were to port rdesktop, I would start with the Qt UI implementation and convert it to GTK/maemo.

Aaron

At last I have got the VNC to work between two PC, bat still no t between my 770 and the VNC server on the PC.
But the problem is just around this blocking the OS and the Firewall are setting up.

I will keep unblocking, soon I will be there.

TTP

2 -- the scaling/zoom button on the top of the 770 doesn't work?

Those are mapped to middle and right mouse button clicks currently (refer back to my original post). The viewer does not currently support scaling.

Aaron

I can confirm that it works with tightvncserver and x11vnc running on Ubuntu, but connecting to vino causes it to die immediately. Kind of a bummer, but it's also not the first problem I've had with vino.

Scaling would be cool. Another (much easier) thing I'd like, though, is the option to automatically remove the scrollbars if they're not needed. It would be cool to use tightvncserver to set up a remote X display that's 800x640 so it fits exactly on the 770's screen.

But check this out: x11vnc reports an effective bandwidth of 92KB/s, which is kind of bogus for an 802.11g connection within two feet of the antenna. I wonder where the bottleneck is...the 770's CPU seems to be maxed during intense VNC refreshes, so maybe it's that and not a network throughput thing.

characters wtih accents don't work
 

Wonderful step forward but lacks one mayor thing. When writing through vnc onsdagen my windows xp, it won't accept æøå. It seems not to register the characters at all.

//Johan

excellent
 

I was able successfully connect to my work computer running XP and then remote desktop into my windows 2003 server. using the onscreen keyboard. The refresh isn't specacular, but the very fact it works is awesome! Now I need to start looking into what option's I have for a VPN connection and I can keep track of issues that may come up.

Thanks for the hard work you've put in this!

-Todd

No go.on OSX, but could just be me.
 

Good afternoon, list. I'm not able to connect with my OSX VNC servers. I suspect an auth problem. In the connection screen I enter the IP of the server and the display, and get a message telling me that the 770 cannot connect to the server. The format I use is xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:display. I'm able to connect to the server with my powerbook, so I know the server is working.

Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong?

Thanks!

What is VNC (haha?)?

edit (after a trip to google): oh, thats pretty cool

edit edit: OMG this is awesome.

Are you using the built-in remote desktop/VNC in Tiger? I haven't tried that one, but I am using OSXvnc, and am able to connect with the 770 perfectly. I have been able to access this server software from pretty much any of my machines, even my Treo 650, without any problems...all I did was load the app, click "start server", and I am up and running on the 770

http://www.redstonesoftware.com/vnc.html

The only thing I had to do originally was enable forwarding for port 5900 on my Linksys router...did you try enabling that port on your router?

I wish I could add more, but wow... I've used VNC before at work - usually in distain - but this is something else. I was able to connect to my XP SP2 desktop with 2 minutes of setup.

(sorry, I don't mean to trash VNC. It's just when I use it, it's usually because my customer is a useless idiot who needs to be guided through every prompt)

Even my girlfriend was impressed seeing my TabletPC's desktop controlled by the 770.

Excellent work! Now once I have a decent IMAP client I can do most of my work at the bar ;-)

Brad.

Thanks for the bug report. I was able to reproduce the problem and fix it, and the fix will be available in the next release.

Aaron

AaronL you are my God :) This is exactly why I bought the 770. I just took control of iTune on my Powerbook and send some music via airport express to my living room hi-fi. I previously was using Browser tunes through the 770 navigator but man what a difference VNC make !
Thank you, thank you.

PS : is the rendering a bit slow because of the 770 technical limitation or can this be fix by a software upgrade ?

Manu

Orbitalcomp - thanks for the reply. I've tried both OSXvnc and the built-in Tiger server, with the same result. Since I've been able to connect to the server with my powerbook, I doubt that the problem resides in the router.

Could you tell me how you got connected? For example, did you use the gui that is built-in to the vnc app, and if so, what did you enter into the "Connection Details" box? Or, did you use the command line in xterm?

Thanks again.

Anyone know how to emulate ctrl-alt-del using the keyboard? I found once I connect to a locked windows machine I can't login cause I need that sequence to bring up the login/password box.

vnc to mac works.
 

hi,
i tried this yesterday on my osx 10.4.3 g5 and it worked fine. make sure you've got remote access enabled on the 'sharing' system preference, and that you click advanced and enable vnc access.

(Edit: i used the built-in vnc server, entered the ip address onto the vnc client on the 770, and it only asked me for a password - no username required.)

good luck..

Ubuntu links
 

I got this running on my Ubuntu machine last night following the steps in this link.

http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=45565

But, While it let me connect and log in, I think I have some settings off. I could log in under a new logon screen but not take over the user's session that was logged in.

Not a huge deal, it did work :) but it was late and I was tired so I went to bed.

Rendering is a tad slow as people have said.

-Todd