NAME¶
vncviewer - VNC viewer for X
SYNOPSIS¶
vncviewer [
options] [
host][:
display#]
vncviewer [
options]
-listen [
port]
DESCRIPTION¶
vncviewer is a viewer (client) for Virtual Network Computing. This manual
page documents version 4 for the X window system.
If you run the viewer with no arguments it will prompt you for a VNC server to
connect to. Alternatively, specify the VNC server as an argument, e.g.:
vncviewer snoopy:2
where 'snoopy' is the name of the machine, and '2' is the display number of the
VNC server on that machine. Either the machine name or display number can be
omitted. So for example ":1" means display number 1 on the same
machine, and "snoopy" means "snoopy:0" i.e. display 0 on
machine "snoopy".
If the VNC server is successfully contacted, you will be prompted for a password
to authenticate you. If the password is correct, a window will appear showing
the desktop of the VNC server.
AUTOMATIC PROTOCOL SELECTION¶
The viewer tests the speed of the connection to the server and chooses the
encoding and pixel format (colour level) appropriately. This makes it much
easier to use than previous versions where the user had to specify arcane
command line arguments.
The viewer normally starts out assuming the link is slow, using a low colour
level and using the encoding with the best compression. If it turns out that
the link is fast enough it switches to full-colour mode and will use an
encoding which compresses less but is faster to generate, thus improving the
interactive feel. Automatic selection can be turned off by setting the
AutoSelect parameter to false, or from the options dialog.
The viewer has a popup menu containing entries which perform various actions. It
is usually brought up by pressing F8, but this can be configured with the
MenuKey parameter. Actions which the popup menu can perform include:
- *
- switching in and out of full-screen mode
- *
- quitting the viewer
- *
- generating key events, e.g. sending ctrl-alt-del
- *
- accessing the options dialog and various other dialogs
By default, key presses in the popup menu get sent to the VNC server and dismiss
the popup. So to get an F8 through to the VNC server simply press it twice.
FULL SCREEN MODE¶
A full-screen mode is supported. This is particularly useful when connecting to
a remote screen which is the same size as your local one. If the remote screen
is bigger, you can scroll by bumping the mouse against the edge of the screen.
Unfortunately this mode doesn't work completely with all window managers, since
it breaks the X window management conventions.
OPTIONS (PARAMETERS)¶
You can get a list of parameters by giving
-h as a command-line option to
vncviewer. Parameters can be turned on with -
param or off with -
param=0. Parameters which take a value can be specified as -
param value. Other valid forms are
param=value -
param=
value
--
param=
value. Parameter names are case-insensitive.
Many of the parameters can also be set graphically via the options dialog box.
This can be accessed from the popup menu or from the "Connection
details" dialog box.
- -display Xdisplay
- Specifies the X display on which the VNC viewer window
should appear.
- -geometry geometry
- Standard X position and sizing specification.
- -listen [port]
- Causes vncviewer to listen on the given port (default 5500)
for reverse connections from a VNC server. WinVNC supports reverse
connections initiated using the 'Add New Client' menu option or the
'-connect' command-line option. Xvnc supports reverse connections with a
helper program called vncconfig.
- -XDialog
- Popup an X dialog when asking for server, username and
password. Default is to not popup when vncviewer is start from command
line.
- -passwd password-file
- If you are on a filesystem which gives you access to the
password file used by the server, you can specify it here to avoid typing
it in. It will usually be "~/.vnc/passwd".
- -Shared
- When you make a connection to a VNC server, all other
existing connections are normally closed. This option requests that they
be left open, allowing you to share the desktop with someone already using
it.
- -ViewOnly
- Specifies that no keyboard or mouse events should be sent
to the server. Useful if you want to view a desktop without interfering;
often needs to be combined with -Shared.
- -FullScreen
- Start in full-screen mode.
- -AutoSelect
- Use automatic selection of encoding and pixel format
(default is on). Normally the viewer tests the speed of the connection to
the server and chooses the encoding and pixel format appropriately. Turn
it off with -AutoSelect=0.
- -FullColour, -FullColor
- Tells the VNC server to send full-colour pixels in the best
format for this display. By default a low colour mode is used until
AutoSelect decides the link is fast enough. However if the server's native
pixel format is colourmapped (as opposed to truecolour) then the server's
format is used by default.
- -LowColourLevel level
- Selects the reduced colour level to use on slow links.
level can range from 0 to 2, 0 meaning 8 colours, 1 meaning 64
colours (the default), 2 meaning 256 colours.
- -PreferredEncoding encoding
- This option specifies the preferred encoding to use from
one of "ZRLE", "hextile" or "raw".
- -UseLocalCursor
- Render the mouse cursor locally if the server supports it
(default is on). This can make the interactive performance feel much
better over slow links.
- -WMDecorationWidth w, -WMDecorationHeight
h
- The total width and height taken up by window manager
decorations. This is used to calculate the maximum size of the VNC viewer
window. Default is width 6, height 24.
- -log logname:dest:level
- Configures the debug log settings. dest can
currently be stderr or stdout, and level is between 0
and 100, 100 meaning most verbose output. logname is usually
* meaning all, but you can target a specific source file if you
know the name of its "LogWriter". Default is *:stderr:30.
- -MenuKey keysym-name
- This option specifies the key which brings up the popup
menu. The key is specified as an X11 keysym name (these can be obtained by
removing the XK_ prefix from the entries in
"/usr/include/X11/keysymdef.h"). Default is F8.
- -via gateway
- Automatically create encrypted TCP tunnel to the
gateway machine before connection, connect to the host
through that tunnel (TightVNC-specific). By default, this option invokes
SSH local port forwarding, assuming that SSH client binary can be accessed
as /usr/bin/ssh. Note that when using the -via option, the host
machine name should be specified as known to the gateway machine, e.g.
"localhost" denotes the gateway, not the machine where
vncviewer was launched. The environment variable VNC_VIA_CMD can
override the default tunnel command of
/usr/bin/ssh -f -L "$L":"$H":"$R" "$G" sleep 20.
The tunnel command is executed with the environment variables L,
H, R, and G taken the values of the local port
number, the remote host, the port number on the remote host, and the
gateway machine respectively.
SEE ALSO¶
Xvnc(1),
vncpasswd(1),
vncconfig(1),
vncserver(1)
http://www.realvnc.com
AUTHOR¶
Tristan Richardson, RealVNC Ltd.
VNC was originally developed by the RealVNC team while at Olivetti Research Ltd
/ AT&T Laboratories Cambridge. It is now being maintained by RealVNC Ltd.
See
http://www.realvnc.com for details.