Old Frequently Asked VNC Questions

These have been issues in the past but we believe they are fixed in the latest version of VNC. We have therefore moved them here from the main FAQ.

Q. I've tried running the Linux Xvnc server, and it can't find the fonts despite the fact that I've set the font path correctly.

The Xvnc 3.3.1 server doesn't understand compressed fonts as used by Xfree86. You can do one of the following:

recompile the sources with Mark Spencer's RedHat 5.0 patches
decompress the fonts (gunzip *.pcf.gz in the fonts dirs) and then in each font dir run mkfontdir to rebuild the fonts.dir file
use a font server (first suggested by Alan Cox alan@cymru.net )

To use a font server:

- start a font server (xfs)
- change the vncserver script:
somewhere around line 110 you find "# Now start the X VNC Server"
change the following line to
$cmd = "Xvnc -fp tcp/localhost:7100 :$displayNumber";

-- Patrick Kursawe Patrick.Kursawe@ruhr-uni-bochum.de

Q. Why do all my X clients get a connection refused from Xvnc?

There is a line missing in the vncserver script. Just after the line:

system("xauth -f $xauthorityFile add $host:$displayNumber . $cookie");

you need to add:

system("xauth -f $xauthorityFile add $host/unix:$displayNumber . $cookie");

This adds a cookie for Xvnc's unix domain socket as well as its TCP socket. Thanks to Scott Johnston for suggesting this fix.

Q. I'm trying to build the VNC server but the system can't find 'xkb'!

XKB is an extension to the X server which isn't needed at all. Make sure that in the Xvnc/config files BuildXKB is set to NO, not YES.

For comments, feedback, etc, please see the 'Keeping in touch' page.
Copyright 1998 - The Olivetti & Oracle Research Lab

Virtual Network Computing from ORL