[sclug] Making sense of VNC's docs..

[Antony Bartlett]

James Wyper wrote:

>Where have you looked for documentation?  I've found the stuff at
>realvnc.com to be perfectly adequate for my needs (VNC server on Linux;
>viewers on Windows and Linux scattered around the house)
>  
>
Glad to hear things have improved since the time I stuck a breakpoint in 
the source code to find out where it was hiding it's settings in the 
Windows registry... that's still a million miles better than where I'd 
have been with something close-sourced, though.

>>I have VNC running on Winblows boxes fine, but on my Linux box I want
>>basically the same functionality, to see what the user sees
>>
I've always assumed a Linux box can't be set up so that you see what the 
user sees:

"A Unix machine can run a number of Xvnc servers for different users, 
each of which represents a distinct VNC desktop. Each VNC desktop is 
like a virtual X display, with a root window on which several X 
applications can be displayed. 

"The Windows server (WinVNC) is a little more difficult to create, 
because there are fewer places to insert hooks into the system to 
monitor display updates, and a less clearly-defined model of multiuser 
operation. Our current server simply mirrors the real display to a 
remote client, which means that the server is not 'multiuser'. It does, 
however, provide the primary user of a PC with remote access to their 
desktop."
(http://www.uk.research.att.com/archive/vnc/howitworks.html)

But hopefully I'm wrong, or my information is out of date.

    Best wishes,

       Antony