Vine Viewer/Server 2.1 has screen refresh and corruption

Vine
1

Hi,
I’m setting up a macbook to send off to my mom. I’ve been using OSXVnc / CotVNC for years and have been very pleased with the combination.

I started using Vine Viewer 1.1 and Server 2.1 and am now having trouble with screen corruption / refresh. The screen is initially drawn fine, but soon after becomes static with updates only happening around where the mouse is.

screenshot

I tried downgrading to 1.0/2.0 and continue to have the same effect.

CotVNC connects and updates fine.

Connection is to Vine Server 2.1 via SSH (required). Vine Server is running as a system service. This doesn’t seem to be a problem when connecting directly to a user run server, only the system service. It also crops up more frequently after a fast user switch.

I’d like to force single user mode with Fast User switching. I’m not interested in having multiple accounts using the machine simultaneously on different VNC ports, but I do need to be able to Fast user switch and keep control remotely. This was working with 1.0/2.0 but seems to be problematic after the upgrade.

And a last request. Can you enable logging from the client side? Or am I just missing it? I’d like to see a little more than just a button turning green.

Thank you.

Dan

2

This is a very interesting problem. I wonder if you could test the same scenario but remove SSH from the equation.

There is some logging happening on the Client side (it is going to the system Console).

You might also try completely removing the /Library/StartupItem/OSXvnc folder and then reconfiguring your System Server from the GUI.

3

[quote=“JonathanOSX”]This is a very interesting problem. I wonder if you could test the same scenario but remove SSH from the equation.

There is some logging happening on the Client side (it is going to the system Console).

You might also try completely removing the /Library/StartupItem/OSXvnc folder and then reconfiguring your System Server from the GUI.[/quote]

Hi Jonathan,

I’ve been working on this for the past few hours. Basically it seems that remote management of a system is just plain screwy when you involve fast user switching (FUS).

I tried your suggestion of deleting the files in /Library/StartupItem/OSXvnc and restarting from the GUI. This doesn’t do anything to help.

I removed SSH from the equation but FUS still causes problems (not the same ones mind you). Remember, I need to be able to login to the remote machine with one user, switch users and retain control of the machine. The remote display should mirror what I see via VineViewer.

Please see snapshot 1 and [url=http://tinyurl.com/ws77e]snapshot 2. Snapshot one was taken with SSH and after FUS (note tearing). Snapshot 2 was taken w/o SSH and just after FUS (you can see it stalled out on the screen). Both snapshots should show mirrored screens. Both have their own problems.

I’d love to help out on this but I’m not really sure where to go from here. Everything was working earlier this week, but now not for love nor money can I switch users and retain control as if I were at the keyboard.

Usage here is: Mom logged in from keyboard. I attach to the system session which is showing her screen, I need to run some admin tasks so i FUS to my account (should be mirroring now, but either tears or doesn’t even allow me to see it (see snapshots)). I’d like to be able to run the admin tasks then fast user switch back to her account and be able to run her through some teaching or troubleshooting.

I have several questions,

  1. can you force “single user mode” w/ FUS when run in via system startup?
  2. what are the commands for remote startup and management of VineServer, assuming i won’t have a GUI and can’t get to the console to login to my account. This needs to assume there are no hands near a keyboard to start up VineServer in usermode.
  3. Do you have any other suggestions or workarounds to help solve this problem?

Other problems I’ve noticed while investigating are:

  1. when vine viewer quits after setting up an SSH connection it sometimes fails to release the local port (eg 5951).
  2. Vine Viewer sometimes needs to be restarted in order to connect after failure. Sometimes this doesn’t even help and the server needs to be restarted (see Q2 above).

Do you have a Bug tracking system? I’d file these and more as bugs…

Thanks again!

[edited to reverse screenshots. They were in the wrong order]

4

It looks like you might be running Panther (10.3). Unfortunately 10.3 does have many of the problems with FUS that you describe here, notably that servers will lose control after a FUS. Given your ultimate goal I have to say that you probably will really want to run Tiger.

  1. can you force “single user mode” w/ FUS when run in via system startup?

I’m not quite sure what you mean here. Typically the System Server will follow the console user (whoever is on the monitor).

  1. what are the commands for remote startup and management of VineServer, assuming i won’t have a GUI and can’t get to the console to login to my account. This needs to assume there are no hands near a keyboard to start up VineServer in usermode.

If you have terminal access to the machine you can launch the server by going inside the application (VineServer.app) and launching the OSXvnc-server process. If you will want to give it arguments for portNumber etc, you can see the arguments that the GUI uses by looking at the logs.

Other Issues

We do have an internal bug tracking system, I’ll enter these reports.

5

Another option you might try is to run another Vine Server set to start at login on your admin account. This will have to run on a different port. Then after you login to that account, create a new connection to that port. Perhaps by starting a new server running on the other account you can avoid the problems introduced by Fast User Switching (I’m not sure, since it’s not clear exactly what’s causing the problem, but it might be worth a try).

6

Nope. These are both Tiger boxes. Neither is an upgrade. One is PowerPC and a little over a year old and the other is Intel and straight out off the factory floor two weeks ago.
I believe they are both on versions >= 10.4.7 but I’d have to check.

That is the behaviour that I would expect. It is however, not the behaviour I am witnessing.

Thanks!

7

OK I have some updates.

Screen Failing To Update
The drawing update failure I believe can be tracked down to some situations where the connection fails and then gets re-established. This often happens on a FUS because the server needs to restart. I believe that explicitly Disconnecting and Reconnecting will once again restore screen updates.
This is a bug which will be fixed for the next release of the Viewer.

Fast-User-Switching
It appears to me (in some limited tests) that the behavior exhibited by the System Server is different when it has been recently launched from the GUI and when it has been launched by having the machine startup.

After a full startup it does appear to “follow the console”. This doesn’t seem to work properly if you launch it from the GUI. This is also a bug that we will look to resolve for the next version of the Server.