Vine VNC Problems

locust76 · January 18, 2010, 9:40am

Hi all,

I’m trying to build a file server out of an older PowerMac G4. I cleared off all partitions on the drive and installed Leopard fresh and updated it to 10.5.8.

This system will sit across my company’s campus in our media department, so I need to be able to access it remotely to make administrative changes. Apart from the 5 Macs in the media department, we’re 100% Windows here.

Anyways, I tried enabling Remote Management from within System Preferences, which worked, to some extent. The problem is that I couldn’t find a way to change the listening port on the Apple VNC server. In addition to that, if I logged in and left the VNC session idle for a minute or two, the server process would freeze up on the G4 and I would lose all connectivity via VNC until I rebooted (something I can’t really afford to have happen with a file server).

So, I tried Vine VNC. After fooling around with it and getting stupid “Screen Format not supported” error messages, I finally got it to “work,” even as a system service (start on boot with no user logged in). I can log in as the user (with admin rights) fine, but as soon as I log out, the server process exits and I can no longer connect via VNC again (also not desirable for a file server).

How can I get this thing to a point where I can reliably connect, log in, log out and reconnect again whenever I happen to need to?

JonathanOSX · January 18, 2010, 10:34am

The Desktop (aka User) Server will always quit when you logout, it’s running in the user’s process and once the user’s window session is gone the server itself has nothing left to show.

The System Server (that shows the console) will attempt to restart after a logout. If you give it a bit of time it should eventually be back up.

locust76 · January 18, 2010, 11:58am

[quote=“JonathanOSX”]The Desktop (aka User) Server will always quit when you logout, it’s running in the user’s process and once the user’s window session is gone the server itself has nothing left to show.

The System Server (that shows the console) will attempt to restart after a logout. If you give it a bit of time it should eventually be back up.[/quote]

I gave it about a minute and it still wasn’t up. I went to the machine and logged in locally, only to find that Vine VNC was complaining about the screen format again…

JonathanOSX · January 18, 2010, 2:59pm

That’s a new problem – what hardware are you using on the Vine Server Machine?

locust76 · January 18, 2010, 4:35pm

It’s an older PowerMac G4 running at 867mhz. I’ve upped the RAM to 2GB and installed the OS fresh. It has an ATI Radeon 9600 graphics card (AGP), for which the drivers are “included in the OS,” which doesn’t bode well for me if this is a graphics card problem. Aside from Firefox and Microsoft Remote Desktop, Vine VNC is the only other software installed.

locust76 · January 19, 2010, 6:22am

If it makes a difference, I’m trying to connect with UltraVNC viewer 1.0.8.2 from 7 Dec 2009. Both systems are currently in the same subnet, so there are no routers between them.

I just reinstalled Vine VNC. Configured the password and ports to how I want them (no “Require Remote Login (SSH)”), Keyboard set to Current Keyboard (German), Allow one VNC connection at a time, Start server when app is launched, restart if it stops, RFB protocol 3.8.

Regular server gives me the same error of “Screen format not supported.” Here’s the log:

2010-01-19 12:03:01 +0100	Starting Vine Server 3.0(1016)
-rfbport 34550 -desktop Mac-Fileserver (admin) -rfbauth /Users/admin/.vinevncauth -nevershared -restartonuserswitch N -UnicodeKeyboard 0 -keyboardLoading Y -pressModsForKeys Y -EventTap 3 -swapButtons -rendezvous N

2010-01-19 12:03:02.047 OSXvnc-server[137:10b] Arguments: -rfbport 34550 -desktop Mac-Fileserver (admin) -rfbauth /Users/admin/.vinevncauth -nevershared -restartonuserswitch N -UnicodeKeyboard 0 -keyboardLoading Y -pressModsForKeys Y -EventTap 3 -swapButtons -rendezvous N 
2010-01-19 12:03:02.066 OSXvnc-server[137:10b] Main Bundle: /Applications/Vine Server.app/Contents/Resources
2010-01-19 12:03:02.072 OSXvnc-server[137:10b] Loading Bundle /Applications/Vine Server.app/Contents/Resources/TigerBundle.bundle
2010-01-19 12:03:02.078 OSXvnc-server[137:10b] Loading Bundle /Applications/Vine Server.app/Contents/Resources/JaguarBundle.bundle
2010-01-19 12:03:02.087 OSXvnc-server[137:10b] Keyboard Loading - Enabled
2010-01-19 12:03:02.090 OSXvnc-server[137:10b] Press Modifiers For Keys - Enabled
2010-01-19 12:03:02.113 OSXvnc-server[137:10b] Keyboard Detected: German (Type:2) - Loading Keys
2010-01-19 12:03:02.117 OSXvnc-server[137:10b] Unable To Convert KeyCode, Multiple Characters For: 11 (0000)
2010-01-19 12:03:02.119 OSXvnc-server[137:10b] Unable To Convert KeyCode, Multiple Characters For: 25 (0000)
2010-01-19 12:03:02.122 OSXvnc-server[137:10b] Unable To Convert KeyCode, Multiple Characters For: 25 (0x02)
2010-01-19 12:03:02.123 OSXvnc-server[137:10b] Unable To Convert KeyCode, Multiple Characters For: 33 (0x08)
2010-01-19 12:03:02.124 OSXvnc-server[137:10b] Unable To Convert KeyCode, Multiple Characters For: 46 (0x08)
2010-01-19 12:03:02.126 OSXvnc-server[137:10b] Unable To Convert KeyCode, Multiple Characters For: 23 (0x0a)
2010-01-19 12:03:02.127 OSXvnc-server[137:10b] Loading 56 XKeysym Special Keys
2010-01-19 12:03:02.136 OSXvnc-server[137:10b] screen format not supported.

I went into the System Server settings, set the Display Name, number, port and password to the same as the regular server and clicked “start system server.” Says at the bottom: “The System Server is running,” non-system server is the same.

At this point I am not able to connect via VNC.

ps aux | grep server

shows only WindowServer -daemon (should find OSXvnc-server, right?)

I’ll reboot now… the system is back up at the login screen. I’ve logged in via SSH, ps aux shows nothing with OSX or vnc, I also cannot connect via VNC. Log in via connected keyboard and monitor, firewall allows Vine Server.app and OSXvnc-server, process is not listed in Activity Monitor or ps aux…

JonathanOSX · January 19, 2010, 9:38am

Please download Vine Server 3.11 from the downloads page and see if that improves you situation.

locust76 · January 19, 2010, 10:18am

That’s the version I’ve been working with this whole time. Oddly enough, I JUST finished installing it on another machine; another G4 running at 1.25ghz and a slightly faster bus, same graphics card and everything else, OSX 10.5.6.

I installed it and ignored the normal server altogether, System Service configured, started and it ran right away. Rebooted and connected right away via VNC and logged in… dumped me after login but the service came back up after a few seconds…

I don’t understand why this is giving me such grief just on this one machine. Where does Vine Server store config files, so I can do a thorough deinstallation and try reinstalling again?

JonathanOSX · January 19, 2010, 12:10pm

Your log reports that it’s running the older 3.0 server.

Please remove all VineServer stuff from that machine:
[list]? /Applications/VineServer.app
? /Library/StartupItems/VineServer/
? /Library/StaruptItems/OSXvnc/
? /Library/ApplicationSupport/VineServer/
? /Library/LaunchAgents/com.redstonesoftware.VineServer.plist
[/list:u]Then try installing again from scratch.

locust76 · January 20, 2010, 4:17am

No joy

Did the reinstall twice… I cleared out all the old crap and reinstalled… The first time, when I started up Vine Server, I went straight to the System Server window and all the old settings were still there. Dunno how they managed to be there still, unless Vine looked in the trash for the old settings… Started the System Server on its port (a port my organization uses for security purposes), and the regular server was on and listening to port 5900. Just like the other machine I installed yesterday, it worked. I was able to connect via VNC and shut down the server on 5900 while leaving the System Server running. I disabled the start of the server upon launch of the app (so that if I need to make changes to the config, port 5900 isn’t opened up for VNC connections). Rebooted and tried to log back in via VNC on the System Server port, and it didn’t work. Logged in locally, loaded up Vine, checked the System Server, status was “running,” but I couldn’t make any connection. Started the regular server over 5900 and it crapped out, giving me the same “Screen format not supported” error.

I removed it all again and tried it once more, this time emptying the trash beforehand. Vine installed “fresh” this time, meaning no settings were left over, did the same thing that I did with the working machine: Password for regular server set (it loads automatically), system server set on another port, same password, set to on. Connections after that worked fine, but again, after a restart, the couldn’t connect to the server again (even though it is shown as “running”) and the regular server doesn’t support the screen format… (which is 1280x1024x32bit, btw)

Here’s the log:

2010-01-20 10:04:49 +0100	Starting Vine Server 3.11(1031)
-rfbport 0 -desktop Mac-Fileserver (admin) -donotloadproxy -rfbauth /Users/admin/.vinevncauth -restartonuserswitch N -UnicodeKeyboard 0 -keyboardLoading Y -pressModsForKeys Y -EventTap 3 -EventSource 2 -swapButtons -rendezvous Y

2010-01-20 10:04:49.611 OSXvnc-server[139:10b] Arguments: -rfbport 0 -desktop Mac-Fileserver (admin) -donotloadproxy -rfbauth /Users/admin/.vinevncauth -restartonuserswitch N -UnicodeKeyboard 0 -keyboardLoading Y -pressModsForKeys Y -EventTap 3 -EventSource 2 -swapButtons -rendezvous Y 
2010-01-20 10:04:49.615 OSXvnc-server[139:10b] Main Bundle: /Applications/Vine Server.app/Contents/Resources
2010-01-20 10:04:49.620 OSXvnc-server[139:10b] Loading Bundle /Applications/Vine Server.app/Contents/Resources/TigerBundle.bundle
2010-01-20 10:04:49.628 OSXvnc-server[139:10b] Loading Bundle /Applications/Vine Server.app/Contents/Resources/JaguarBundle.bundle
2010-01-20 10:04:49.637 OSXvnc-server[139:10b] Keyboard Loading - Enabled
2010-01-20 10:04:49.639 OSXvnc-server[139:10b] Press Modifiers For Keys - Enabled
2010-01-20 10:04:49.660 OSXvnc-server[139:10b] Keyboard Detected: German (Type:2) - Loading Keys
2010-01-20 10:04:49.666 OSXvnc-server[139:10b] Loading 56 XKeysym Special Keys
2010-01-20 10:04:49.687 OSXvnc-server[139:10b] screen format not supported.

locust76 · January 21, 2010, 4:30am

Hi Jonathan!

First of all, thanks for all your help and patience… I seem to have solved the problem… rather, the problem seems to have solved itself. See… as soon as that “screen format not supported” message came up, I immediately thought something was wrong with the display settings.

Well, not so much the display settings, but rather the display. I had a 19" LCD via DVI hooked up, and on the display things were kind of glitchy from the get-go (small blocks of “corruptiness” appearing under the mouse quite often, etc…)… Anyways, long story short, I enabled Apple’s VNC server (because it worked well enough to play around with), set the machine up without a display at all, like it will be when I’m finished setting everything up, and VOILA, freakin’ Vine works!

The OSXvnc-server process starts on boot and doesn’t crash in the middle of usage (like Apple’s). Plus, it seems to recover from a logout/login cycle like it is supposed to!

Thanks again man If you don’t hear from me again, that means no other VNC-related problems have cropped up!

JonathanOSX · January 21, 2010, 9:26am

Very glad to know you got it resolved!

Thanks for using Vine.