Ubuntu
vnc4 package

Please make VNC4 support exporting a single window

Bug #156705 reported by mungewell
10
This bug affects 1 person
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
vnc4 (Ubuntu)
Confirmed
Wishlist
Unassigned

Bug Description

Hi,
I would be nice if VNC could be made to support the export of a single window, rather than the whole screen, such as is supported in the windows version of TightVNC and unix application SharedAppVNC (http://shared-app-vnc.sourceforge.net/),

In SharedAppVNC a small helper application adds/removes windows to a list of those exported. For VNC4 I guess it would be easy to export windows as completely separate VNC shares using a common password file.
Simon

Revision history for this message
Andrew (andrewkvalheim) wrote :

Ubuntu's VNC server currently only allows for the sharing of the entire desktop, which really limits the uses of VNC for users with multiple monitors; Single-window mode would be a prime solution for this.

Daniel T Chen (crimsun)
Changed in vnc4:
importance: Undecided → Wishlist
Revision history for this message
Cefn (6-launchpad-net-cefn-com) wrote :

A workaround of sorts for this limitation, using packages from the Ubuntu repository, is to launch a separate Gnome session within a nested Xserver like Xephyr. Xephyr can be installed using apt-get.

You can then share just this desktop, by pointing and clicking within the GUI of the the conventional remote desktop sharing wizard, but inside the nested Gnome session you've launched.

I wanted to permit my GF to also control the LastFM program on my desktop. The script I use to launch the gnome session looks like...

#!/bin/bash
startx /usr/bin/gnome-session -- /usr/bin/Xephyr :1 -screen 800x600 &

I then launch LastFM inside this window where she can get at it with the password configured through the 'Remote Desktop' gui (the Gnome Menu name for the package vino) inside the newly launched Gnome session.

The configuration made through vino seems to be long-lived between sessions, so only has to be done once for each display port you ever launch. The next time the launch script is run, it's automatically password accessible.

If you wanted to make things more secure, you could try launching a Xephyr window on behalf of a different user account. I haven't tried this, and don't know how this plays with Dbus, Pulseaudio and the like when there are effectively two users logged in to the same multimedia hardware device.

Thomas Hotz (thotz-deactivatedaccount)
Changed in vnc4 (Ubuntu):
status: New → Confirmed
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