Hi friends,

I need to view the desktop of a customer in order to see what they are doing. I tried the following but it always opens a new desktop:

vncviewer -shared -encodings Zlib -compresslevel 5 localhost:5901

The customers box has a tightvnc server running. I've read somewhere on the net that tightvnc could not share the same desktop. The man page of vncviewer says about the "-shared" option:

"
-shared
When connecting, specify that a shared connection is requested.
In TightVNC, this is the default mode, allowing you to share the
desktop with other clients already using it.
"

So what am I doing wrong ?

Thanks,

Mario

localhost = your computer. You connect back you your own computer??

With vnc you should connect to the other computer, something like:

vncviewer othercomputersip

-shared means that you request a shared session so that others can connect at once to the same computer.

If the other computer runs Linux, make sure youre you use a vnc server that captures the display that is used (x11vnc for example).

x11vnc will let you share a "real" display with a vncviewer.

Credo che la cosa migliore sia utilizzare un vncviewer.

Hi, yes the word "localhost" appears strange to me but however, I see the customers linux desktop. Before starting vncviewer I prepare the connection by

ssh -L 5901:192.168.7.3:5901 customers_user_name@customers_router_ip

afterwards I run

vncviewer -shared -encodings Zlib -compresslevel 5 localhost:5901

which does the actual desktop connection to the customers desktop.

I'm sorry but I don't understand, English please :-)

So tightvnc does not allow sharing the SAME desktop ?

Under Linux, i dont think so. Under Windows it does only that.
Well you should have said that you use ssh tunneling. So probably the customer has Linux running.

Under Linux VNC solutions tend to behave by default more like a terminal services (remote desktop) server under Windows - ie providing a new session.
You need a VNC solution that actually shares the active session.
For example Gnome DE has a built in VNC server named vino-server that can be activated easily.

One of the established and working solutions on Linux which is DE-agnostic is x11vnc. This runs really well on anything (there are some permission related tricks in some circumstances, but that depends on the used DE).
I use it and its great. I use it with ssh tunneling too, but i use it in reverse VNC mode - this means that the server does the connection towards the viewer.
My script launches the viewer (i use ssvncviewer, but you can use anything) in listening mode on my end, sets up the port forwardings and launches x11vnc on the target computer with the reverse connection option.