Virtual Network Computing vncviewer(1)
NAME
vncviewer - VNC viewer for X
SYNOPSIS
/usr/bin/vncviewer [options] [host][:display#]
vncviewer [options] -listen [port]
DESCRIPTION
vncviewer is a viewer (client) for Virtual Network Comput-
ing. This manual page documents version 4 for the X window
system.
If you run the viewer with no arguments it will prompt you
for a VNC server to connect to. Alternatively, specify the
VNC server as an argument, e.g.:
vncviewer snoopy:2
where 'snoopy' is the name of the machine, and '2' is the
display number of the VNC server on that machine. Either
the machine name or display number can be omitted. So for
example ":1" means display number 1 on the same machine, and
"snoopy" means "snoopy:0" i.e. display 0 on machine
"snoopy".
If the VNC server is successfully contacted, you will be
prompted for a password to authenticate you. If the pass-
word is correct, a window will appear showing the desktop of
the VNC server.
AUTOMATIC PROTOCOL SELECTION
The viewer tests the speed of the connection to the server
and chooses the encoding and pixel format (colour level)
appropriately. This makes it much easier to use than previ-
ous versions where the user had to specify arcane command
line arguments.
The viewer normally starts out assuming the link is slow,
using a low colour level and using the encoding with the
best compression. If it turns out that the link is fast
enough it switches to full-colour mode and will use an
encoding which compresses less but is faster to generate,
thus improving the interactive feel. Automatic selection
can be turned off by setting the AutoSelect parameter to
false, or from the options dialog.
POPUP MENU
The viewer has a popup menu containing entries which perform
various actions. It is usually brought up by pressing F8,
but this can be configured with the MenuKey parameter.
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Actions which the popup menu can perform include:
* switching in and out of full-screen mode
* quitting the viewer
* generating key events, e.g. sending ctrl-alt-del
* accessing the options dialog and various other dialogs
By default, key presses in the popup menu get sent to the
VNC server and dismiss the popup. So to get an F8 through
to the VNC server simply press it twice.
FUL SCREN MODE
A full-screen mode is supported. This is particularly use-
ful when connecting to a remote screen which is the same
size as your local one. If the remote screen is bigger, you
can scroll by bumping the mouse against the edge of the
screen.
Unfortunately this mode doesn't work completely with all
window managers, since it breaks the X window management
conventions.
OPTIONS (PARAMETERS)
You can get a list of parameters by giving -h as a command-
line option to vncviewer. Parameters can be turned on with
-param or off with -param=0. Parameters which take a value
can be specified as -param value. Other valid forms are
param=value -param=value --param=value. Parameter names are
case-insensitive.
Many of the parameters can also be set graphically via the
options dialog box. This can be accessed from the popup
menu or from the "Connection details" dialog box.
-display Xdisplay
Specifies the X display on which the VNC viewer window
should appear.
-geometry geometry
Standard X position and sizing specification.
-listen [port]
Causes vncviewer to listen on the given port (default
5500) for reverse connections from a VNC server.
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WinVNC supports reverse connections initiated using the
'Add New Client' menu option or the '-connect'
command-line option. Xvnc supports reverse connections
with a helper program called vncconfig.
-passwd password-file
If you are on a filesystem which gives you access to
the password file used by the server, you can specify
it here to avoid typing it in. It will usually be
"~/.vnc/passwd".
-Shared
When you make a connection to a VNC server, all other
existing connections are normally closed. This option
requests that they be left open, allowing you to share
the desktop with someone already using it.
-ViewOnly
Specifies that no keyboard or mouse events should be
sent to the server. Useful if you want to view a desk-
top without interfering; often needs to be combined
with -Shared.
-FullScreen
Start in full-screen mode.
-AutoSelect
Use automatic selection of encoding and pixel format
(default is on). Normally the viewer tests the speed
of the connection to the server and chooses the encod-
ing and pixel format appropriately. Turn it off with
-AutoSelect=0.
-FullColour, -FullColor
Tells the VNC server to send full-colour pixels in the
best format for this display. By default a low colour
mode is used until AutoSelect decides the link is fast
enough. However if the server's native pixel format is
colourmapped (as opposed to truecolour) then the
server's format is used by default.
-LowColourLevel level
Selects the reduced colour level to use on slow links.
level can range from 0 to 2, 0 meaning 8 colours, 1
meaning 64 colours (the default), 2 meaning 256
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colours.
-PreferredEncoding encoding
This option specifies the preferred encoding to use
from one of "ZRLE", "hextile" or "raw".
-UseLocalCursor
Render the mouse cursor locally if the server supports
it (default is on). This can make the interactive per-
formance feel much better over slow links.
-WMDecorationWidth w, -WMDecorationHeight h
The total width and height taken up by window manager
decorations. This is used to calculate the maximum
size of the VNC viewer window. Default is width 6,
height 24.
-log logname:dest:level
Configures the debug log settings. dest can currently
be stderr or stdout, and level is between 0 and 100,
100 meaning most verbose output. logname is usually *
meaning all, but you can target a specific source file
if you know the name of its "LogWriter". Default is
*:stderr:30.
-MenuKey keysym-name
This option specifies the key which brings up the popup
menu. The key is specified as an X11 keysym name
(these can be obtained by removing the XK prefix from
the entries in "/usr/include/X11/keysymdef.h").
Default is F8.
SEE ALSO
Xvnc(1), vncpasswd(1), vncconfig(1), vncserver(1)
http:/www.realvnc.com
AUTHOR
Tristan Richardson, RealVNC Ltd.
VNC was originally developed by the RealVNC team while at
Olivetti Research Ltd / AT&T Laboratories Cambridge. It is
now being maintained by RealVNC Ltd. See
http:/www.realvnc.com for details.
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ATRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attri-
butes:
ATRIBUTE TYPE ATRIBUTE VALUE
Availability SUNWvncviewer
Interface Stability Volatile
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