VncSelector

VncSelector allows a user to manage his/her list of currently active VNC server sessions. This can be useful in a thin client situation (run from .Xsession, for example).

At long last...an update (however small)!

Improved configure script and default icon! See below for details.

Here is a screen shot:

VncSelector screen shot

Download

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Version 1.6.1 [10/24/2005]
Added a [K]Ubuntu Package for Hoary: vncselector_1.6.1-1ubuntu_i386.deb
Fixed configure script problem with fltk (now uses fltk-config)
Added default icon for preview area.
Version 1.6 [09/15/2004]
Added a Debian Package for Sarge: vncselector_1.6.0-1_i386.deb
Added Autoconf/Automake support. See the README and Changelog for details.
Version 1.5 [02/07/2004]
Added user configuration file support. The default file assumes TightVNC, but the user can edit to taste. The TIGHTVNC flag no longer applies. The configuration file is called ~/.VncSelector. It is automatically created if it doesn't already exist.
Added ability to add a remote server. Press the "Add Server" button to add a remote host in the form "server:port".
NOTE
The remote X server will refuse connections until you add permissions for the connecting server via xhost.
ALSO NOTE
You cannot start or stop a remote server instance.
Version 1.4 [01/13/2004]
Thumbnailing now happens fully in background thread
Adding -DTIGHTVNC to Makefile flags will use the TightVNC client. Please see vNcOptions.h for details.
The VncThread class is no longer templatized.
Version 1.3 [01/06/2004]
Added thumbnail support for remote desktops.
Tweaked the makefile to be more general.
Reworked some threading code.
Fixed a bug in the VncCritSection class.
Version 1.2 [12/30/2003]
Fixed deadlock problem.
Moved threading code to a seperate class.
Removed unneeded libraries from Makefile
Version 1.1 [12/11/2003]
Added "Please Wait" dialog.
Version 1.0 [12/18/2003]
Initial release.

TODO

New Interface
The next goal is to redo the interface in GTK-- as opposed to FLTK.
Work with vncsnapshot
Currently, VncSelector uses X-server protocol to attempt to grab the desktop snapshot of the remote VNC session. This works fine if you are on the same server, but does not work so well on a foreign server. It can be made to work, but you have to add special permissions to the remote X-server so that X will allow your connection. A better way is to use the vncsnapshot package, which uses VNC protocol to connect to the remote server and ask for a snapshot of the desktop. This will need to be worked out before adding of remote servers can be approprately simple.
Add support for a global configuration file
There is now a local configuration file ~/.VncSelelctor but it might be nice to have a global file like /etc/VncSelector.
Precompiled Binaries
I'd like to provide links to precompiled binaries, including popular GNU/Linux distribution packages. To this end, I have packages for both Debian Sarge and Ubuntu Hoary. See below.
Add Unicode (UTF-8) Support
All free and open source software should be unicode-compilant. See freedesktop.org's UTF-8 Page of popular GNU/Linux distribution packages.

Requirements

Required OS is GNU/Linux. You will need the FLTK toolkit with development files in order to compile. You can download the development kit from http://www.fltk.org/software.php [select version 1.1.4].

This application has been tested with RealVNC and TightVNC. I recommend TightVNC because it is the most efficient. The default configuration file contains Debian-style TightVNC viewer/server binary names. Check your distribution's naming convention, of course.

Here is a sample configuration file. The first time you start the application, a ~/.VncSelector file will be created. Change the viewer and server lines to the correct binaries on your system. viewer_encodings are the encoding parameters for your viewer application.

Debian Users

There are two debian-based packages: vncselector_1.6.1-1ubuntu_i386.deb and vncselector_1.6.0-1_i386.deb to make life easier. Let me know if you have problems installing either one. 1.6.1-1 was built on Ubuntu Hoary and 1.6.0-1 was built on Debian Sarge.

Or, if you would rather build from source, there is binary package support in Debian Sarge for the FLTK development kit:

Apt-get the following packages:

For compiling VncSelector
libfltk1.1c102
libfltk1.1-dev
fluid
For running VncSelector
xtightvncviewer
tightvncserver
OR
xvncviewer
vncserver

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