How to set up VNC connection?

[Harm Lammers]

Hi All,

I'm new to XBian - I just installed it two days ago on a Raspberry Pi B+. Over HDMI everything works well (a bit slow, but I am considering to get myself a Raspberry Pi 2...) and I also got my HifiBerry DAC+ working. Now the next thing I would like to do is to make a VNC link from Windows, so I can access Kodi without having to turn the projector on to which the Raspberry Pi is connected. The problem is that I can't find any information on how to get such VNC link to work. According to the "What is XBian?" page on XBian.org VNC Server should be running out of the box, but when I try to connect (using UltraVNC viewer 1.2.0.9) I get a "Failed to connect to server" message. I have tried screen 0, screen 1 and port 1, all without success. So my question is: what should I do to get the VNC connection working?

Thanks,

Harm

[CurlyMo]

You first need to manually start rpi-vncserver from the command line.

[daharn]

I would like to step in here and ask which client do you use to access the VNC server on the Windows (or Ubuntu Desktop) side?

I tried directvnc under Ubuntu but only got a distorted Kodi environment with wrong colormap and wrong resolution and couldn't find a way to fix this so far.

[Nachteule]

(10th Jun, 2016 09:42 PM)daharn Wrote:  I would like to step in here and ask which client do you use to access the VNC server on the Windows (or Ubuntu Desktop) side?

I tried directvnc under Ubuntu but only got a distorted Kodi environment with wrong colormap and wrong resolution and couldn't find a way to fix this so far.

I tried it once with an RPi and had same colormap issue (see here) but resulution and Kodi desktop was ok (AFAIR).

[Skywatch]

TightVNC works (but still has the colour issues) - but it is just about useable though if you need it.
Not something you'd want to use every day though, there is a delay that is really noticeable).

[daharn]

OK, I had tried tightvnc before but only got a black screen. Do you remember the exact commands?

[Nachteule]

Hmmm, seems that things has been changed

I tested it 9 months ago and it worked. Now same client (openSUSE 13.1, krdc) and same RPi shows black screen. I suppose that firmware changes is the culprit

[Skywatch]

Seems to be working on Pi2 but not on Pi1. On Pi1 it connects, but the black background is there and nothing responds to the mouse input. The menu options are visible as is the kodi logo top left.

[Nachteule]

@Skywatch
Yeah, you're right. Works on Rpi3, not really fast and wrong colors, but works



Using client vncviewer and krdc, both worked

@daharn
Called vncviewer from package tightvnc, simply used vncviewer rpiaddress

[Skywatch]

Seems to be fixed with todays updates!

[Nachteule]

Ähhhmmm, no. That green background should be blue

(btw, it's not only at RPi, Cubox-i and Humminboard has same color issuse)

[IriDium]

I'm using vncviewer on Ubuntu 14.04 to RPi2 and it's the same. I can improve it slightly by changing KODI background to black, and setting the vncviewer colours from network speed to maximum. Still looks bad but a lot better. Usable just doesn't look nice.

The same vncviewer to Win10 looks fine, so it's something on the RPi.

What was in the upgrade that could had have make a difference?

[daharn]

Thanks guys, it es working for me now insofar as to connect via tightvnc viewer (colors of course being wrong). did you also manage to control the menu remotely or did you connect a keyboard or mouse for that?

[IriDium]

For me, all the mouse functions worked remotely. Didn't try a KB but I guess it should work.

[Nachteule]

Mouse AND keyboard works