multiple users running VNC

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03-12-2003
slacker

multiple users running VNC

I have a Slack 8.1 box with VNC installed. There are two users. After booting the box, I login as each user and invoke a VNC server session with:

Code:

vncserver -geometry 1024x768 -depth 8

So now I have two sessions running, 1 for each user.

Now the problem is, when I complete either session both sessions become locked, therefor unusable. Even if I reboot, I have to manually remove the sessions by logging in as root and:

Code:

/tmp/.X11-unix/% rm X1 /tmp/.X11-unix/% rm X2

Or I can kill the PID of the sessions, then reboot.

This doesn't seem like a big thing. I simply want two users to have individual sessions with their own settings. They should be able to both be on at the same time.

Any idears?
03-12-2003
Dolda2000

How do you mean that they are "locked"? Don't the VNC servers respond at all?
03-12-2003
slacker

they respond and let you log in, but all that comes up is a blank screen. The first time you log into either one, they work just fine.

I rebooted remotely, and when I went to launch the first vncserver session, I was assigned screen :3 because the other two sessions were locked and needed to be manually removed, at least that was the message I got (that's how I figured out to go to /tmp/.X11-unix/ to find the lockfiles)

I'm not sure if this makes a difference, but it is a rather low-memory machine. Well....low by todays standards... 96MB RAM+96MB swap. Now I'm wondering if it ran out of memory. hmmmm...
03-13-2003
slacker

Well, I tried it out last night, and it worked. But there is still a problem... It is when X is run locally (or logged out from the local session) that it locks the vnc sessions.
03-13-2003
Dolda2000

I must admit that it seems like quite a mystery to me. Anyway it's not a memory problem. If you ran out of memory, you'd see a lot more problems. Also, just for your knowledge, the files in /tmp/X11-unix aren't lockfiles, they are the actual sockets that X clients connect to.

When you say that a "blank" screen comes up, what kind of blank screen is that? Is it a black screen or the X server's standard pseudo-grey background?

Are the X client programs (ie. the window manager, etc.) still running connected to the VNC servers? What happens if you try to run a new client on them (ie. by exporting DISPLAY=:1 or so).
03-17-2003
slacker

sorry for the delay Dolda, and thanks for the help.

The screen is a black screen, not the normal grey startup screen.

Quote:

Are the X client programs (ie. the window manager, etc.) still running connected to the VNC servers? What happens if you try to run a new client on them (ie. by exporting DISPLAY=:1 or so).

Now this is the point where Satan himself starts screaming into my left ear, "LEARN YOUR SHELL DAMMIT, LEARN YOUR SHELL!!!!"

Dolda, I'm not sure how to do what you just asked. Could you be more explicit?
03-17-2003
Dolda2000

I'm assuming that you're a VNC server as display :1, right?
In that case, first run "export DISPLAY=:1" to set the display nubmer for the clients to connect to.
Then, first try running xlsclients and see what it returns. If it returns successfully (ie. no error), but with an empty list, try running twm and connect again to that VNC server to see what happens.
03-17-2003
slacker

This is what I get:

Code:

slacker@obiwan:~$ export DISPLAY=:1 slacker@obiwan:~$ xlsclients slacker licq slacker kicker slacker /usr/lib/mozilla/mozilla-bin slacker@obiwan:~$

Does that help at all?
03-17-2003
Dolda2000

It's strange that the window manager seems to have died. Try starting your favorite window manager (or just twm) on that VNC server and see if anything happens. Otherwise, try starting a small ugly application like xcalc and see if it does anything.
03-17-2003
slacker

Just so I'm clear, should I have the local session and both remote sessions running concurrently for the test?

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