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vnsea - issue #7

Garbled screen with multiple monitors or large display


Posted on Sep 17, 2007 by Happy Wombat

What steps will reproduce the problem? 1.Connect to a server with extended desktop enabled 2. 3.

What is the expected output? What do you see instead? Garbled/black screen

What version of the product are you using? On what operating system? 0.2, Win2k3

Please provide any additional information below. After disabling extended desktop VNSea works excellent!

Comment #1

Posted on Sep 17, 2007 by Helpful Bird

What VNC server software are you using?

Comment #2

Posted on Sep 17, 2007 by Happy Wombat

I am using the latest version od RealVNC - VNC Server Free Edition 4.1.2

http://www.realvnc.com/download.html

Comment #3

Posted on Sep 17, 2007 by Helpful Bird

Comments from a duplicate issue. Apparently this issue applies to both windows and mac servers.

What steps will reproduce the problem? 1. Connecting to a remote desktop with 2 displays

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?

Expect to see desktop on remote computer. Instead I see part of the Desktop Background but no windows. In addition the screen freaks out as though it's trying to load something else or refresh but is unable to do so.

What version of the product are you using? On what operating system?

VNsea 0.2 on iPhone 1.0.2 over Apple Remote Desktop on 10.4.10

Please provide any additional information below.

I tried at home on an almost identical system and it worked ok. The only difference between my work and home computer is that work had dual displays. Setting the work computer to mirror the displays allows VNsea to work as expected.

Comment #4

Posted on Sep 17, 2007 by Grumpy Rhino

Here's a screen capture from my garbles connection.

Attachments

Comment #5

Posted on Sep 17, 2007 by Massive Panda

Having the same issue. I don't have 2 displays, just a big monitor. It fails when the desktop resolution is set to 1920x1200 and works when the desktop resolution is set to 1600x1200.

Comment #6

Posted on Sep 17, 2007 by Grumpy Rhino

I can confirm the resolution issue...when I tried adjusting the resolution on my 24' iMac from 1920x1200 down to 1600x1200, everything was fine. Moving back up to 1920x1200 still garbles the screen.

Comment #7

Posted on Sep 18, 2007 by Swift Hippo

Just to help narrow it down a bit... my MacMini runs at 1680x1050 (max resolution of the monitor I'm using) and VNsea doesn't crash. Using Vine on the MacMini.

Comment #8

Posted on Sep 18, 2007 by Helpful Bird

Thanks for the screenshot! It certainly helps me understand the bug.

Comment #9

Posted on Sep 18, 2007 by Quick Elephant

I'm getting this problem too. I've attached two screenshots - it basically shows these colorbands, alternating, and eventually crashes and returns me to the springboard.

OS: Windows XP Professional

VNC: RealVNC Free Edition, v4.1.2 (same exact one as the OP)

Also, to note, I am using UltraMon (multiple desktop management software) on my windows box. Once I set it to disable the secondary monitor, VNSea works just fine. Great job!! But multiple monitor support would be ideal :)

Attachments

Comment #10

Posted on Sep 18, 2007 by Helpful Bird

How bizarre! Thanks for the screenshots and comments, atomjack.

Comment #11

Posted on Sep 20, 2007 by Helpful Bear

I am having the exact same issue. I have two monitors, one's at 1920x1200, the other's at 1280x1024. If I connect to a machine with just 1280x1024 it works just fine.

Comment #12

Posted on Sep 20, 2007 by Helpful Bird

I'm thinking that maybe it's not the multiple monitors but the size of the combined desktop that is the problem. Perhaps there is a limit to the size of a UIView on the iPhone, beyond which it goes nuts.

Comment #13

Posted on Sep 22, 2007 by Grumpy Rabbit

Hi crflit.

Your theory is correct.

I have two monitors running on Mac Os x 10.4 on a machine running Remote Desktop. When i tried to connect using vnsea the displayed was garbled. i lowered the resolution on the desktop to 800 * 600 and 640 * 480 and i could then connect without issue!

Comment #14

Posted on Sep 24, 2007 by Helpful Bird

rcoppa, thanks for verifying that for me!

Comment #15

Posted on Sep 26, 2007 by Helpful Bird

(No comment was entered for this change.)

Comment #16

Posted on Sep 28, 2007 by Grumpy Rabbit

no worries. thanks for a great piece of software :)

Comment #17

Posted on Oct 8, 2007 by Happy Cat

Same here.

Works @ 1680x1050 but not @ 1920x1280 on my PC (dell inspiron 8500)

PS: How do I scroll in the app ? lol

Comment #18

Posted on Oct 8, 2007 by Happy Cat

/Edit

Found how to scroll. :D Hold one finger on your screen, and scroll with the other.

Comment #19

Posted on Oct 17, 2007 by Grumpy Rhino

Any movement or new info on this particular issue?

Or has it been diagnosed as a limitation on iPhone's end and there's no fix in sight?

Comment #20

Posted on Oct 22, 2007 by Helpful Bird

You'll see the status change as the defect progresses through the workflow. Right now this defect is targeted at the 1.0 release.

Comment #21

Posted on Oct 23, 2007 by Helpful Bird

Improved summary.

Comment #22

Posted on Oct 24, 2007 by Grumpy Rhino

Gotcha...thanks for clearing that up!

Comment #23

Posted on Oct 30, 2007 by Quick Rhino

Just a note, but I am also having this problem using the built in screen sharing server in Leopard. I just see a bunch of lines on the display.

Comment #24

Posted on Nov 5, 2007 by Massive Camel

just noticed, on my MBP 10.5 with 1920x1200 reso, it shows the garbled screen thing. BUT if i first set the reso to 1680x1050, then connect VNSea, then change reso to 1920x1200 while connected, it works fine at the higher resolution...

Comment #25

Posted on Nov 6, 2007 by Grumpy Rabbit

Yes, this issue happens to me with the built-in VNC server on Mac OS X 10.4.10 with extended desktop.

Comment #26

Posted on Nov 8, 2007 by Happy Elephant

I'm using a 15" MBP with ext monitor, both screens set at 1440 x 900. All I get is the garbled screen (black background with lots of colored horizontal lines.) I'm using Leopard screen sharing. btw. thanks for the development of this app - can't wait to get it to work properly!

Comment #27

Posted on Nov 8, 2007 by Grumpy Monkey

I have confirmed that any device context over 1024 HEIGHT does not display properly The Horizontal extent goes to 1920.. NO prob.. But set the vertical extent over 1024 and BOOM!!! Nothing displays the device context is broken.. Bug in display drivers.

Comment #28

Posted on Nov 10, 2007 by Grumpy Monkey

Yep.. Figured this one out. If the combined Width * Height > 2 MB then the crash happens.

I have added code in the .52 release that truncates the height to stop the garbage. So you can view your screens but won't see the bottom part.

It appears that the iphone/touch can not have a device context > 2 MB pixels

Thinking about a workaround.

Comment #29

Posted on Nov 18, 2007 by Helpful Bird

Closing this defect as fixed because we now have a workaround, however imperfect. There may be no way to really fix this until contexts larger than 2 Mpixels are supported by GraphicsServices/UIKit.

Comment #30

Posted on Nov 18, 2007 by Helpful Bird

(No comment was entered for this change.)

Comment #31

Posted on Nov 19, 2007 by Happy Wombat

Unfortunatelly the fix doesn't work for me. Maybe an idea: You could maybe implement hotkey push on logon so you could for instance set hotkey to disable extended desktop on PC/MAC or any other function. Connection would probably disconnect in this case but you could probably do quick auto reconnect.

Thank you again for excellent application.

Comment #32

Posted on Nov 20, 2007 by Helpful Horse

I have one monitor at 1920x1200 and one monitor at 1680x1050 and it still crashes VNSea, even with v0.6

Comment #33

Posted on Nov 21, 2007 by Helpful Bird

Yeah, seems the workaround wasn't. Reopening.

Comment #34

Posted on Nov 21, 2007 by Helpful Bird

(No comment was entered for this change.)

Comment #35

Posted on Dec 1, 2007 by Happy Panda

Mirror screens show black screen.

both are 800x600 @ 60Hz

Comment #36

Posted on Dec 10, 2007 by Quick Bird

Tested with VNsea 0.6 on iPod Touch 1.1.2 and WinXP Home TightVNC Server 1.3.9 Setting a fixed rectangle for it worked (when it was small enough), but any larger or increases either caused things like in comment 9 or a crash

Comment #37

Posted on Dec 17, 2007 by Happy Lion

Tested on VNsea 0.7 Have TightVNC server on Vista. Have 2 screens both set to 1280x1024. Comes up all garbled. If i set TightVNC to only display the primary display works fine.

Comment #38

Posted on Dec 18, 2007 by Grumpy Hippo

Yes, I am having this same problem on my dual monitor setup.

Comment #39

Posted on Dec 19, 2007 by Massive Kangaroo

This problem appeared for me after upgrading to 0.5... where's the 0.4?

Comment #40

Posted on Dec 23, 2007 by Happy Bear

This was working for a while, but appears broken again with 0.6/0.7

Comment #41

Posted on Feb 9, 2008 by Grumpy Rhino

With Version 0.81 the same problem appears. Doesn´t matter if tightVnc, RealVnc or Ultra VNC is used. I use 4 displays,when i only activate one, it works fine. Maybe there is another workaround?

Comment #42

Posted on Feb 9, 2008 by Grumpy Rhino

That is strange, i deactivate all screens except the primary and it worked fine, than i restart realvnc and activate my second wide screen display at 1650 x 1050px and restart vnsea and it works!!! I disconnect again, restart it and it failed again..Thats strange...i will retry it again. Is there no way tell the vnc server only to serve for example only the primary vga adapter??? That should work.

Comment #43

Posted on Feb 22, 2008 by Quick Ox

Still having problem. VNC Server: x11vnc v. 0.8.4 on Gentoo Linux vnsea version 0.81 server configuration: 2 x (1280x1024) screens (2560x1024 desktop) client configuration: firmware 1.1.3, ipod touch 16GB

client works fine connecting to 1280x800 UltraVNC on WinXP Home SP2

Comment #44

Posted on Mar 4, 2008 by Helpful Elephant

This problem occurs for me as well with my multi-display setup.

ipod touch 1.1.3 windows xp professional, 2 x 1280*1024 works when one of them is disabled.

having this issue fixed would be awesome.

Comment #45

Posted on Mar 7, 2008 by Swift Bear

I know it sounds like we are beating a dead horse here and perhapswe are expecting too much from the iPhone...who knows. Here is the problem I am experiencing: Text appears to display just fine but when you have mixed text and graphics, the display will garble the graphic. See screenprints.

I want to be able to remote control my servers in event of an emergency and cannot access a regular computer. Hopefully, this can be worked out.

I am running VNSea 0.81 accessing TightVNC 1.3.9 on Windows XP Service Pack 2

I also want to run this on Vista but I am hearing there are issues with Vista and TightVNC. Anyone have any suggestions?

Attachments

Comment #46

Posted on Mar 8, 2008 by Massive Bird

I've attached a screenshot of my "garbledness". I've only tested on Vista Ultimate because all of the computers i have run it....

VSsea 0.81 iPhone Firmware 1.1.3 Vista Ultimate TightVNC Server

Attachments

Comment #47

Posted on Mar 8, 2008 by Massive Bird

To add to my last comment (#46):

Also, changing resolution doesn't seem to help anything, my laptop runs at 1440x900 and i tried every possible setting below that and always had the same results. My desktop does not use a wide screen monitor (it runs 1280x1024) and has the same results.

Comment #48

Posted on Mar 17, 2008 by Swift Wombat

I've got the same problem.

  • VNSEA 0.81
  • ipod touch 32gb - 1.1.4
  • winxp sp2
  • VNC Server Enterprise Edition E4.2.5
  • dual widescreen setup: twice 1680x1050
  • ultramon v2.6.23.0

I've got a garbled screen when both monitors are in use, like the coloured lines one user posted before. When I deactive my secondary screen, I'm able to control the computer.

Really hope this can be fixed in a future version. If there's still development going on for this program.

Thanks.

Comment #49

Posted on Apr 5, 2008 by Happy Rabbit

I tried with different kind of VNC serveur ( REALVNC ULTRAVNC... ) on my computer ( PC WINDOWS XP ) and I still have the same probleme.

Any news ?

Comment #50

Posted on Apr 25, 2008 by Happy Cat

I too was having the problem as stillness.into.flight with version 0.81 and TightVNC 1.3.9 on Vista Business and 1.1.4 of iPhone. Changing the pixel depth from 16 to 8 fixed it though. I have a 22" monitor running at 1680x1050.

Thank you for this amazing program!

Comment #51

Posted on Apr 25, 2008 by Massive Bird

tomahawk1277,

i feel pretty silly now because its simply a configuration option - but THANK YOU. it freakin works. i can see everything clearly. that's freakin awesome.

Comment #52

Posted on Apr 27, 2008 by Swift Bear

No need to feel silly. There are some things that need to be explained and this happens to be one of them. The fact that it took this long for something so easily fixed is what is silly. I would also point out that you lose quality in the graphics when you drop down to 8 and you lose speed performance when you bump up to 32. 16 is not working and still needs to be fixed. IMHO

Comment #53

Posted on May 7, 2008 by Helpful Bear

Is there any way to have TightVNC always start with "Sharing area: Primary Display" instead of full screen? That would work for me ;)

Comment #54

Posted on May 8, 2008 by Happy Camel

You can set the display as primary only under vnc server properties on the vnc host. That ended up working for me. Too bad though , I'd love to use my dual monitors on vnc. :)

Comment #55

Posted on May 8, 2008 by Helpful Bear

yeah I tried that, works fine, but when I restart the VNC server its right back to "full screen" again- any way to permanently keep it at "primary display" ?

Comment #56

Posted on May 8, 2008 by Helpful Bear

Ah solved it, added winvnc.exe to autorun then a batfile running "winvnc.exe - shareprimay"

Comment #57

Posted on May 14, 2008 by Happy Cat

I just discovered something. On my mac with leopard I had this problem. I also have dual monitors. Then I thought maybe the problem is not vnsea but leopard (leopard has built in vnc server). So instead I used vine server on port 5902 instead of 5900 and bingo! It works! I can only see one monitor but at least it's usable.

-Robert

Comment #58

Posted on Jun 2, 2008 by Swift Elephant

Same problem on 24" iMac with dual display (1920x120 + 1280x720) using Leopard screen sharing. Works when external display is set to mirror the main one, but garbled when separate display are used.

Comment #59

Posted on Jul 10, 2008 by Quick Panda

can't wait for this to work. wish my server didn't have dual monitors.

Comment #60

Posted on Jul 16, 2008 by Quick Panda

does anyone know what is going on with this problem? seems like it is a bit of a road block

Comment #61

Posted on Mar 11, 2009 by Happy Camel

Using UltraVNC the primary monitor is only displayed. This is a good workaround for the time being

Status: Started

Labels:
Type-Defect Priority-Critical Milestone-Release1.0