Virtual Network Computing (VNC) is a graphical desktop sharing system that allows a user to remotely control another computer. It transmits the keyboard and mouse events from one computer to another, relaying the graphical screen updates back in the other direction, over a network. (Adapted from the wikipedia entry for VNC)
While VNC generally works well for remote observing, allowing handovers without the previous requirement to quit caobs, and allowing the correlator status to be monitored, from time to time things freeze up.
The <cntl> <c> (simultaneously holding down the control and c keys) may not work within a vnc session if your vncviewer does not handle the <cntl> properly. In this case, use the <alt> in combination with <cntl> character
If you appear to have lost the ability to type in a window:
- Check you are not battling for control of the mouse with another user!
- The non-intuitive sequence of <alt><Left Mouse Button> will often allow control to be regained.
- Other combinations, such as <alt><enter>, or <alt>[some typing], or <alt>[other mouse buttons] may work.
- If using a Mac, the control keys to move between open spaces may be interpreted
by the VNC as a <cntl>s (the ascii no scroll character). Simply trying
<cntl>q may be sufficient to regain the ability to type into the VNC window.
(As a general rule, it is best to move the focus out of the VNC window (by, e.g., clicking the mouse on another part of the screen) before using any special Mac sequences of keys.) - Again, on a Mac running Chicken of the VNC, if you find yourself in full-screen mode, use the key combination <cntl><alt><command>` to recover.
If the windows have lost their header bars, then it may be that the window manager has crashed.
Vince and Jamie have created a script to restart this, which is reached by right clicking in the VNC window manager. Click on "Stop Window Manager", wait a few seconds, then click "Start Window Manager"
If you are completely stuck, you may need to kill the window manager from outside the vnc session.ssh into xbones:
> ssh atcaobs@xbones
kill the xfwm window manager:
> killall xfwm4
You should now have control of the vnc session, albeit with no window manager running.
Restart the window manager, either from the window manager script (right click in the VNC window,
and click "Start Window Manager" or execute the command
>xfwm4 &
in a terminal in the vncsession. The session should now be restored to a normal state
If you find other faults or features, please pass them on.