Really Bad Rendering of Screen in TightVNC

MQMan · 10-17-2009, 05:56 PM

I'm using TightVNC to connect to my Slack64 box, which is running vbatt's KDE 4.3.1. Prior to that, I was running the "stock" KDE that comes with 13.0, which also had the same issues.

Here's a screen shot of what it looks like, showing the desktop, from TightVNC.

I don't think I need to describe how bad it is, you can see for yourself. Note also, I don't even get the application names, showing in the menu.

I used the "High Speed Network" radio button when launching TightVNC.

What can I do, to improve the display I have.

Cheers.

shadowsnipes · 10-17-2009, 11:38 PM

what command did you use to run the server? What color depth and geometry did you use?

MQMan · 10-18-2009, 01:14 AM

Just a straight "vncserver :1".

Which is all I used to use, on Slack 12.2, with KDE 3.5. Except that was with RealVNC, not TightVNC, as neither was shipped with Slack.

Looking at the config file, for TightVNC, it says the default is 1024x768 at a depth of 24.

Cheers.

jedi_sith_fears · 10-18-2009, 03:20 AM

It seems that TightVNC using 8-bit color depth to render. There should be an option to make it 32-bit or 24-bit. That will solve your problem.

MQMan · 10-18-2009, 04:36 AM

Well, I'm using the default set up, which has this in the config file:

Code:

## These settings are the default. Uncomment and edit to change.
#
# $geometry = "1024x768";
# $depth = 24;
# $desktopName = "X";

And here's what TightVNC reports.

Cheers.

jedi_sith_fears · 10-18-2009, 06:57 AM

hmm, everything seems alright. Except the bad output.

shadowsnipes · 10-18-2009, 01:36 PM

try it with Xfce

MQMan · 10-19-2009, 12:03 PM

I tried on another box, and am getting the same results with KDE4.

Xfce seems to be OK, but switching over isn't the solution I'm looking for.

Cheers.

shadowsnipes · 10-19-2009, 01:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MQMan

Xfce seems to be OK, but switching over isn't the solution I'm looking for.

Cheers.

I figured that, but I just wanted us to determine if it was a KDE problem, or a system problem. Since we now know it is a KDE problem we can look into those settings.

Try playing with the KDE graphics settings. In particular, you should be aware of what effects are turned on, graphics properties, etc. What is your graphics card and driver? Perhaps it currently is a known issue with KDE4.

MQMan · 10-19-2009, 02:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shadowsnipes

Try playing with the KDE graphics settings. In particular, you should be aware of what effects are turned on, graphics properties, etc.

Let me try when I get home, and can bring up a second system, so I can see what I'm actually doing.

Quote:

Originally Posted by shadowsnipes

What is your graphics card and driver?

It's a nVidia, and I have the nVidia drivers installed. But I didn't think that TightVNC, or any of the VNC variations actually used that. I thought they had their own drivers. It would be easy enough to pull them out, and use the "stock" driver.

Quote:

Originally Posted by shadowsnipes

Perhaps it currently is a known issue with KDE4.

In which case, I would have thought there would be more reports of this.

Cheers.

MQMan · 10-20-2009, 12:47 AM

Well, the Info Center seems to think it's the correct resolution and colour depth as well.

I also tried "fiddling" with all the controls I thought mike make a difference. Nope, no real change.

I wonder if it's with trying out Nomachine's NX again, although I prefer that the VNC's are more lightweight.

Cheers.

BTW I've also asked this thread be moved to the software forum, as I think that's probably a more appropriate place now.

XavierP · 10-20-2009, 03:49 AM

As requested, moved to Software

MQMan · 10-20-2009, 04:21 PM

OK, this is looking more and more like the way KDE is rendering the display.

I switched to NoMachine's NX server, to try that instead.

The display is much, much better, but there is still some dithering in places, as can be seen her.

Cheers.

shadowsnipes · 10-20-2009, 11:10 PM

When you tested Xfce did you open any QT4 apps?

I noticed that when I start VirtualBox, anytime I have a QT4 app open the whole display turns to garbage - inverted colors and all. This is true in any Window Manager, and I have to restart the WM to fix it.

If there are no problems with qt4 apps in other WMs then it truly must be a problem with KDE.

Edit: The graphic issue with VB was fixed for me by disabling the Composite Extension