11.04 vnc screen not repainting

[ceejay]

I have been successfully using VNC to control a couple of Linux boxes from my Windows PC for some time ... using TightVNCViewer on Windows and the default vnc server at Linux. All machines on my local network, no internet access required.

However, I just upgraded both linux boxes to Ubuntu 11.04 (released version) and VNC is almost but not quite working...

Both installations are more-or-less straight out of the box default installs - I haven't had a chance to change much yet!

I have enabled remote control of the desktop in Linux, and if I start TightVNCViewer it does connect and I can see something. However, the desktop does not repaint when an item on the desktop goes away, which makes it pretty much unusable.

I upgraded TightVNCViewer to the latest version in case that was the issue, but no change.

Is there a setting somewhere that I am missing? Do I need to use a different Viewer package on Windows?

All help much appreciated...

Ceejay

[ceejay]

Update: I've tried switching from Unity desktop to Classic - no difference.

I have found that clicking and dragging on the desktop - to select, as it were - does have the effect of repainting. This means I can function in a minimal way but hardly usable still!

I find that some applications are better at repainting after themselves than others: for example, gedit is very well behaved, but Nautilus is not.

Any ideas out there?

TIA
Ceejay

[HvRooyen]

Exact same problem. No ideas though...
VNC was working perfectly before upgrade, now screen updates need to be forced by mouse movements or dragging windows around.

[asez73]

Exactly the same problem here: I am trying to switch back to classic gui but I have to uninstall Unity because I do not have a login screen. I use a default user instead.
In fact Unity is just good for people wanting nice empty things.
How can you search for a keyword from unity? The help seems to be just a long list of pages with NO SEARCH for my problem (whatever it is). This looks like a pre google web!

With vnc, the redraws are random, uncomplet, very very slow, graphic animation are a pain in the neck but sending so much data on the network and that makes the whole thing useless: unreactive, not nice to look at.

Have a nice day!

[ceejay]

@asez73 - let's not confuse the issue, this is nothing to do with Unity. I have switched one of my machines to Classic and the problem is exactly the same.

Any suggestions as to why this behaviour is so different? My previous installation was 9.04 which I appreciate is some time ago.

TIA
Ceejay

[asez73]

@ceejay: You are right, however, vnc was working correctly yesterday under Maverick... So I can not stop thinking that is has to be linked with Natty?
Anyway I will test vnc with gnome GUI and Natty and tell you...

Another detail, vnc was not working properly after the last upgrade to 10.04 at first but they solved it (and I don't know how) later without any action on my side.

There is another regression about the passwords and confirmations to be done during the first vnc connection after a reboot. Now it asks for unlocking some password files while it did not yesterday...

Have a nice day.

[aa2k]

I concur with this, vnc (vino) is soooo slow and its unusable, with 10.10 was fast enough that was ok to use, specially from the net, now with 11.04 is useless, it does not repaint and slow... I have loaded on 3 different desktops and 2 virtual and the same issue is with all of them... hopefully they fix it soon, unless someone knows about a fix...
I tried to install use xrdp but it breaks.. so not usable either.:(

[issteven]

same problem. previously vnc on ubuntu 10 works almost perfect, now it's almost unusable. to repaint/refresh screen on vnc client, you actually need to reconnect....to see the newest screen....

[aa2k]

add to the bug., maybe it will help


https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/vino/+bug/772873


EDIT:
I also found a freew alternative that seems to work perfectly (and fast!), but if you connect you get the classic GNOME not the Unity Desktop, but its ok as long as you can connect and have a good connection speed:

http://www.nomachine.com/

[trinaryouroboros]

@asez73 - let's not confuse the issue, this is nothing to do with Unity. I have switched one of my machines to Classic and the problem is exactly the same.

Any suggestions as to why this behaviour is so different? My previous installation was 9.04 which I appreciate is some time ago.

TIA
Ceejay

God I miss 9.04 ... sigh.

[vladstudio]

I don't have Ubuntu 11 around to test, but can you try disabling visual effects? (somewhere in the Appearance preferences). Let me know if it helps.

[gavila]

Removing desktop effects does fix the problem for me.

[Maximiliano Gasparini]

Found here: http://www.ubun2.com/question/379/why_remote_desktop_ubuntu_very_slow_and_unusable a solution for me.

In terminal, write the command:

gconf-editor

Then navigate to: desktop / gnome / remote_access. Enable the "disable_xdamage" setting.

[linux_ubu_nubee]

I have used Ubuntu 9.04 through 10.10 and all worked very nicely with the VNC server. I could log in from home with a Windows machine no problem. After upgrading or installing fresh Natty 11.04, VNC server does not work at all. This is on multiple machines. It either comes up with an error after waiting a long time or indicates the VNC server cannot start on the port (no matter which port I use!). Changing back to the Classic desktop does not fix it; this is a problem with 11.04 and is really irritating!!
BYW- tried to enter a bug report but launchpad would not accept my password(?)
Very frustrated!

[AndyGaskell]

I've been seeing this VNC slow screen re-drawing on 11.04, but I changed to "Ubuntu Classic" on the login screen and that solved it, back to normal re-draw speeds.

I'm just using VNC Viewer 4 from a WindowsXP machine from connected locally via 100MB Ethenet

[tazzarias]

Found here: http://www.ubun2.com/question/379/why_remote_desktop_ubuntu_very_slow_and_unusable a solution for me.

In terminal, write the command:

gconf-editor

Then navigate to: desktop / gnome / remote_access. Enable the "disable_xdamage" setting.

Thank you! This solution worked for me.

[agaskins]

Found here: http://www.ubun2.com/question/379/why_remote_desktop_ubuntu_very_slow_and_unusable a solution for me.

In terminal, write the command:

gconf-editor

Then navigate to: desktop / gnome / remote_access. Enable the "disable_xdamage" setting.

I believe this can all be lumped in to the general compiz/vino problem that cropped up a few releases back.

You mention the 'disable_xdamage' solution, but this is only a band-aid fix. What disabling xdammage does is make vino send an entire image of the screen on every refresh. As opposed to simply sending the portions of the screen that have moved/changes (as it normally would). If you're on the same LAN as the remote machine this may be acceptable, but across the internet? You may get one refresh per second... disabling compiz is the only 'solution' I've consistently seen fix the problem for people.

-A

[foxmajik]

Found here: http://www.ubun2.com/question/379/why_remote_desktop_ubuntu_very_slow_and_unusable a solution for me.

In terminal, write the command:

gconf-editor

Then navigate to: desktop / gnome / remote_access. Enable the "disable_xdamage" setting.

A defect has been posted for this issue:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/772873

Please contribute there.

[foxmajik]

I don't have Ubuntu 11 around to test, but can you try disabling visual effects? (somewhere in the Appearance preferences). Let me know if it helps.

As of Natty, there is no user-facing method for disabling desktop effects.

Editing the gconf registry every time you need to connect via remote desktop is not "human."

[leon_chame]

Just upgraded 3 three computers over the weekend from 10.4 to 11.4 all running classic, no effects etc (when I say upgrade I mean re-format and 11.4 install)...still VNC refresh issues, simply put there was no workaround for me....re-installed 10.04 back on them and VNC works again.

Hope they fix the bug soon.

[MZ250Supa5]

I'm still using 10.04 having just done a re-install after a less than positive experience with 11.04 and Unity. I too am having troubles with Remote Desktop not repainting; no matter what I try, and I've tried all the solutions here in this thread, it still does not work properly. I have to re-open Remote Desktop in order to see any refresh of the remote desktop I wish to view. Previously it wasn't perfect, (slow and laggy) but at least it was just about useable, though in the past I have had it working working well enough to do what I needed in a responsive enough manner. I don't know what has happened,as I am doing nothing differently, and connecting , over LAN, which is working properly, (transfer speeds sufficient for streaming video to work perfectly). Has this anything to do with what appears to be becoming the 11.04 Unity fiasco I find myself wondering?

[paxxus]

Found here: http://www.ubun2.com/question/379/why_remote_desktop_ubuntu_very_slow_and_unusable a solution for me.

In terminal, write the command:

gconf-editor

Then navigate to: desktop / gnome / remote_access. Enable the "disable_xdamage" setting.
Thanks! Fixed the redraw problem at the cost of update speed, but it's acceptable on my connection.

[Gasmart]

Originally Posted by Maximiliano Gasparini http://ubuntuforums.org/images/buttons/viewpost.gif (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=10775950#post10775950)
Found here: http://www.ubun2.com/question/379/wh...w_and_unusable (http://www.ubun2.com/question/379/why_remote_desktop_ubuntu_very_slow_and_unusable) a solution for me.

In terminal, write the command:

gconf-editor

Then navigate to: desktop / gnome / remote_access. Enable the "disable_xdamage" setting.


Thanks Maximiliano! I was stuck for a week with that issue.

Greetings from Argentina,
Gaston.

[Malac]

Bizarrely navigating to /apps/metacity/general in gconf-editor and setting compositing_manager to true solved the redraw problems for me.

I can see windows being destroyed line by line when I close them but at least they are destroyed.

This is totally counter-intuitive as I'd turned off desktop effects to speed up my session and prevent the artefacts created by compositing in previous versions of remote desktop but does work for me.

Hope this helps.

By the way I'm using standard ubuntu remote desktop server and the free vncviewer4 for Windows

[mattrob]

Found here: http://www.ubun2.com/question/379/why_remote_desktop_ubuntu_very_slow_and_unusable a solution for me.

In terminal, write the command:

gconf-editor

Then navigate to: desktop / gnome / remote_access. Enable the "disable_xdamage" setting.


This method worked perfectly. Thanks!

[trinaryouroboros]

Found here: http://www.ubun2.com/question/379/why_remote_desktop_ubuntu_very_slow_and_unusable a solution for me.

In terminal, write the command:

gconf-editor

Then navigate to: desktop / gnome / remote_access. Enable the "disable_xdamage" setting.

This worked fantastically, thank you!

[Simi23]

I'm glad it worked for you guys but didn't work for me, I switched to Ubuntu classic and then also run gconf-editor and "disable_xdamage" and it's still very slow over local network and most of the windows won't go away after closing (screen won't refresh)

It would be nice you can disable ALL visual effects like you could in prevues versions

[freedomAboveAll]

Found here: http://www.ubun2.com/question/379/why_remote_desktop_ubuntu_very_slow_and_unusable a solution for me.

In terminal, write the command:

gconf-editor

Then navigate to: desktop / gnome / remote_access. Enable the "disable_xdamage" setting.

This fix works great for me for 11.04.

However, the disable_xdamage option does not appear in 11.10!

[JonRohan]

Also worked for me. Thanks. :)

[Simonpro]

Hi, is there any update to this? I also have the problem and setting disable_xdamage does not fix it. This makes the ubuntu vnc almost unusable, so a fix or workaround would be excellent.
Alternatively, is the problem fixed in 11.10? I'm reluctant to upgrade (as I hate unity) but I'd rather have a working VNC and useless user interface rather than a broken VNC and a nice interface.

[Gudeldar]

This fix works great for me for 11.04.

However, the disable_xdamage option does not appear in 11.10!

The option isn't there by default but still works if you right click and add it manually by selecting New Key.

[SuckMyIrish]

I have the same problem with 11.10 where the key is not there. I added the new key as a "bootlean" (sp?) and set it as true. I still am experiencing the issue. My issue is when I use VNC, the VNC client screen freezes. The host screen moves just fine.

Any help is appreciated.

[betterhands]

selecting the "no effects" option within the login settings fixed things for me.

[trinaryouroboros]

selecting the "no effects" option within the login settings fixed things for me.

I've been supporting this OS since 2004, and I quit. This system is a damn shadow of its former self. Maybe they can get back under the Hood for once and stop the garbage hipster changes, eh?

[cupera]

Hi,
for a quick fix, run following command from terminal:

metacity --replaceHere is my elaboration:
I've met this issue before with recordmydesktop and now with vnc. The thing is, that under compiz, apps like vnc won't get proper notifications about screen redraws (so called xdamage - areas of X screen, that were "damaged," that are goind to be redrawn and therefore would be of great interest to vnc). So one way is to force vnc to take and transfer entire screen snapshot, which of course leads to performance issues on slow connections.

Switching to the Classic desktop won't help, as it is Gnome 3 configured to mimic the old UI anyway. Gnome 3 might not be using compiz, but does the same tricks and xdamage doesn't work here as well.

I believe, the problem is caused by "compositing" feature of compiz, which is otherwise a good thing, but breaks these applications.

The other way I know is to replace compiz in remote environments with metacity, where xdamage works alright. Of course you loose fancy dash and other neat stuff, but having a spare terminal open was enough for me.

I think, that the described trick won't help for windows using graphics acceleration and the only way around this is to configure the environment to take full screenshots (like using xdamage_disable gconf key described earlier).