Tuesday, January 28, 2014

VNC for AIX

I wanted to run vnc on my AIX 6.1.9 machine. I got vnc-3.3.3r2-3.aix5.1.ppc.rpm from
http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/power/software/aix/linux/toolbox/alpha.html

After downloading the vnc rpm, I installed it using

# rpm -i vnc-3.3.3r2-3.aix5.1.ppc.rpm

After the rpm was installed, the vncserver, vncpasswd, vncconnect, and vncviewer could be found under /usr/bin/X11

# cd /usr/bin/X11
#  ls vnc*
vncconnect  vncpasswd   vncserver   vncviewer

You will see the vncserver as shown above, but when you run vncserver you get the following error message

# cat /home/root/.vnc/triton10:1.log
29/01/14 13:27:01 Xvnc version 3.3.3r2
29/01/14 13:27:01 Copyright (C) AT&T Laboratories Cambridge.
29/01/14 13:27:01 All Rights Reserved.
29/01/14 13:27:01 See http://www.uk.research.att.com/vnc for information on VNC
29/01/14 13:27:01 Desktop name 'X' (triton10.storage.tucson.ibm.com:1)
29/01/14 13:27:01 Protocol version supported 3.3
29/01/14 13:27:01 Listening for VNC connections on TCP port 5901
29/01/14 13:27:01 Listening for HTTP connections on TCP port 5801
29/01/14 13:27:01   URL http://triton10.storage.tucson.ibm.com:5801
Font directory '/usr/lib/X11/fonts/Speedo/' not found - ignoring

Fatal server error:
could not open default font 'fixed'
xrdb: A remote host refused an attempted connect operation.
1356-605 xrdb: Can't open display 'triton10:1'
1356-265 xsetroot:  Unable to open display:  triton10:1.
mwm: 2053-015 Could not open display.
Warning: This program is an suid-root program or is being run by the root user.
The full text of the error or warning message cannot be safely formatted
in this environment. You may get a more descriptive message by running the
program as a non-root user or by removing the suid bit on the executable.
xterm Xt error: Can't open display: %s


Below is the xstartup file that I used. This file is under the .vnc directory

#cat xstartup
#!/bin/sh

xrdb $HOME/.Xresources
xsetroot -solid grey
xterm -geometry 80x24+10+10 -ls -title "$VNCDESKTOP Desktop" &
#twm &
mwm &

Below is a diff of a vncserver that has the fixes and works, and the vncserver that got installed under /usr/bin/X11 by the rpm.
#diff  vncserver /usr/bin/X11/vncserver
38,39c38
< #$vncClasses = "/usr/local/vnc/classes";
< $vncClasses = "/opt/freeware/vnc/classes";
---
> $vncClasses = "/usr/local/vnc/classes";
140,141c139
< #$cmd .= " -auth $xauthorityFile";
< $cmd .= " -ac";
---
> $cmd .= " -auth $xauthorityFile";
152d149
< $cmd .= " -fp /usr/lib/X11/fonts/,/usr/lib/X11/fonts/misc/,/usr/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/";

Next we start the vncserver with the newly updated vncserver.