Workshops / Background reports / Book introductions
|
Workshops / Background reports / Book introductions
|
Master of the remote control - part 2
The VNC server for Amiga by von Denis Spach
While in the first part of this article about VNC [1], the Amiga was only used as a client to access remote machines, this time it will run as a server, allowing use of its software from other machines on a Intranet, or, if desired, even over the Internet.
Your Amiga needs, beside Workbench 3.0, the RTG software Picasso96 in version 2.0. The VNC server does not work with Cybergraphics. The CPU must be a MC68040 or 060 with a working MMU. And of course you will need a working TCP/IP stack to communicate with other computers.
Last but not least, the programs you intend to use over VNC must be RTG comüpatible, which means they have to have a screenmode requester or least have their output redirected via a utility like NewMode.
Once you have downloaded the archive "avnc-beta6b.lha" from the web site [2], unpack it anywhere on your harddisk and copy the file "p96fb.card" from the subdirectory "libs/" to the directory "Libs:Picasso96" on the system partition. The directory "Monitors/" contains the monitor drivers for 8, 16 and 32 bit colour depth.
Copy one of these framebuffer drivers (Denis Spach recommends the 16 bit version) to "Sys:Devs/Monitors" and then open the icon information to check the ToolTypes. You will find the entries FBWIDTH and FBHEIGHT. Enter the desired screen resolution here.
The higher the resolution, the more data has to be transferred over the network. 800 x 600 pixels has proved to be a good compromise.
Configure your TCP/IP stack to accept connections on ports 5900 to 5999. Miami seems to do so in the standard configuration. The port to be used by "AVNC" is set in the ToolTypes of the program icon. Default is port 5904. Since in my network the clients on the Windows and Linux machines are using port 5900, I have changed the value accordingly to "Port=5900".
Besides the port, it is also essential to configure a password to authorize access from the client. For this purpose, you can set up a password. This is done via ToolTypes again. Enter the password in unencoded form after the keyword "PASSWORD=", for example "PASSWORD=ami2vnc".
After the first start of the program, Avnc then scrambles the password and saves it under "EPASSWORD=".
When the Amiga is rebooted now, the framebuffer driver in "Sys:Devs/Monitors" is activated. Start up your TCP/IP stack and then "Avnc" by double clicking its icon. Now the VNC server is ready.
When a program is going to be controlled by remote machines, then select "P96fb" in the screenmode requester of said program.
Once the program is running, you can start up the VNC client on the remote machine (usually it is installed together with the server application, see Amiga aktuell international 05/2001).
As parameter, the IP address or the domain name is required. For Linux, for example, "vncviewer" 192.168.0.2" will do the trick.
Of course, the client will now ask for the password. Enter it as defined in the Avnc ToolTypes, and a window with the output of the program started on the Amiga will open. And from then on, you can remote control this program.
This works for the Workbench too, of course, allowing for full control over the Amiga from the remote host.
Virtual Network Computing is a fascinating way to control networked computers. The exported user interface makes it very easy to control programs or even the complete server computer.
Even though the Amiga VNC server by Denis Spach is marked as a beta version, it is quite usable, provided you have an Amiga with a full 040 or 060 CPU. Many interesting uses are possible.
[1] http://www.uk.research.att.com/vnc/index.htmlUwe Pannecke <Uwe.Pannecke@t-online.de>
