libvnc.so Xorg module failes to load - vnc needs reworked to not depend on deprecated symbol NumCurrentSelections

[Josef Hopfgartner]

Binary package hint: vnc4server

This is, what stands in /var/log/Xorg.0.log

(II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/extensions//libvnc.so
dlopen: /usr/lib/xorg/modules/extensions//libvnc.so: undefined symbol: NumCurrentSelections

It's intrepid, what I'm using.
ii vnc4server 4.1.1+xorg1.0.2-0ubuntu7 Virtual network computing server software

[Eddie Hung (eddieh)]

Confirm this on Intrepid AMD64, Xorg.0.log reports undefined symbol: NumCurrentSelections.

[sindaco (leonardo-ronchetti)]

Form me the same
---------------------------------------
Xorg.0.log:(II) LoadModule: "vnc"
Xorg.0.log:(II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/extensions//libvnc.so
Xorg.0.log:dlopen: /usr/lib/xorg/modules/extensions//libvnc.so: undefined symbol: NumCurrentSelections
Xorg.0.log:(EE) Failed to load /usr/lib/xorg/modules/extensions//libvnc.so
Xorg.0.log:(II) UnloadModule: "vnc"
Xorg.0.log:(EE) Failed to load module "vnc" (loader failed, 7)
Xorg.0.log.old:(II) LoadModule: "vnc"
Xorg.0.log.old:(II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/extensions//libvnc.so
Xorg.0.log.old:dlopen: /usr/lib/xorg/modules/extensions//libvnc.so: undefined symbol: NumCurrentSelections
Xorg.0.log.old:(EE) Failed to load /usr/lib/xorg/modules/extensions//libvnc.so
Xorg.0.log.old:(II) UnloadModule: "vnc"
Xorg.0.log.old:(EE) Failed to load module "vnc" (loader failed, 7)
--------------------------------------------

root@leonardo-skynet:~# uname -a
Linux leonardo-skynet 2.6.27-7-server #1 SMP Wed Oct 22 01:25:19 UTC 2008 i686 GNU/Linux
root@leonardo-skynet:~#
----------------------------------------------

root@leonardo-skynet:~# cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf
# xorg.conf (X.Org X Window System server configuration file)
#
# This file was generated by dexconf, the Debian X Configuration tool, using
# values from the debconf database.
#
# Edit this file with caution, and see the xorg.conf manual page.
# (Type "man xorg.conf" at the shell prompt.)
#
# This file is automatically updated on xserver-xorg package upgrades *only*
# if it has not been modified since the last upgrade of the xserver-xorg
# package.
#
# If you have edited this file but would like it to be automatically updated
# again, run the following command:
# sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg

Section "Monitor"
        Identifier "Configured Monitor"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
        Identifier "Default Screen"
        Monitor "Configured Monitor"
        Device "Configured Video Device"
        DefaultDepth 24
        Option "SecurityTypes" "VncAuth"
        Option "UserPasswdVerifier" "VncAuth"
        Option "PasswordFile" "/root/.vnc/passwd"
EndSection

Section "Module"
        Load "glx"
        Load "vnc"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier "Generic Keyboard"
        Driver "kbd"
        Option "XkbRules" "xorg"
        Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
        Option "XkbLayout" "it"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier "Configured Mouse"
        Driver "mouse"
        Option "CorePointer"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier "Synaptics Touchpad"
        Driver "synaptics"
        Option "SendCoreEvents" "true"
        Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
        Option "Protocol" "auto-dev"
        Option "HorizEdgeScroll" "0"
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
        Identifier "Default Layout"
        Screen "Default Screen"
        InputDevice "Synaptics Touchpad"
EndSection

Section "Device"
        Identifier "Configured Video Device"
        Driver "fg...

[SpikedEffect (m-admin-spikedeffect-com)]

I can also confirm this occurs on Ubuntu Intrepid AMD64:

dlopen: /usr/lib/xorg/modules/extensions//vnc.so: undefined symbol: NumCurrentSelection

[Charles Huber (genpfault)]

Doesn't like i386 either:

$ uname -s -r -v -m -o
Linux 2.6.27-7-eeepc #1 SMP Fri Oct 31 11:36:36 MDT 2008 i686 GNU/Linux

$ cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log | grep NumCurrent
dlopen: /usr/lib/xorg/modules/extensions//libvnc.so: undefined symbol: NumCurrentSelections

I thought I could play around by building vnc4server from the source package, but it seems to depend on mesa-swx11-source which doesn't exist in the repos anywhere:

$ sudo apt-get source vnc4server
$ cd vnc4-4.1.1+xorg1.0.2
$ dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot -uc -b
dpkg-buildpackage: set CFLAGS to default value: -g -O2
dpkg-buildpackage: set CPPFLAGS to default value:
dpkg-buildpackage: set LDFLAGS to default value: -Wl,-Bsymbolic-functions
dpkg-buildpackage: set FFLAGS to default value: -g -O2
dpkg-buildpackage: set CXXFLAGS to default value: -g -O2
dpkg-buildpackage: source package vnc4
dpkg-buildpackage: source version 4.1.1+xorg1.0.2-0ubuntu7
dpkg-buildpackage: source changed by Steve Langasek <email address hidden>
dpkg-buildpackage: host architecture i386
dpkg-checkbuilddeps: Unmet build dependencies: mesa-swx11-source (>> 6.4.1)
dpkg-buildpackage: warning: Build dependencies/conflicts unsatisfied; aborting.
dpkg-buildpackage: warning: (Use -d flag to override.)
$ aptitude search mesa | grep source
$

[Charles Huber (genpfault)]

Ok, with some prodding I got it to build on my system:

$ CPPFLAGS=-D_GNU_SOURCE dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot -uc -b -d

[Charles Huber (genpfault)]

At the top level of the source package:
$ find . | xargs grep 'NumCurrentSelections' -sl | grep "\.c"
./xorg-server-1.0.2/dix/dispatch.c
./xorg-server-1.0.2/hw/vnc/vncExtInit.cc
./xorg-server-1.0.2/hw/darwin/quartz/quartzPasteboard.c
./xorg-server-1.0.2/hw/xfree86/loader/dixsym.c
./unix/xc/programs/Xserver/vnc/vncExtInit.cc

Of those, only ./xorg-server-1.0.2/dix/dispatch.c:138 seems to hold a concrete definition of NumCurrentSelections.

Not sure where to go from here.

[Ali Ross (gnu2tux)]

Can we fix this? I confirm it is broken on i386 intrepid also:

(II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/extensions//libvnc.so
dlopen: /usr/lib/xorg/modules/extensions//libvnc.so: undefined symbol: NumCurrentSelections

:(

I can't use randr for vnc connections without this I believe.

[tonycpsu (tonycpsu)]

I'm getting the same undefined symbol error here on i386 intrepid. Would love to see a workaround until this is fixed if anyone has one.

[Kings (kingslee)]

Same here, VNC4 failed to load on Intrepid AMD64...

[Dimitry Andric (dimitry-andric)]

The NumCurrentSelections is an old API, which was explicitly removed from xserver, see this commit: http://cgit.freedesktop.org/xorg/xserver/commit/?id=34bf308a9e66f1a2f48630a15b1802afad50ec24

E.g. somebody should rewrite vncserver to not depend on this obsolete export anymore... :)

[Denis Konstantinov (linvinus)]

I found decision! patched sources for xorg 1.5 available here http://vnc-tight.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/vnc-tight/trunk/unix/xserver/hw/vnc/

and it works!

only little patch needed
in unix/xserver/hw/vnc/Makefile.am
add -DXFree86LOADER in to libvnc_la_CPPFLAGS

libvnc_la_CPPFLAGS = $(XVNC_CPPFLAGS) -I$(LIB_DIR) \
        -I$(top_srcdir)/hw/xfree86/common \
        -I$(top_srcdir)/hw/xfree86/os-support \
        -I$(top_srcdir)/hw/xfree86/os-support/bus \
        -I$(includedir)/pixman-1 \
        -DXFree86LOADER

then read instructions in vnc-tight README file

compiled module for i386 available here ftp://linvinus.ru/forum/vnc/libvnc.so
you need installed vnc4server package before copy this library to /usr/lib/xorg/modules/extensions
use it at you own risk!

[Shock (mmiron)]

Any progress on this? I would like to be able to connect remotely to the machines without using a polling vnc server. Thanks.

[Tristan Grimaux (info-tristangrimaux)]

Used the patch file provided by Denis Konstantinov and now in Jaunty is broken again... lazy me don't want to compile...

[Toby Gray (toby-yargybot)]

The one I built for Jaunty (amd64, not i386) is at
http://www.yargybot.com/libvnc.so
This is built from tigervnc 0.0.91 without the -DXFree86LOADER added by Denis Konstantinov above. I hacked xserver/miinitext.c by commenting out the vncExtensionInit() call on line 481 in order to "resolve" an undefined reference to `vncExtensionInit' in the xserver/hw/dmx make, so I guessing that my Xvnc is probably a bit broken, but I'm not using it, so not to worry ;)

[Ronald (rhp-dse)]

In karmic koala vnc4server is still broken.
Could someone provide clear instructions on how to rebuild the libvnc.so?

Thanks

[Manuel FLURY (manuel-flury)]

Toby Gray : I've used your file on an Intel Core I7 successfully, after upgrading from ubuntu 9.04 to 9.10 i've lost vnc, installing vnc4server and overwritting with your file solved my problem, thanks !

[Bill Loucks (biloucks)]

Toby Gray : Regarding your "The one I built for Jaunty (amd64, not i386) is at http://www.yargybot.com/libvnc.so": I need one for 32-bit Karmic, not 64-bit. Can you build one, or do you know anyone who has and where it (32-bit libvnc.so for Karmic) can be fetched?

[urusha (urusha)]

The same problem on 9.10 i386.

And mesa-swx11-source package problem also exists:

$ sudo apt-get build-dep vnc4server
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
E: Build-Depends dependency for vnc4 cannot be satisfied because the package mesa-swx11-source cannot be found

It would be good to have patched version in ubuntu repo.

[Thiago Braga Santana (thiago-braga-santana)]

This error is still happening.
Please resolve it as quickly as possible.
If there is any way I can help solve it, please let me know.

Regards.
Thiago Santana

[sancelot (sancelot)]

boring problem, broken too in ubuntu lucid

[Andreas Degert (ad-papyrus-gmbh)]

boring only if you don't need that functionality :-(
vnc4server FTBFS, so this package should be really fixed or abandoned.
As a quick fix I use libvnc.so from the karmic package of tigervnc (http://tigervnc.org).
Maybe tigervnc can replace vnc4 in ubuntu?

[Noel J. Bergman (noeljb)]

See also https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=529295

RedHat is doing the development on TigerVNC, which appears to have replaced RealVNC in their distribution.

[Drew G (drew-cybercon)]

I would highly support switching to TigerVNC. However, in the event it was chosen not to, I think that the code referring to NumCurrentSelections inside of vncExtInit.cc could just be taken out. Comparing the differences between TigerVNC and vnc4server showed that they just took out that code. A couple of other things changed, but from what I can tell they were bug fixes or features, and could be left out if someone just wanted to patch this and get it over with.

Attached is the related patch file for just these changes, ignoring the other added code.

[Manuel FLURY (manuel-flury)]

I tried TigerVNC but I don't think it is as good as vnc4server was :(

Transparency appears trammed (moiré) and I got a lot of segfault

I didn't had such issues with vnc4server and really hope a quick fix for it.

[Fabian (ritzmann-extern+ubuntu)]

Judging by the activity, I guess this problem still exists in natty. Did anyone try it out?

[Drew G (drew-cybercon)]

There still isn't a package for libvnc.so in natty I believe. If someone has built a module for it, I will be happy to test it. I upgraded a few machines over the weekend I can use for testing.

[Fabian (ritzmann-extern+ubuntu)]

Ah, right, it got removed somewhere between hardy and lucid apparently. That's one way of fixing it I guess. I'll stick with x11vnc then.

[Serge Hallyn (serge-hallyn)]

It looks as though debian removed the x0vnc-server package in 2008 (http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=444697). x0vnc4server was suggested as an alternative.

If I understand correctly (please correct me if I'm wrong) this bug is only with respect to that package, so I will mark it invalid.