x11vnc should create a menu item

[JP Vossen]

Binary package hint: x11vnc

As far as I can tell, x11vnc doesn't create a menu item [1], which may be confusing to some users, e.g., newbies using Xubuntu and needing a remote desktop. It should create a menu item, perhaps under "System Tools" and perhaps using some options like "-timeout 300 -unixpw -gui". I can make an argument that -gui might be confusing for some users. And if it's used as a remote desktop t-shooting tool, -unixpw might be a problem since the support person is unlikly to have a local account and sharing user passwords is always a bad idea. Perhaps a "x11vnc Remote Desktop" and "x11vnc for Desktop T-Shooting" (using, e.g., -timeout 300 -passwd tsh00t)? Though that begs the question about how to tell the user what the password is. A splash-screen might help.

Regardless, x11vnc is extremely impressive and I've very pleased to have found it! See also: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xubuntu-meta/+bug/56670/comments/4

$ cat /etc/lsb-release
DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=8.04
DISTRIB_CODENAME=hardy
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu hardy (development branch)"

$ apt-cache policy x11vnc
x11vnc:
  Installed: 0.9.3.dfsg.1-1ubuntu1
  Candidate: 0.9.3.dfsg.1-1ubuntu1
  Version table:
 *** 0.9.3.dfsg.1-1ubuntu1 0
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com hardy/universe Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

____________________________
[1] $ dpkg -L x11vnc | sort
/.
/usr
/usr/bin
/usr/bin/x11vnc
/usr/share
/usr/share/doc
/usr/share/doc/x11vnc
/usr/share/doc/x11vnc/AUTHORS
/usr/share/doc/x11vnc/changelog.Debian.gz
/usr/share/doc/x11vnc/changelog.gz
/usr/share/doc/x11vnc/copyright
/usr/share/doc/x11vnc/NEWS.gz
/usr/share/doc/x11vnc/README.gz
/usr/share/doc/x11vnc/TODO
/usr/share/man
/usr/share/man/man1
/usr/share/man/man1/x11vnc.1.gz

[K Runge (ubuntuforums)]

You probably don't want to use -unixpw, because that will force SSL mode
(the -ssl option, so the password is not sent in clear text.)

That's a good thing, but since nearly no VNC viewers support SSL basically
no one will be able to connect. The only SSL viewers I know of are SSVNC,
x11vnc's java viewer (which is no longer included in the debian pkg),
and ultravnc's singleclick java viewer.

Although not much used, there is a vino-like mode intended for naive
users. Perhaps something like this:

    x11vnc -gui tray=setpass -rfbport 5900

    x11vnc -gui icon=setpass -rfbport 5900

The 'tray' one will try to embed the tk window in the system tray.
Sometimes that can be a problem, so as a backup the 'icon' mode can run
as a small window on the desktop. 'tray' seems to work with xfce.

The '=setpass' creates an initial properties dialog with the naive user,
where he can set the session password, enable connections, and decide
if they want a confirmation window to appear when someone connects.

They must explicitly enable connections before anyone can connect, so
that probably precludes needing the '-timeout 300' option to only give a
5 minute window (although that would be handy for a troubleshooting mode).

The '-rfbport 5900' is just to force vnc-display :0 instead of auto
probing for an open port which the user would be unable to figure out.

Anyway, that is the intent of the tray=setpass mode. It is still rough
around the edges and likely has a some bugs, but it might be usable.

[JP Vossen (jp-jpsdomain)]

I skimmed over those options and I wasn't terribly interested in a try icon, but yeah, that sounds great and is pretty much what I meant. I also missed the -ssl part when using -unixpw.

[Charlie Kravetz (cjkgeek)]

Thanks for reporting this bug.
I can confirm that x11vnc does not create a menu item. It does not create any .desktop file on the harddrive, thus there is no menu item created.

Since this bug has enough information provided for a developer to begin work, I'm going to mark it as confirmed and let them handle it from here. Thanks for taking the time to make Ubuntu better!

[K Runge (ubuntuforums)]

What directory should the x11vnc build deposit the .desktop file into?

Should the file be named "x11vnc.desktop"?

What is the mechanism that causes the file to be picked up? (both for debian and in general)

Thanks,

Karl

[Charlie Kravetz (cjkgeek)]

As a user and bug triager, I do not know all the answers for you. But I shall try my best.

Menu entries are created in /usr/share/applications

The name of the file should reflect the application, so I would use x11vnc.desktop

I don´t know the mechanism used, but I think it is automatic when the application is installed and the desktop restarted.

More information on the .desktop files is available at :
http://standards.freedesktop.org/desktop-entry-spec/latest/index.html

Thanks for helping with this. I know your time is valuable and it takes considerable effort to care enough to fix this small isssue.

[Saivann Carignan (oxmosys)]

This bug will be fixed by the upload of x11vnc version 0.9.6

[Hans Joachim Desserud (hjd)]

As mentioned in comment #6 this was fixed by a newer x11vnc package a while back, see the attached bug watch.

I verified that the desktop file is present and working on Ubuntu 16.04 and I believe later releases :)