I'd love to be able to VNC into my NeXTSTEP boxes -- I can't believe that nobody ever ported VNC Server to NeXTSTEP or OPENSTEP!
I've been thinking about taking this on myself for quite some time. I can't imagine it'd be too tough but I need to find a good set of source to port from. Anyone have any suggestions?
-E
Tsk, tsk, tsk...
Google *can* be your friend:
http://www.wizards.de/~frank/download.htmlsearch for VNC within the page.
uh... He wants to vnc INTO his NeXT machines. All he has is the VNCViewer program.
OOooops! I stand corrected, thanks helf! Seems strange though, I though I recalled a VNC server being around. Maybe I'll visit friend google again :p
Yeah, I spent a fair amount of time googling for it but I couldn't locate it. If someone finds it or knows it already exists then I'd be much happier simply downloading it then doing the port -- I have plenty of side projects to fill up my spare time already ;)
Here's to hoping that I'm a crappy googler!!!
Quote from: "ErikTheHack"Yeah, I spent a fair amount of time googling for it but I couldn't locate it. If someone finds it or knows it already exists then I'd be much happier simply downloading it then doing the port -- I have plenty of side projects to fill up my spare time already ;)
Here's to hoping that I'm a crappy googler!!!
Heh, but in case your wish doesn't come true, I'd suggest looking at either TightVNC or UltraVNC. I believe both are Open Sourced. Although I frankly don't know what exactly it takes to do the server bit. I have some ideas, but I don't know at which level of the Window Server it works.
Would this project be useful for anyone else here?
Quote from: "ErikTheHack"Would this project be useful for anyone else here?
I would sure think it would be useful, especially for those mono users who have no monitor, or a very bad one. You could use the resistor trick to get it to boot up and run headless, and then vnc into it from anywhere else. Get an adb-usb convertor and you could even use a NeXT mouse and keyboard to enhance the experience.
I would be happy to beta test anything you come up with, and can do some testing on sparc installs as well.
Chef
Quote from: "ErikTheHack"Would this project be useful for anyone else here?
Definitely would!
Quote from: "nextchef"
adb-usb convertor and you could even use a NeXT mouse and keyboard to enhance the experience.
Wouldn't you need a SoundBox for that, which would preclude using the resistor to startup the machine? (wouldn't preclude entirely, but would be a little harder)
Quote from: "da9000"Quote from: "nextchef"
adb-usb convertor and you could even use a NeXT mouse and keyboard to enhance the experience.
Wouldn't you need a SoundBox for that, which would preclude using the resistor to startup the machine? (wouldn't preclude entirely, but would be a little harder)
I was thinking of connecting the NeXT keyboard/mouse to my linux box or mac using an adapter, and running the vnc client there to access the NeXT system remotely. In this way I should not need a soundbox/kb/mouse on the next system at all, assuming I use the resistor trick to get it powered on.
Chef
Quote from: "nextchef"
I was thinking of connecting the NeXT keyboard/mouse to my linux box or mac using an adapter, and running the vnc client there to access the NeXT system remotely. In this way I should not need a soundbox/kb/mouse on the next system at all, assuming I use the resistor trick to get it powered on.
Oh, doh. I was thinking something totally different. But I like your idea for keeping the original feel and using VNC for the rest, although to be honest using a VM to run NS and then using the original ADB keyboard/mouse via an ADB->USB converter, might be better than having to go through the VNC route :)
Quote from: "ErikTheHack"Would this project be useful for anyone else here?
Absolutely. I try to run as many of my boxes headless as possible in my basement... hell, I'd even be willing to chip in a few bucks to a quad-fat prize pot, as I really need it on SPARC and eventually HPPA too :D
Based on the research I have already done, I second the nomination for UltraVNC to be the source code base.
I'd be interested, too, as headlessness helps to cut down on clutter. Sure, you *can* use a NeXT box via telnet or ssh, but it's just not quite the same.
Also second the recommendation for HP and SPARC. (And x86 too while we're at it, heck!)
SPARC would be extremely useful for me and more architectures are genrally more fun! :)
QuoteSPARC would be extremely useful for me and more architectures are genrally more fun! :)
In theory, although as I mentioned before I'm not very familiar with this topic, if one works at the Window Server level/APIs, he won't have to deal with any architecture specific issues. It'll all be "transparent", and thus quad-fat binaries a breeze.
The only area will be the network/TCP/IP layer and there one uses the common hton*()/ntoh*() and fellow BSD library functions. Although, one might want to look at the NS APIs for a higher level networking wrapper (I know Cocoa has such a wrapper but I've not had a chance to check NS to see if it does as well. When I get a chance I'll try to check it out).
I restarted this topic in another thread -- the basic update is I haven't been able to spend a lot of time on this. Damn life/work keeps getting in the way of my fun time.
Still ongoing though. I's still love to get some very basic source and the real RFC for VNC.