1vncviewer(1) Virtual Network Computing vncviewer(1)
2
6 vncviewer - VNC viewer for X
7
9 vncviewer [options] [host][:display#]
10 vncviewer [options] [host][::port]
11 vncviewer [options] [unix socket]
12 vncviewer [options] -listen [port]
13 vncviewer [options] [.tigervnc file]
14
16 vncviewer is a viewer (client) for Virtual Network Computing. This
17 manual page documents version 4 for the X window system.
18 If you run the viewer with no arguments it will prompt you for a VNC
20 server to connect to. Alternatively, specify the VNC server as an ar‐
21 gument, e.g.:
22 vncviewer snoopy:2
24 where 'snoopy' is the name of the machine, and '2' is the display num‐
26 ber of the VNC server on that machine. Either the machine name or dis‐
27 play number can be omitted. So for example ":1" means display number 1
28 on the same machine, and "snoopy" means "snoopy:0" i.e. display 0 on
29 machine "snoopy".
30 As another quick way to start a connection to a VNC server, specify a
32 .tigervnc configuration file as an argument to the viewer, e.g.:
33 vncviewer ./some.tigervnc
35 where './some.tigervnc' is an existing and valid TigerVNC configuration
37 file. The file name needs to include a path separator. Additional op‐
38 tions may be given too, but the given configuration file will overwrite
39 any conflicting parameters.
40 If the VNC server is successfully contacted, you will be prompted for a
42 password to authenticate you. You can also add 'VNC_USERNAME' and
43 'VNC_PASSWORD' to environment variables. If the password is correct, a
44 window will appear showing the desktop of the VNC server.
45
48 The viewer tests the speed of the connection to the server and chooses
49 the encoding and pixel format (color level) appropriately. This makes
50 it much easier to use than previous versions where the user had to
51 specify arcane command line arguments.
52 The viewer normally starts out assuming the link is slow, using the en‐
54 coding with the best compression. If it turns out that the link is
55 fast enough it switches to an encoding which compresses less but is
56 faster to generate, thus improving the interactive feel.
57 The viewer normally starts in full-color mode, but switches to low-
59 color mode if the bandwidth is insufficient. However, this only occurs
60 when communicating with servers supporting protocol 3.8 or newer, since
61 many old servers does not support color mode changes safely.
62 Automatic selection can be turned off by setting the AutoSelect parame‐
64 ter to false, or from the options dialog.
65
68 The viewer has a popup menu containing entries which perform various
69 actions. It is usually brought up by pressing F8, but this can be con‐
70 figured with the MenuKey parameter. Actions which the popup menu can
71 perform include:
72 * switching in and out of full-screen mode
74 * quitting the viewer
76 * generating key events, e.g. sending ctrl-alt-del
78 * accessing the options dialog and various other dialogs
80 By default, key presses in the popup menu get sent to the VNC server
82 and dismiss the popup. So to get an F8 through to the VNC server sim‐
83 ply press it twice.
84
87 A full-screen mode is supported. This is particularly useful when con‐
88 necting to a remote screen which is the same size as your local one. If
89 the remote screen is bigger, you can scroll by bumping the mouse
90 against the edge of the screen.
91
94 You can get a list of parameters by giving -h as a command-line option
95 to vncviewer. Parameters can be turned on with -param or off with
96 -param=0. Parameters which take a value can be specified as -param
97 value. Other valid forms are param=value -param=value --param=value.
98 Parameter names are case-insensitive.
99 Many of the parameters can also be set graphically via the options dia‐
101 log box. This can be accessed from the popup menu or from the "Connec‐
102 tion details" dialog box.
103 -display Xdisplay
106 Specifies the X display on which the VNC viewer window should
107 appear.
108 -geometry geometry
110 Initial position of the main VNC viewer window. The format is
111 widthxheight+xoffset+yoffset , where `+' signs can be replaced
112 with `-' signs to specify offsets from the right and/or from the
113 bottom of the screen. Offsets are optional and the window will
114 be placed by the window manager by default.
115 -listen [port]
117 Causes vncviewer to listen on the given port (default 5500) for
118 reverse connections from a VNC server. WinVNC supports reverse
119 connections initiated using the 'Add New Client' menu option or
120 the '-connect' command-line option. Xvnc supports reverse con‐
121 nections with a helper program called vncconfig.
122 -SecurityTypes sec-types
124 Specify which security schemes to attempt to use when authenti‐
125 cating with the server. Valid values are a comma separated list
126 of None, VncAuth, Plain, TLSNone, TLSVnc, TLSPlain, X509None,
127 X509Vnc and X509Plain. Default is to attempt every supported
128 scheme.
129 -passwd, -PasswordFile password-file
131 If you are on a filesystem which gives you access to the pass‐
132 word file used by the server, you can specify it here to avoid
133 typing it in. It will usually be "~/.vnc/passwd".
134 -X509CA path
136 Path to CA certificate to use when authenticating remote servers
137 using any of the X509 security schemes (X509None, X509Vnc,
138 etc.). Must be in PEM format. Default is $HOME/.vnc/x509_ca.pem.
139 -X509CRL path
141 Path to certificate revocation list to use in conjunction with
142 -X509CA. Must also be in PEM format. Default is
143 $HOME/.vnc/x509_crl.pem.
144 -Shared
146 When you make a connection to a VNC server, all other existing
147 connections are normally closed. This option requests that they
148 be left open, allowing you to share the desktop with someone al‐
149 ready using it.
150 -ViewOnly
152 Specifies that no keyboard or mouse events should be sent to the
153 server. Useful if you want to view a desktop without interfer‐
154 ing; often needs to be combined with -Shared.
155 -AcceptClipboard
157 Accept clipboard changes from the server. Default is on.
158 -SetPrimary
160 Set the primary selection as well as the clipboard selection.
161 Default is on.
162 -MaxCutText bytes
164 The maximum size of a clipboard update that will be accepted
165 from a server. Default is 262144.
166 -SendClipboard
168 Send clipboard changes to the server. Default is on.
169 -SendPrimary
171 Send the primary selection to the server as well as the clip‐
172 board selection. Default is on.
173 -Maximize
175 Maximize viewer window.
176 -FullScreen
178 Start in full-screen mode.
179 -FullScreenAllMonitors (DEPRECATED)
181 Use all local monitors and not just the current one when switch‐
182 ing to full-screen mode. Replaced by -FullScreenMode=all
183 -FullScreenMode mode
185 Specify which monitors to use when in full screen. It should be
186 either "Current", "Selected" (specified by -FullScreenSelected‐
187 Monitors) or "All". The default is "Current".
188 -FullScreenSelectedMonitors monitors
190 This option specifies the monitors to use with -FullScreen‐
191 Mode=selected. Monitors are ordered according to the system
192 configuration from left to right, and in case of a conflict,
193 from top to bottom. So, for example, "1,2,3" means that the
194 first, second and third monitor counting from the left should be
195 used. The default is "1".
196 -FullscreenSystemKeys
198 Pass special keys (like Alt+Tab) directly to the server when in
199 full-screen mode.
200 -DesktopSize widthxheight
202 Instead of keeping the existing remote screen size, the client
203 will attempt to switch to the specified since when connecting.
204 If the server does not support the SetDesktopSize message then
205 the screen will retain the original size.
206 -RemoteResize
208 Dynamically resize the remote desktop size as the size of the
209 local client window changes. Note that this may not work with
210 all VNC servers.
211 -AutoSelect
213 Use automatic selection of encoding and pixel format (default is
214 on). Normally the viewer tests the speed of the connection to
215 the server and chooses the encoding and pixel format appropri‐
216 ately. Turn it off with -AutoSelect=0.
217 -FullColor, -FullColour
219 Tells the VNC server to send full-color pixels in the best for‐
220 mat for this display. This is default.
221 -LowColorLevel, -LowColourLevel level
223 Selects the reduced color level to use on slow links. level can
224 range from 0 to 2, 0 meaning 8 colors, 1 meaning 64 colors (the
225 default), 2 meaning 256 colors. Note that decision if reduced
226 color level is used is made by vncviewer. If you would like to
227 force vncviewer to use reduced color level use -AutoSelect=0 pa‐
228 rameter.
229 -PreferredEncoding encoding
231 This option specifies the preferred encoding to use from one of
232 "Tight", "ZRLE", "hextile" or "raw".
233 -NoJpeg
235 Disable lossy JPEG compression in Tight encoding. Default is
236 off.
237 -QualityLevel level
239 JPEG quality level. 0 = Low, 9 = High. May be adjusted automati‐
240 cally if -AutoSelect is turned on. Default is 8.
241 -CompressLevel level
243 Use specified lossless compression level. 0 = Low, 9 = High. De‐
244 fault is 2.
245 -CustomCompressLevel
247 Use custom compression level. Default if CompressLevel is speci‐
248 fied.
249 -DotWhenNoCursor
251 Show the dot cursor when the server sends an invisible cursor.
252 Default is off.
253 -PointerEventInterval time
255 Time in milliseconds to rate-limit successive pointer events.
256 Default is 17 ms (60 Hz).
257 -EmulateMiddleButton
259 Emulate middle mouse button by pressing left and right mouse
260 buttons simultaneously. Default is off.
261 -Log logname:dest:level
263 Configures the debug log settings. dest can currently be stderr
264 or stdout, and level is between 0 and 100, 100 meaning most ver‐
265 bose output. logname is usually * meaning all, but you can tar‐
266 get a specific source file if you know the name of its "Log‐
267 Writer". Default is *:stderr:30.
268 -MenuKey keysym-name
270 This option specifies the key which brings up the popup menu.
271 The currently supported list is: F1, F2, F3, F4, F5, F6, F7, F8,
272 F9, F10, F11, F12, Pause, Scroll_Lock, Escape, Insert, Delete,
273 Home, Page_Up, Page_Down). Default is F8.
274 -via gateway
276 Automatically create encrypted TCP tunnel to the gateway machine
277 before connection, connect to the host through that tunnel
278 (TigerVNC-specific). By default, this option invokes SSH local
279 port forwarding, assuming that SSH client binary can be accessed
280 as /usr/bin/ssh. Note that when using the -via option, the host
281 machine name should be specified as known to the gateway ma‐
282 chine, e.g. "localhost" denotes the gateway, not the machine
283 where vncviewer was launched. The environment variable
284 VNC_VIA_CMD can override the default tunnel command of
285 /usr/bin/ssh -f -L "$L":"$H":"$R" "$G" sleep 20. The tunnel
286 command is executed with the environment variables L, H, R, and
287 G taken the values of the local port number, the remote host,
288 the port number on the remote host, and the gateway machine re‐
289 spectively.
290 -AlertOnFatalError
292 Display a dialog with any fatal error before exiting. Default is
293 on.
294 -ReconnectOnError
296 Display a dialog with any error and offer the possibility to
297 retry establishing the connection. In case this is off no dialog
298 to re-connect will be offered. Default is on.
299
302 $HOME/.vnc/default.tigervnc
303 Default configuration options. This file must have a "magic"
304 first line of "TigerVNC Configuration file Version 1.0" (without
305 quotes), followed by simple <setting>=<value> pairs of your
306 choosing. The available settings are those shown in this man
307 page.
308 $HOME/.vnc/x509_ca.pem
310 Default CA certificate for authenticating servers.
311 $HOME/.vnc/x509_crl.pem
313 Default certificate revocation list.
314
317 Xvnc(1), vncpasswd(1), vncconfig(1), vncsession(8)
318 https://www.tigervnc.org
319
322 Tristan Richardson, RealVNC Ltd. and others.
323 VNC was originally developed by the RealVNC team while at Olivetti Re‐
325 search Ltd / AT&T Laboratories Cambridge. TightVNC additions were im‐
326 plemented by Constantin Kaplinsky. Many other people have since partic‐
327 ipated in development, testing and support. This manual is part of the
328 TigerVNC software suite.
329TigerVNC vncviewer(1)