[Tfug] Errors with RealVNC and TightVNC (was: VNC and alternatives)

[Glen Pfeiffer]

Thanks for your responses. I have not been able to get realvnc or 
tightvnc to work, but x11vnc does. However, since x11vnc connects 
to the current desktop, the resolution is too large for my older 
laptop. I scaled it down which works the result is too small to 
be useful.

Here is what happens with realvnc. I start the server on my 
desktop:
  $ vncserver

And the output is:
  New 'X' desktop is computername:1
  
  Starting applications specified in /etc/X11/Xsession
  Log file is /home/glen/.vnc/computername:1.log


Then on both my desktop and my laptop I tried:
  $ vncviewer 192.168.1.105:1

I get this error:
  VNC Viewer Free Edition 4.1.1 for X - built Feb 26 2007 20:38:07
  Copyright (C) 2002-2005 RealVNC Ltd.
  See http://www.realvnc.com for information on VNC.
  
  Fri Sep 26 16:38:06 2008
   main:        unable to connect to host: Connection refused (111)


I check the log file and see:
  26/09/08 16:36:43 Xvnc version 3.3.7 - built Dec 30 2006 12:50:35
  26/09/08 16:36:43 Copyright (C) 2002-2003 RealVNC Ltd.
  26/09/08 16:36:43 Copyright (C) 1994-2000 AT&T Laboratories Cambridge.
  26/09/08 16:36:43 All Rights Reserved.
  26/09/08 16:36:43 See http://www.realvnc.com for information on VNC
  26/09/08 16:36:43 Desktop name 'X' (gandalf:1)
  26/09/08 16:36:43 Protocol version supported 3.3
  26/09/08 16:36:43 Listening for VNC connections on TCP port 5901
  
  Fatal server error:
  could not open default font 'fixed'


Then I tried tightvncserver, and got almost the same error:
  Couldn't start Xtightvnc; trying default font path.
  Please set correct fontPath in the tightvncserver script.
  Couldn't start Xtightvnc process.
[snip]
  Fatal server error:
  could not open default font 'fixed'
  26/09/08 17:15:23 Xvnc version 3.3.tight1.2.9
  26/09/08 17:15:23 Copyright (C) 1999 AT&T Laboratories Cambridge.
  26/09/08 17:15:23 Copyright (C) 2000-2002 Constantin Kaplinsky.
  26/09/08 17:15:23 All Rights Reserved.
  26/09/08 17:15:23 See http://www.uk.research.att.com/vnc for information on VNC
  26/09/08 17:15:23 See http://www.tightvnc.com for TightVNC-specific information
  26/09/08 17:15:23 Desktop name 'X' (gandalf:1)
  26/09/08 17:15:23 Protocol version supported 3.3
  26/09/08 17:15:23 Listening for VNC connections on TCP port 5901
  Font directory '/usr/share/fonts/X11/Speedo/' not found - ignoring
  
  Fatal server error:
  could not open default font 'fixed'


I found this page 
(http://forums.slamd64.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=1137) that has a 
suggestion to create a symlink that will fix the problem, but it 
didn't fix the problem.

I found the 'fixed' alias in: 
/usr/share/fonts/X11/misc/fonts.alias, and that path is included 
in the 'vncserver' perl script.

I also tried adding /usr/share/fonts/X11/misc to the fontPath in 
/etc/vnc.conf (apparently it is used by both vnc solutions).

Any thoughts? Oh, and this is Debian Etch/Stable in case it 
helps.

-- 
Glen