tigervnc compatability or throw distinct error message if we can't #768

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1. moffatsadeghi

   added this to GitHub Issue Review Projecton Jun 30, 2026
2. github-project-automation

   moved this to Waiting in GitHub Issue Review Projecton Jun 30, 2026
3. johrstrom

   changed the title [-]tigervnc compatability and/or error message[/-] [+]tigervnc compatability or throw distinc error message if we can't[/+] on Jul 14, 2026
4. johrstrom

   changed the title [-]tigervnc compatability or throw distinc error message if we can't[/-] [+]tigervnc compatability or throw distinct error message if we can't[/+] on Jul 14, 2026
5. johrstrom

   moved this from Waiting to Reviewed, Scheduled in GitHub Issue Review Projecton Jul 14, 2026
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   added this to Next Release Categorizationon Sep 9, 2026
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   moved this to Needs Triaged in Next Release Categorizationon Sep 9, 2026
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9. johrstrom

   updated Source Maintainers, Impact Limited, Effort Medium and Priority High on Sep 28, 2026
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    • Reduce burden for site support staff ondemand#5664
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    removed a parent issue on Sep 28, 2026

    • Reduce burden for site support staff ondemand#5664
12. Oglopf

    self-assigned this

    on Oct 1, 2026
13. Oglopf commented on Oct 1, 2026

    

    Oglopf

    on Oct 1, 2026

    Contributor

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    Looked into real compatibility. Running the VNC template against TigerVNC 1.13.1 and TurboVNC 3.1.4, TigerVNC breaks it in four places:

    1. vncserver -log vnc.log: TurboVNC's -log is a log file; TigerVNC passes it to Xvnc, where -Log sets log levels, and Xvnc refuses to start.
    2. The display number is parsed from TurboVNC's Desktop ... started on display host:1; TigerVNC prints New Xtigervnc server ... for display :1.
    3. pgrep -s 0 Xvnc finds the server; on Debian/Ubuntu TigerVNC's is called Xtigervnc.
    4. There's no single TigerVNC vncserver: upstream's only accepts :N (it's meant to run under systemd), Debian patches in an older option-taking script, and some RHEL-family builds print a "replaced by a systemd unit" warning.

    So compatibility through vncserver isn't realistic. What would work for both is skipping vncserver and starting Xvnc directly (-rfbauth, -rfbport, -desktop and -geometry mean the same thing in both). We'd pick the display number and write .Xauthority ourselves. That's a bigger change, so #1018 does the other half of this issue: a clear "TurboVNC is required" error when vncserver is missing or is TigerVNC.
14. johrstrom

    closed this as completedin #1018on Oct 23, 2026