VNC serveur with Odroid-N2 ?

[easybob95]

Hello,

i am considering an Odroid-N2 (or XU4) in order to make a video acquisition system for sky survey.

Actually, i have made such system with raspberry pi 3 B+ but raspberry is a bit weak for such system.

My main problem is that the system needs a good vnc server software to be controlled with a PC laptop (Windows 10) using WIFI (and only WIFI, no ethernet cable).

Raspberry pi works great with Real VNC but from what i know, Odroid-N2 (or XU4) can't use RealVNC.

Is X11VNC good enough to replace RealVNC ?

Wath is the best way to connect to Odroid-N2 (or XU4) using VNC software ?

This point is really important for my project.

Many thanks for your response.

Alain

[mad_ady]

What does realvnc provide that x11vnc can't? If vnc isn't working as desired, you can also use something like xpra.

[easybob95]

Hello,

many thanks for your response. From what i know (but maybe am i wrong), x11vnc is rather slow. It makes the job but for example, realvnc with raspberry is much quicker and more responsive.

So, i try to know what is the best solution to remote controle the Odroid N2 (or XU4) using WIFI.

I am very interested with your experience with Odroid N2 or XU4 remote control using WIFI.

Many thanks in advance.

Alain

[mad_ady]

I'm using all my odroids on ethernet, and also I mostly use ssh, not VNC, so I can't say much about wifi performance, sorry. You can try xpra which uses video encoding to stream windows to your client. Is adaptive and works fine over slow links (though quality degrades)

[easybob95]

Ok, thx. I will take a look at xpra.

Have a nice day.

[BKFC]

I'm looking specifically for a virtual server, so that I can have a headless, graphical desktop for an N2 on my Mac that does not depend upon having an active session with monitor connected to the N2 (the latter essentially screen sharing). For RealVNC, you can get the virtual server for free on Raspberry Pi but for all other platforms it requires paying for the Enterprise version. Does xpra provide such a virtual server?

[mad_ady]

Yes. It's designed to run graphical applications on a remote server in a virtual X11 session and allow you to attach to them at will from other systems (win/lin/mac) and integrate that window natively in your desktop (native window decorations). When your client detaches it leaves the window running on the server-side.
It can also do full desktop, just like vnc, but you lose native integration features.
The difference from vnc is that it does adaptive lossy video encoding (like h264) and in low bandwidth situations the image may have encoding artefacts.

[tszephai]

what a pity. I am considering vnc cloud by RealVNC.
So what is the best solution to remote control a N2 which is behind a NAT server?

[mad_ady]

@tszephai: it depends on your network provider. If your ISP uses CGNat you can't really run OpenVPN or do Port forwarding on your router. You can only do outgoing connections to some place with a static IP/DNS name and do a reverse tunnel back to your LAN. If your ISP assigns you an IP to your self (even if it's dynamic) you can use dynamic DNS, and openvpn to connect back to your LAN. Those would be the best options, though they are not the only options...

[BKFC]

A followup on Xpra: where can I get either binaries or source? What's available at the Xpra site appears to be limited to binaries for AMD or x86 for Ubuntu 18.04, but it says that Xpra is "known to work" with ARM.

[mad_ady]

Just use the one shipped with ubuntu:

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get install xpra

The difference is - it will do software video encoding, which will tax the cpu a bit more.

Watch out for this bug: https://xpra.org/trac/ticket/1536
Start it with:

Code: Select all

xpra start :100 --systemd-run=no --start-via-proxy=no

[BKFC]

I've installed Xpra on the N2 and on my Mac. The installations went OK, and starting Xpra on the N2 did not generate an error. But I cannot connect from the Mac. Commands from a terminal don't work, and if I use the GUI, I get "failed to connect" or "connection lost" depending upon the options. My guess is that I'm missing something simple.

[BKFC]

Now less urgent. I installed vnc4server and launched it, then ran a realvnc viewer on my Mac (which I already had). The virtual display appears to be running OK, though I may try to change the pixel dimensions.

[mad_ady]

I usually attach to the xpra instance over ssh. Input your ssh credentials and virtual display number in the gui.

[easybob95]

Hello,

a quick feedbak about Odroid N2 remote control with VNC.

Odroid N2 : TightVNC server
Laptop under Windows 10 : RealVNC viewer

Everything works perfectly.