Control the Zaurus from your PC Graphically, by using VNC, and Vice Versa

From OESF

Revision as of 16:57, 25 September 2007

This Howto has been contributed by Gerald J. Normandin Jr., portions by tumnus

Portions have been found at: http://notebook.zaurii.net/zaurus/RemotePC1.htm

Introduction

Imagine being able to print a document from the PC but through your Zaurus, or opening a document on your PC and viewing it on the Z? Or even better, controlling your Zaurus through the PC. If you prefer, control it through your favorite web browser!

This is possible through the remote control software called VNC. VNC stands for Virtual Network Computing. It is, in essence, a remote display system which allows you to view a computing 'desktop' environment not only on the machine where it is running, but from anywhere on the Internet and from a wide variety of machine architectures. VNC was recently ported to the Zaurus. This !HowTo walks you through the installation and setup of one of the forks of VNC, TightVNC (Client and Server) on the PC and FB VNC Server and Keypebble VNC Viewer on the Zaurus.

Procedure

This HowTo assumes that there is a working connection between the PC and the Zaurus.

On the PC

Installing the Client and the Server

Get the TightVNC client from tightvnc.org. Get the version appropriate for your Operating System. Run the installer. It should be fairly straightforward here.

How to get VNC to work on the Zaurus.

1. Install the FB VNC Server ipk and zlib ipk from SDG Systems.

2. Reboot your Zaurus. Note that the next two taps after this reboot will calibrate the screen for VNC, so wait until it has fully booted before tapping anything.

3. Once your Zaurus has finished booting up, with your stylus tap the very top left corner of the screen and then the very bottom right corner of the screen. Do not worry if Qtopia thinks you are tapping something at this stage as it does not know you are calibrating VNC. You do NOT have to keep recalibrating on every reboot once this is successful.

4. Start the VNC server on your Zaurus by tapping the VNC launch icon

5. Launch your VNC viewer from your desktop and connect to the Zaurus using your Zaurus' IP address and display number 0.

6. Enjoy!

If screen taps seem to be offset when using VNC, then you probably did not do step 3 correctly. In this case, delete the file /etc/tssim_cal.conf either with the filemanager or by running the following command as root:

 rm /etc/tssim_cal.conf

Then go back to step 2.

Installing the Client

Install the keypebble client for the Zaurus

The VNC Viewer should be visible on Applications tab

To control your pc from the zaurus, start the server on the PC side.

Set a password, press OK

On the Zaurus

Launch VNC Viewer Enter the IP address of your PC and enter the password you set on your PC

You should be seeing your PC's desktop on your Zaurus! Take control of your PC!

To control your zaurus from the PC:

On the Zaurus, Launch VNC server minimal. (or any of the other two VNC servers.There will be no indication that the VNC Server is running. That's one quirk of VNC on the Zaurus!

On the PC, Launch TightVNC Viewer (Fast Compression)

Enter the IP address of Zaurus in the VNC Server field and press OK

The next screen is a fully functional Zaurus on your PC!

Try using the mouse on various icons on the Zaurus through the PC. If the calibration is out of sync, click on the Recalibrate icon in the Settings tab

on the Zaurus and recalibrate it through your PC

FAQ: I followed the instructions in this HOWTO to setup VNC, but my stylus inputs are out of sync with Z.

After setting up VNC, you should reboot and recalibrate Zaurus. This will solve the problem.