X VNC History

The important changes in each version are summarised here; see the source package for more details.

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Changes in version 3.3.3R1

Xvnc

• Xvnc now uses a "deferred update" mechanism which enhances performance in many cases. After any change to the framebuffer, Xvnc waits for a time (default 40ms) before sending an update to any waiting clients. This means that more changes tend to get coalesced together in a single update. The time can be changed with the -deferupdate option. Setting it to 0 results in the same behaviour as previous versions of Xvnc.
• There are a couple of security enhancements. The -localhost option now causes Xvnc to only listen on the loopback interface. This means that it shouldn't be vulnerable to port scanning. Also a "too many tries" feature on authentication failure is now implemented. After five failed attempts, further attempts are delayed by an exponentially increasing amount, starting at ten seconds.

vncserver

• Uses SO_REUSEADDR when testing to see which ports are free.

vncviewer

• When given -owncmap in full screen mode, tries to install the colormap. This works only when no window manager is running.
• The popup window now always uses the default colormap.
• The "backing store" attribute can now be set on the desktop window via the "backingStore" resource. It defaults to "Always", meaning the X server should keep the contents of the viewer window when it gets obscured by other windows.

Changes in version 3.3.3

Xvnc

New options -alwaysshared, -nevershared, -dontdisconnect and -localhost.
Fixed problem with 16-bit desktops on Solaris and other platforms.
Default dpi now 75.
Don't die on non-existent font directory at startup (common RedHat 6 problem).
Copes with up to 5 pointer buttons.
Fixed zero-area copy bug.
Fixed occasional bug when multiple clients and one disconnects.

vncserver

Work around bug in perl 5.005_02 which caused bad display names such as "snoopy:".

vncpasswd

Fixed minor bugs.

vncviewer

Completely new viewer based on Xt. Development has ceased on the old Xlib-based viewer.

Changes in version 3.3.2 R3

Xvnc

Fixed an important memory leak.

vncserver

The vncserver script should cope better with different Perl versions.
X cookies generated more securely.

vncviewer

Uses shared memory on Linux.
More secure clearing of password.

Changes in version 3.3.2 R2

Xvnc

Cutting text inside Xvnc works to a remote viewer again.

Resource leak fixed which limited total number of times Xvnc could be connected to.

vncserver

Warns of likely failure when starting a 16 bpp desktop on Solaris.

No longer tries to find out the geometry, depth and pixel format of the current X display being used. This feature can be enabled if desired by uncommenting a line in the script.

Changes in version 3.3.2

X vncviewer

• -viewonly, -geometry, -wmdecoration options
• Options for debugging servers: change -delay to -rawdelay, plus

-copyrectdelay, -region
• Options allowed before or after host:dpynum argument
• Handle changes to local X keyboard mapping
• Rudimentary single bit-per-pixel support (thanks to Chris Hooper)

Xvnc server

• Based on XFree86 3.3.2 distribution
• Faster pixel-format translation routines
• Improved HTTP server. Now performs substitution on any files ending in .vnc, so that default options to the VNC applet can be configured on the server side.
• -economictranslate option to use less memory-hungry translation
• Supports viewers requesting only a subregion of the screen.
• Better log file messages with timestamps.