Changing the resolution of a VNC session in linux [closed]
I use VNC to connect to a Linux workstation at work. At work I have a 20" monitor that runs at 1600x1200, while at home I use my laptop with its resolution of 1440x900. If I set the vncserver to run at 1440x900 I miss out on a lot of space on my monitor, whereas if I set it to run at 1600x1200 it doesn't fit on the laptop's screen, and I have to scroll it all the time.
Is there any good way to resize a VNC session on the fly?
My VNC server is RealVNC E4.x (I don't remember the exact version) running on SuSE64.
Real VNC server 4.4 includes support for Xrandr, which allows resizing the VNC. Start the server with:
vncserver -geometry 1600x1200 -randr 1600x1200,1440x900,1024x768
Then resize with:
xrandr -s 1600x1200
xrandr -s 1440x900
xrandr -s 1024x768
Found out that the vnc4server (4.1.1) shipped with Ubuntu (10.04) is patched to also support changing the resolution on the fly via xrandr. Unfortunately the feature was hard to find because it is undocumented. So here it is...
Start the server with multiple 'geometry' instances, like:
vnc4server -geometry 1280x1024 -geometry 800x600
From a terminal in a vncviewer (with: 'allow dymanic desktop resizing' enabled) use xrandr to view the available modes:
xrandr
to change the resulution, for example use:
xrandr -s 800x600
Thats it.
I'm running TigerVNC on my Linux server, which has basic randr support. I just start vncserver without any -randr or multiple -geometry options.
When I run xrandr in a terminal, it displays all the available screen resolutions:
bash> xrandr
SZ: Pixels Physical Refresh
0 1920 x 1200 ( 271mm x 203mm ) 60
1 1920 x 1080 ( 271mm x 203mm ) 60
2 1600 x 1200 ( 271mm x 203mm ) 60
3 1680 x 1050 ( 271mm x 203mm ) 60
4 1400 x 1050 ( 271mm x 203mm ) 60
5 1360 x 768 ( 271mm x 203mm ) 60
6 1280 x 1024 ( 271mm x 203mm ) 60
7 1280 x 960 ( 271mm x 203mm ) 60
8 1280 x 800 ( 271mm x 203mm ) 60
9 1280 x 720 ( 271mm x 203mm ) 60
*10 1024 x 768 ( 271mm x 203mm ) *60
11 800 x 600 ( 271mm x 203mm ) 60
12 640 x 480 ( 271mm x 203mm ) 60
Current rotation - normal
Current reflection - none
Rotations possible - normal
Reflections possible - none
I can then easily switch to another resolution (f.e. switch to 1360x768):
bash> xrandr -s 5
I'm using TightVnc viewer as the client and it automatically adapts to the new resolution.
I think your best best is to run the VNC server with a different geometry on a different port. I would try based on the man page
$vncserver :0 -geometry 1600x1200 $vncserver :1 -geometry 1440x900
Then you can connect from work to one port and from home to another.
Edit: Then use xmove to move windows between the two x-servers.