Package: vncserver
Version: 3.3.7-12
Severity: grave
Justification: renders package unusable


Our development system runs debian testing; the developers normally log on 
using VNC.
xinetd is set up with server vnc services (for various geometries); they run 
Xvnc (Xrealvnc)
with the -query option so each connection gets its own gdm login).
However, since a (partial) dist-upgrade earlier today, this has ceased to 
function - the 
connection is terminated immediately. This happened _before_ doing the full 
xorg upgrade
(the font server upgrade came in as a dependency of another package, and I'm 
guessing it's
at fault).  Completing the full dist-upgrade did not resolve the problem.
I did note that tightvncserver was removed during the upgrade, but since we 
don't use that,
I didn't see it as a problem - if I had know that ALL vnc servers would break, 
I would not
have upgraded (and again, the vnc breakage happened even before the 
tightvncserver removal
was required by dist-upgrade).

What can I do to get VNC access working again?  Or alternatively, what steps 
can I take to
"dist-downgrade" to a _working_ setup?
We can (mostly) manage using plain old ssh connections, but it does have an 
impact on
productivity.

++ Now I'll answer myself, because I found a solution while preparing this 
report.

The cause of the problem is that Xvnc can't find some core things (rgb.txt and 
the 'fixed'
font).  These were relocated as part of the X11R7 upgrade.  It's possible it 
can no longer
talk to the new font server either (otherwise the relocations wouldn't matter 
to it because
the font server would handle them). vncserver/vnc4server work around this by 
passing -co
and -fp options to the Xnvcs they spawn.  So the solution is to do the same in 
/etc/inetd.conf
(or /etc/xinetd.d/myvncservice).
Instead of
  /usr/bin/Xvnc -inetd -once -query my-x-host -geometry 1234x666 -depth 24
the command line needs to be (on one line)
  /usr/bin/Xvnc -co /etc/X11/rgb -fp unix/:7100,<all other font paths separated 
by commas> \
                -inetd -once -query my-x-host -geometry 1234x666 -depth 24
(is there a cleaner way to do this, e.g. by putting those options in some 
config file Xvnc
reads?)
README.debian should probably be adjusted accordingly (the instructions there 
no longer
result in a working setup).

-- System Information:
Debian Release: testing/unstable
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (500, 'testing')
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Shell:  /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash
Kernel: Linux 2.4.27-2-686-smp
Locale: LANG=en_US, LC_CTYPE=en_US (charmap=ISO-8859-1)

Versions of packages vncserver depends on:
ii  dpkg                     1.13.19         package maintenance system for Deb
ii  libc6                    2.3.6-7         GNU C Library: Shared libraries
ii  libgcc1                  1:4.1.0-4       GCC support library
ii  libice6                  6.9.0.dfsg.1-6  Inter-Client Exchange library
ii  libsm6                   1:1.0.0-4       X11 Session Management library
ii  libstdc++6               4.1.0-4         The GNU Standard C++ Library v3
ii  libx11-6                 2:1.0.0-6       X11 client-side library
ii  libxext6                 1:1.0.0-4       X11 miscellaneous extension librar
ii  perl                     5.8.8-4         Larry Wall's Practical Extraction 
ii  vnc-common               3.3.7-12        Virtual network computing server s
ii  vnc4-common [vnc-common] 4.1.1+X4.3.0-10 Virtual network computing server s
ii  x11-common               1:7.0.20        X Window System (X.Org) infrastruc
ii  xbase-clients            1:7.0.1-2       miscellaneous X clients
ii  zlib1g                   1:1.2.3-11      compression library - runtime

Versions of packages vncserver recommends:
ii  xfonts-base                   1:1.0.0-3  standard fonts for X

-- no debconf information


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