I have come across something odd I do not understand and may explain some issues I have had.

I have been mostly using windows Remote Desktop via ethernet to run the RPi remotely and mostly seems to work fine. occasionally use the browser with "astroberry.local/desktop/" .

So this time I have used Remote Desktop and all seems to work but I had a monitor and keyboard plugged directly to the RPi as well because I needed to set the configuration for ethernet which it did not seem to let me do remotely.

The odd bit is that screen plugged into the RPI had the astroberry background and I could use the keyboard to open programs such as KStars, EKOS PHD2 etc and they appeared on the screen plugged into the RPi but not on my remote desktop. Conversely I could then open up the same programs on the remote desktop but they did not appear on the screen plugged into rpI.

So I am guessing I have two instances of Astroberry server running somehow.

If I use the browser to operate the Pi then the same appears on the screen as the RPi screen.

So can anybody explain exactly what is going on here and can I operate my scope with Astroberry and windows remote desktop. I have had instances when I try to open INDI panel and it says an instance is already running so this may explain that but am I okay to say just use remote desktop to operate my equipment, it is just odd that mostly it does seem to work even though if I plug a screen into RPi it is not changing anything on the screen. I guess I just do not understand what is meant by Astroberry Server.

Steve

I don't use Remote Desktop but I guess it comes from the fact that it creates own instance of x11 session i.e. remote desktop session.
This is not the case for VNC and browser based remote access, because they rely on the pre-existing x11 session, which equals "hardware" session i.e. hdmi display.
As the result you see the same screen when using hardware display and remote display when using native astroberry components. As you noticed, you can interact between the screens as they are really the same screen served either via HDMI or VNC server (via VNC client or browser).
However, it has nothing to do with INDI instances. These are launched independently of desktop environment. If you get "instance already running" it means that you start new INDI server before closing previously started instance. How do you start INDI then?

Hi Redek,

Once again thanks for the support.

I really want to get this to work as I like astroberry I really like it.

To answer your question I open KStars and then click on the observatory icon to open EKOS and then clock on start ekos icon.
I agree and understand that the INDI already running I think because I could not see that EKOS was open on the RPi from Remote Desktop and maybe having already opened it and started it from the browser that I just opened it again and started it from the remote desktop which is when it complained.

I think what I need to know is am I alright to run from remote desktop so long as I do not then use the browser or other connection?

If I understood what was meant by server then maybe I would understand a bit more what was going on. I really do not understand what you are referring to by instances of X11 or how this can happen, I always though remote desktop was just that a vision on my remote screen of what the computer I was connected to was doing. I am just not that computer savvy I am afraid.

Steve.

No worries. To keep things simple you can use VNC client instead windows Remote Desktop. Remote sessions can be handled in various ways e.g. connecting to an existing local session or creating new virtual session for each connection. When using VNC client or browser you connect to an existing local session. Apparently it is not the case for Remote Desktop.
When starting INDI from EKOS you can encounter issue of leftovers after KStars/EKOS crash. You can avoid it starting INDI from left-hand sliding panel (only when connecting via browser) and setting your profile to remote (host should be localhost). This way you start/stop INDI server and your devices separately from KStars/Ekos.