×

INDI Library v2.0.6 is Released (02 Feb 2024)

Bi-monthly release with minor bug fixes and improvements

Can VNC be tuned to improve display time lag

  • Posts: 969
  • Thank you received: 94
Hi
We use x11vnc but on a mini-PC over 5GHz wifi. The noxdamage switch smooths the rendering considerably.
Worth a try on the Pi?
Cheers and HTH
1 year 2 months ago #89469

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

  • Posts: 276
  • Thank you received: 52
David,

What SM version are you running? Is it 64bit buster based? If yes, what window manager are you running?
Have you seen the 'mutter' discussion?
indilib.org/forum/stellarmate/11148-high...ter-sm1-7.html#81754

And Alacant's hint on noxdamage switch could help with the server side.
On the viewer side, there is an 'options' dropdown where you can set various connection options that may also help.


Gene
The following user(s) said Thank You: David Bennett
1 year 2 months ago #89473

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

  • Posts: 181
  • Thank you received: 13
Gene. I am using whatever is included in the latest StellarMate image. The only change I have made was to use the Software Updater function on the Pi desktop. There was one update available which I did but I don't know what the update was or fixed or improved.
/etc/os-release says its "Debian GNU/Linux 11 (bullseye)" I presume it's 32 bit OS as from I can tell its still early days for a fully supported 64 bit version or am I behind the times?
LXDE is the desktop environment .
window_manager=openbox.
On viewer side I am set to level 6 and quality 6. Tried 256 colours but terrible display. Other than changing the local cursor to an arrow I cant see anything else to twiddle.
On server side I am yet to discover what the vnc server is and where it is configured in StellarMate build.
I don't want to swap vnc server installed with x11vnc for support reasons even though it may be a better solution. I have purchased StellarMate on the basis it is supported 'as is'.
I have astroberry on another SD card and that is where I should fiddle with things such as VNC server.

Another reason for running Kstars on Windows, it cured some serious bugs with Astroberry. I spent a couple of months trying to get Astroberry stable running Kstars on Pi but it crashed on a regular basis. One reason reported was viewing fit files when capturing which is a really handy facility but had to be turned off. Monitoring memory consumption, I came to the conclusion that the Pi couldn't cope with running Indi drivers and Kstars at the same time. I have no direct evidence, but the beauty of running Kstars locally some of the processing overhead is moved to the client PC with the Pi managing driver and equipment control. I believe in this mode of operation with a localobservatory over LAN, vnc is not involved (certainly no display graphics, keyboard or mouse interaction) and I found the LAN very reliable and much more reliable than doing everything on the pi. I find I have various windows open when imaging. Kstars planatarium display, EKOS, Indi, fits viewer, File manager ,observatory cam and local weather (Edge). With twin screen and kstars running locally I can position all these windows for convenient display.

Will carry on with Stellarmate in mode of operation with everything running on Pi for a while to try and eliminate the very slight drift I see in RA (egg shapes stars in some frames). As Alacante recommends, for a remote Observatory operated over the Internet Local Kstars wont work and a mini PC has more grunt to cope with workload.
1 year 2 months ago #89476

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

  • Posts: 255
  • Thank you received: 65
You can use xrdp to use the Microsoft Remote Desktop client by installing the xrdp package. The interesting thing about xrdp is while it is a RDP server, it is also a VNC client. Effectively, it can proxy RDP connections to a VNC server.

sudo apt-get install xrdp

If you get xrdp installed and started, connect to rdp with the wrong credentials and you will be presented with a dialog where you can select "vnc-any" and connect to "localhost" with the vnc password.
1 year 2 months ago #89480

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

  • Posts: 276
  • Thank you received: 52
Hi David,

The VNC server is launched at startup by systemd.
To find which VNC server is running, would you type
ps -aef | fgrep vnc

And report the output of the above command.

On my astroberry, I see the following
root 548 1 0 12:45 ? 00:00:00 /usr/bin/vncserver-x11-serviced -fg
root 558 548 0 12:45 ? 00:00:00 /usr/bin/vncserver-x11-core -service
root 593 1 0 12:45 ? 00:00:00 /usr/bin/vncagent service 15
astrobe+ 899 1 3 12:45 ? 00:00:02 /usr/bin/python2.7 /usr/bin/websockify --log-file=/var/log/astroberry/novnc.log --web=/var/www/novnc/ 8080 localhost:5900
astrobe+ 996 1 1 12:45 ? 00:00:00 /usr/bin/vncserverui service 16
astrobe+ 1027 996 0 12:45 ? 00:00:00 /usr/bin/vncserverui -statusicon 5

Gene
1 year 2 months ago #89481

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

  • Posts: 181
  • Thank you received: 13
2 processes listed:

root 703 1 6 18:56 ? 00:00:48 /usr/bin/x11vnc -xkb -noxdamage -verbose -avahi -safer -forever -shared -rfbauth /home/stellarmate/.vnc/passwd -autoport 5900 -auth /var/run/lightdm/root/:0
root 704 1 0 18:56 ? 00:00:00 bash /opt/noVNC/utils/novnc_proxy --vnc localhost:5900
stellar+ 1459 1445 0 19:10 pts/0 00:00:00 grep -F --color=auto vnc

Gene, StellarMate is running x11vnc server and noVNC. I think noVNC must be an interface between a web browser client and the vnc server. This explains I think why I see the Dashboard and the Pi screen in the web browser and using Tightvnc just the pi screen. I see -xnodamage is set but this doesn't prevent the module tabs looking somewhat messy.
1 year 2 months ago #89483

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

  • Posts: 969
  • Thank you received: 94
OK. So next would be to find which resolution fixes the screen problems you're seeing.

For us on mini-pcs, this is dictated by the dummy adapter plugged into to the display-port socket.

Some resolutions work better than others, some not at all. Our sweet spot is 1600x900 which seems to scale ok to 'phones, tablets or WHY alike.

Sorry, I can't remember how the pi deals with this but therein lies the next bit of the puzzle.

HTH
1 year 2 months ago #89486

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

  • Posts: 181
  • Thank you received: 13
Hi Aaron. Thanks for your suggestion. Installed remote desktop and connected from my PC. Easilly done and pleased to say the most responsive remote connection I have tested so far.
The display suffers from same issue as connecting with tightVnc or web browser. For comparison:
Running Kstars locally on PC
Running Kstars remotely using remote desktop
1 year 2 months ago #89487
Attachments:

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

  • Posts: 181
  • Thank you received: 13
Busy for a couple of days but will try out ASAP different screen resolutions starting with 1600x900 to see which one gives best display. I suspect Qt has been used to design the EKOS GUI but there must be many factors that determine how a Helvetica 8 point, centre justified, bold, orange label is reproduced exactly the same on another device at a different scale.
1 year 2 months ago #89490

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

  • Posts: 969
  • Thank you received: 94
FWIW, here's a vnc screen of indi, kstars and friends from a remote mini-pc running the whole show under LXQt, openbox and the Breeze dark theme at 1600x900.

To get it smooth and responsive, try changing window manager, theme, resolution, the VNC client...

Cheers
The following user(s) said Thank You: David Bennett
Last edit: 1 year 2 months ago by alacant.
1 year 2 months ago #89495
Attachments:

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

  • Posts: 349
  • Thank you received: 107
  1. Download officiel Raspberry OS 64bit
  2. Write this image to SD card
  3. install tigervnc server
    sudo apt install tigervnc-standalone-server
  4. create password by running
    vncpasswd
  5. run
    sudo systemctl edit vncserver-x11-serviced.service
  6. Edit that file add these lines after first two
    [Unit]
    Description=VNC Server in Service Mode daemon
    After=network.target
     
    [Service]
    Type=forking
    User=pi
    WorkingDirectory=/home/pi
    Environment="DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS=unix:path=/run/user/1000/bus" "XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/run/user/1000"
    ExecStart=
    ExecStart=bash -c "tigervncserver -localhost no"
    ExecStop=tigervncserver -kill :1
    ExecReload=
     
    [Install]
    WantedBy=multi-user.target
  7. Reboot raspberry
  8. connect to VNC server on port 5901
  9. install kstars and all other SW that you want
This assume that user name is "pi" if it is different then you must change User=pi and WorkingDirectory accordingly
The following user(s) said Thank You: David Bennett
Last edit: 1 year 2 months ago by nou.
1 year 2 months ago #89500

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

  • Posts: 349
  • Thank you received: 107
To install KStars you can use my script nouspiro.space/?page_id=209
The following user(s) said Thank You: David Bennett
1 year 2 months ago #89501

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

Time to create page: 1.060 seconds