Virtual Network Computing - Macintosh Edition Maintained on behalf of the AT&T Laboratories, Cambridge, England and Tridia Corporation, Georgia, USA by Jonathan "Chromatix" Morton

News

5th May 2001

ChromiVNC v3.4 alpha 5 released! Please refer to the ChangeLog below for details. This release fixes some authentication bugs and improves interactive performance.

20th April 2001

ChromiVNC v3.4 alpha 4 released! Please see the ChangeLog (below) and the Download page for more details.

Welcome to the remodelled ChromiVNC website. Please continue to use http://www.chromatix.uklinux.net/vnc/ as your bookmark. Hopefully it should become easier to find information using the new layout, and probably easier for me to maintain too. My time is still limited as a result of University commitments, so the less time I have to spend on updating my website, the more is available for VNC.

ChangeLog

Enhancements in latest version (ChromiVNC v3.4 alpha 5, updated 5th May 2001)

• Various authentication bugs squashed. Thanks to Adrian for pointing them out.
• Long-password authentication now uses RC5 instead of 3DES, due to improved security. Nobody should notice the change, since the old specification was never documented except in the source.
• Large updates are now split up, and time is released to the system in between mini-updates. At present the splitting happens at 128Kb on-the-wire size, and time release happens at 32Kb (or at the next update split if later). This needs a LOT of tuning, keep an eye on future releases.
• A hack to avoid the "long thin updates" problem has been introduced, which should improve efficiency under certain (fairly common) conditions.
• Hextile should now be more CPU-efficient in cases where it is determined to be too size-inefficient.

Known Outstanding Issues (updated 5th May 2001)

• Does not support the Drag Manager. This means that if you try to drag objects (text clippings, Finder icons...) around, you may lose control of the server until you physically 'nudge' the mouse. This problem does not appear to affect machines running MacOS 8.1, for some reason. You may wish to try using Adrian Umpleby's vncPatches68k which attempts to circumvent this problem.
• vncPatches extension does not support 68k machines. See note above regarding Adrian Umpleby's vncPatches68k.
• New and experimental encodings (Zlib, Tight, JPEG, CopyRect) are not yet supported. Zlib support is planned soon.
• User interface needs an overhaul.
• Not encrypted (as with all VNC implementations to date). Work in progress to define a standard for VNC encryption.
• Does not support MacOS X due to vastly different system architecture in use. Appears to work partially within the Classic environment.
• Does not support colour or greyscale depths below 256 colours/greys (8 bit).
• Cannot currently detect changes in the number of physical monitors attached (eg. during PowerBook sleep).

Enhancements in ChromiVNC v3.4 alpha 4

• HTTP server is now functional, but not yet configurable via the GUI. Manual editing of the Preferences file is necessary for correct operation. Also, no HTML or Java files are distributed with the server (yet).
• The crash-on-quit problem resurfaced when the HTTP server was activated. I believe I've now found the root cause of this (Open Transport was being shut down before the servers were) so it shouldn't happen again. Promise...
• Buggy clients which don't know how to disconnect (eg. Netscape and Purple Shark MacVNC) are now forcibly disconnected after a timeout.
• Pause during quitting eliminated, except for when clients are still connected. Disconnecting clients forcibly may take 10 to 60 seconds.
• View-only password support added. This allows "untrusted" users to be given a distinct password which does not allow them to control the machine or disconnect other users.
• Logging and error-reporting facility added. Not very much use of this is made at present, but it can now report mismatched vncPatches versions to the user. This should reduce the number of FAQ's I get asked...
• When starting the server for the first time, the Preferences dialogue box is opened automatically to remind the user to set a password.
• PowerBook sleep and TCP/IP configuration changes should no longer cause a disabling of the server.

Old News (from before the site remodelling)

Since StuffIt Expander 5.5 is still available from Aladdin, I am no longer making the considerable extra effort required to make self-extracting archives. If you absolutely must have a self-extracting archive, download alpha-2 which works perfectly well. Otherwise use the latest version of StuffIt Expander which is compatible with your system.

TridiaVNC/ChromiVNC v3.4 alpha 3

Interface with vncPatches given major overhaul - is now cleaner and should be partially compatible between versions from now on.
Support for holding down keys (especially modifiers) improved. Eg. Option-(close window) now closes all windows, Option-(switch application) now hides the original application.
Multiple monitor support improved, especially in terms of speed and mouse visibility.
Mouse pointer shape now visible correctly on PCI machines.
Pause during quit shortened to 0.5 seconds per physical screen. The pause is necessary to allow network connections to shut down, but didn't need to be 5 seconds...
Name change of distributed binary, to reinforce the difference between my releases and "official" TridiaVNC releases.
New "about" box, showing the exact version number and giving info about contributors.

TridiaVNC v3.4 alpha 2

Fixed (for the thousandth time, hopefully permanently this time) the crashes on quit which were most frequent when a connection was still open.
Fixed keyboard support - much more responsive and less liable to 'hang' the connection in an uncontrollable state.
Now distributed as a FAT application - the vncPatches still don't work on 68k but at least you can now use the server application. PLEASE don't complain about the performance on 68k - it's a work in progress.
For users of older machines, now distributed as a self-extracting archive.
Now only waits 2 ticks (about 1/30 second) after a burst of drawing for better responsiveness while retaining most of the update-consolidating capability.
Performance enhancements galore!
Now picks up almost all screen updates using JShieldCursor (why did I ever take that out?) - most 'generic' QuickDraw patches removed.
Restored some RRE and CoRRE functionality, allowing them to operate in a tiny amount of memory and gain an overall performance improvement on large flat-colour areas.
Implemented Frame Differencing! which should help everyone, and allows me to release a 68k compatible version.
Splash screen removed.

TridiaVNC v3.4 alpha 1

***MASSIVELY REWRITTEN*** -- all code in the Server has been extensively examined as it was put in place. Much has been rewritten from scratch, and what is left has been extremely heavily modified. There's probably very little of Charles McLachan's code left; most of what I used from the old Server was written by other members of the AT&T VNC team.
Much more stable, to the point where crashes are extremely rare and usually caused by other applications.
Now controllable in almost all circumstances using UNIX and WinVNC clients (Purple Shark viewer's sendpattern is horrible, so that client doesn't work fully, yet)
Still doesn't work on 68K Macs, but I have a better idea of what's going on to stop it working.
Keyboard now fully supported, with the exception of the Function keys (does anyone really use these?)
Slightly more intelligent about how often it sends data (waits 1/6 second after drawing finishes)

v3.3.2 beta 2.3

Improved (?) stability on NuBus PowerMacs thanks to a 68K assembler fragment. Stability problems still evident, however. Guesswork code now removed entirely, and a potential source of trouble identified and culled (trying to encode & send while inside OT notifier)
Fixed "wrap-around cursor" bug on accelerated hardware
Fixed memory leak - storage was not deallocated on disconnect
Fixed sharing - was reading wrong bit of RFB message to check whether client wanted sharing
Extension (VNCpatches) should now work on 68K Macs - Server not ported yet.
Icons improved slightly. Also now indicator of which code has loaded in extension icon.

v3.3.2 beta 2.2

Improved stability on PCI Macs (now does a proper check for interrupt level) however this code doesn't help on NuBus Macs
Disabled "Use Fast (unsafe) Updates" because it wasn't helping anything and was hideously unstable
Now works on machines with Open Transport v1.1.1 installed (untested) instead of v1.1.3

v3.3.2 beta 2.1

Fixed problem with 'default' mouse overlaying the real one on older machines - there is a preference option now: "Assume Hardware Mouse" which is off by default. If your mouse is not transmitted by the server, switch this on.
Fixed problem where G4 processors would be misrecognised as 68K, causing the patches not to load. Should now be safe for all future PowerPC processors.

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