zvnc

zvnc is a VNC client which handles input only. The main purpose is to be able to drive several machines from one keyboard and one mouse but assuming each one of these machines have their own monitors.

Benefits:

  • no more mess of keyboards and mice on your desk
  • no special software required, just a VNC server on each machine (but see below)
  • native display speed

You can download the MorphOS version 1.5 here.

You can also download the zvnc sources.

VNC servers:

Windows:

  • WinVNC: works fine
  • RealVNC: works fine. Beware! Only version 3.3.7 seems to work. Apparently they changed some stuff in version 4 and made the protocol incompatible. No time to look into it for now.

Note: many games use DirectX’s DirectInput which somehow bypasses the normal input flow. The keyboard still works properly but the mouse events are mangled.

Unix (x11):
This is more complicated because you need a server which is able to export display 0, most servers don’t.

  • x0rfbserver: dead keys don’t work, special chars don’t work, server crashes every few days
  • x11vnc: works with -nofb
  • kde’s vnc server: works but is dead slow as it incorrectly keeps trying to grab the screen even though the client doesn’t request anything

AmigaOS:

  • AmiVNC: busyloops then crashes when the client doesn’t request image data. Crappy code.