Resize x11vnc session

bgstack15 — Sun, 25 Aug 2024 12:53:00 GMT

Here's a cool trick I devised. This idea is original to me. I remember using spice guest tools in spice guests in libvirt/qemu/kvm/virt-manager to automatically (or at least make available) change screen resolutions.

Remmina as a vnc viewer of course can be resized, and I have a script that I run on the client side, to ssh to the target x11vnc server.

The idea is that on the client x11 instance, you run the following command which finds the window with that hostname as the title (hardcoded to only Remmina windows), and then passwordlessly sshes to that host and uses the XAUTHORITY and DISPLAY info to add a xrandr resolution to this desired window size and then uses that resolution.

Run 640x480 game in wine with mounted cd

bgstack15 — Wed, 10 Nov 2021 14:11:32 GMT

I wanted to run an old computer game in Wine, that uses a 640x480 resolution on a touchscreen. This game wants to check the CD volume label, which regular loop mounting doesn't provide. But cdemu does!

I wrote a whole script to run the program after mounting the disc and setting the correct screen resolution.

	`#!/bin/sh`
	`# File: run-game.sh`
	`# Location:`
	`# ~/bin/`
	`# Author: bgstack15`
	`# Startdate: 2021-10-30 19:11`
	`# Title: Script that Runs 640x480 game in Wine with CD`
	`# Purpose: get 640x480 screen and run wine game`
	`# History:`
	`# Usage:`
	`# Reference:`
	`# https://bgstack15.ddns.net/blog/posts/2021/10/01/convert-b6i-to-iso/`
	`# Improve:`
	`# Dependencies:`
	`# wine32 from dpkg --add-architecture i386 && apt-get install wine32`
	`# ISO format image of disc`
	`# cdemu from https://build.opensuse.org/project/show/home:bgstack15:cdemu`
	`# hand-crafted scripts in ~/.screenlayout/ from arandr`
	`# rotate solution https://bgstack15.ddns.net/blog/posts/2021/10/29/menu-for-choosing-screen-orientation-on-a-tablet-computer/`
	`# /usr/local/bin/set-touchscreen-resolution.sh`

	`# change screensize`
	`#exec 1>&/dev/pts/3 # useful for testing`
	`~/.screenlayout/640x480_inverted.sh`
	`/usr/local/bin/rotate.sh inverted`
	`APPLY=1 sh -x /usr/local/bin/set-touchscreen-resolution.sh 640 480`
	`#sleep 2 # just in case, for wine`

	`# mount cd`
	`echo "Mounting cdrom..."`
	`sudo modprobe vhba 2>/dev/null`
	`sudo chmod 0666 /dev/vhba_ctl 2>/dev/null`
	`ps -ef \| grep -q -E '[c]demu-daemon' \|\| { cdemu-daemon 1>/dev/null 2>&1 & sleep 2 ; }`
	`cdemu load 0 /opt/CDROMs/game.iso`
	`thisdev="$( cdemu status 2>/dev/null \| awk '/game.iso/{print $1}' )"`
	`thisscsi="$( cdemu device-mapping \| awk -v "dev=${thisdev:-NONE}" '$1 ~ dev {print $2}' )"`
	`mount \| grep -qE '\/dev\/cdrom' && sudo umount -lv /mnt/cdrom`
	`sudo mkdir -p /mnt/cdrom`
	`sudo mount -v "${thisscsi}" /mnt/cdrom`

	`# run game`
	`echo "Running game..."`
	`cd ~"/.wine32/drive_c/Program Files/Game/"`
	`WINEARCH=win32 WINEPREFIX=~/.wine32 wine game.exe`

	`# restore resolution`
	`echo "Restoring resolution"`
	`~/.screenlayout/normal.sh`
	`/usr/local/bin/rotate.sh normal`
	`APPLY=1 /usr/local/bin/set-touchscreen-resolution.sh 1366 768`

Screen resolution scripts

I used arandr to make precanned selections for 640x480 and the default resolution of 1366x768.

Menu entry file

Dependencies

Manually generated arandr scripts in ~/.screenlayout
cdemu
wine32
My rotate screen solution
Adjust touchscreen input for fullscreen aspect ratio

Knowledge Base (Posts about resolution)

Resize x11vnc session

Run 640x480 game in wine with mounted cd

Screen resolution scripts

Menu entry file

Dependencies