That's fine of course. What you're familiar with is often (usually?) the best other things being equal. I suppose I really wanted to put in a word for the BSDs; they often seem to be lost under the myriad of linuxes out there :-) (BTW, I use linux for all our desktops and laptops: all mint except for an ancient 32-bit lappy. Years back, when looking round to replace XP, BSD desktops just didn't quite hit the mark; linux scraped in :-) )
You need to give us some kind of hint as to what you will be wanting to do with it.
Its stable, has everything you need, and has three window managers 'as standard' and is very fast to install as default and only OS.
-- Those who want slavery should have the grace to name it by its proper name. They must face the full meaning of that which they are advocating or condoning; the full, exact, specific meaning of collectivism, of its logical implications, of the principles upon which it is based, and of the ultimate consequences to which these principles will lead. They must face it, then decide whether this is what they want or not.
Ayn Rand.
Oh? Which stuff in particular? Their integration is particularly convenient because it gives you the current session. No need to log out locally or start a new session. In that way, it's like MS Remote Desktop. Also they either have or will figure out a way to make it work with Wayland. Not sure that's ever going to happen with X based vnc.
And yeah, it works out of the box. Stark contrast with my Manjaro experience; doesn't work on the standard desktop, needs precise configuring which is bound to be unfamiliar to users who want it to "just work", can't be logged in locally or the whole OS will lock up, and has snooty admins in their forums.
On another note separate from the VNC issue, this is a f****ng "stuck in the old fidonet ways" question again. The OP should STFU and just download and install the standard Raspberry Pi OS 64-bit with desktop from
I've certainly found that the RealVNC server that is supplied with Raspbian can be accessed perfectly by RealVNC client on Windows 7 and 10, exactly as if it was RealVNC server running on Windows or Ubuntu/Mint Linux.
The one good thing about the Raspbian VNC server is that it will allow a direct connection by LAN IP address and so doesn't send data up to a central server on the web and then back down to the client. This means that it is faster (less lag when viewing a fast-changing screen) and it doesn't count as one of the five computers that you can access using a free client: normally you need a paid subscription to get direct connections.
I use Real VNC to access my two headless RPis. The only "funny" is that you need to hard-configure the screen resolution by modifying modify /boot/config.txt:
hdmi_force_hotplug=1 # allow Pi to boot with no monitor connected hdmi_group=2 hdmi_mode=82 # force 1920x1080x60 even though monitor can’t be auto-detected
This seems to be necessary on for the Pi4. My older Pi3 just worked. If you don't set the resolution explicitly, VNC gives you a 640x480 version of the screen.
I have a similar problem with VNC managing a pi400 running headless (Buster). Screen configuration allows a choice of 4 resolutions from 640x48 to
1024x768. I would like to have 1920x1080 so was pleased to see your suggestion to modify config.txt - unfortunately after making the mods there is no change in the resolution of the VNC screen - it is still offering a maximum of 1024x1080.
Double apology -
For network configuration on Gentoo (wired or wireless), nmtui works fairly well. I think it's also an option on Raspbian, though wired Ethernet usually just works and WiFi can be set up through raspi-config.
x11vnc also allows you to access the current session as you describe. It also works correctly with other Linux VNC clients such as reminna.
The RealVNC server used to work correctly after changing the authentication method, but doesn't seem to want to play any more.
Another advantage of x11vnc is you can team it up with xrdp, and use Windows or Linux RDP clients to access the Pi, which seems marginally faster to me.
---druck
BG> You need to give us some kind of hint as to what you will be wanting to BG> do with it.
Read the OP? (o_O)
McDoob SysOp, PiBBS pibbs.sytes.net
... I'm not a complete idiot... Several parts are missing!
BG> > BG> You need to give us some kind of hint as to what you will be wanti BG> > BG> do with it. BG> >
BG> > Read the OP? (o_O) BG> >
BG> BG> So you have no reason to change at all yet want to change just to make BG> things harder for yourself?
I have no reason to stick with my current OS, either. Also, I specified certain limitations, in order to *not* make things harder for myself.
I'm doing a wipe, either way. I am simply exploring other options for the OS before doing so.
Please, feel free to suggest a Pi-compatible Debian OS that you like! (^_^)
McDoob SysOp, PiBBS pibbs.sytes.net
... No honey, I can't eat with the family. My computer gets lonely!
Re: OS choices By: Shaun Buzza to All on Thu Mar 17 2022 06:03 pm
<SNIP>I recommend Slackware 15.0, in either 32/64.
More info here: arm.slackware.com
DC> > What OS should I choose this time? DC> > Target device is the previously mentioned 3B+ with 32GB storage. DC> > Any opinions? (^_^) DC> DC> I recommend Slackware 15.0, in either 32/64.
I wasn't aware that Slackware was ported to armhf, but I'll look into this...
McDoob SysOp, PiBBS pibbs.sytes.net
... I put a dollar in one of those change machines. Nothing changed.
So you have no reason to change at all yet want to change just to make things harder for yourself?
BG> If you can't point at some specific extra feature you want just go with BG> Raspberry Pi OS lite.
Minimal overhead, I suppose, is an 'extra feature' that I want. This is why I'm currently using DietPi OS. It's basically PiOS Lite with a few pre-enabled performance features...
BG> You're not going to get any better performance if you're sticking to BG> Debian based, just the possibility of worse documentation and more bugs.
It's likely that I will stick with DietPi, or at least PiOS Lite, for this exact reason. Probably, I will switch to PiOS Lite, though, since it has a
64-bit build, while DietPi is 32-bit only.I'm certainly not refusing to try other Linux flavours, but I prefer Debian due to familiarity. I will look into a couple of other flavours that have been suggested, particularly Slackware. I may just transfer PiBBS to my PC while I play around with OSes on the Pi for a while...
McDoob SysOp, PiBBS pibbs.sytes.net
... I know a good tagline when I steal one!
Fo> You might like to try devuan - debian without systemd :)
But...then what would I use for systemd? (o_O)
I'll add that to the list of OSes to check out!
McDoob SysOp, PiBBS pibbs.sytes.net
... We all live in a yellow subroutine...
If you can't point at some specific extra feature you want just go with Raspberry Pi OS lite.
You're not going to get any better performance if you're sticking to Debian based, just the possibility of worse documentation and more bugs.
You might like to try devuan - debian without systemd :)
BG> > Fo> You might like to try devuan - debian without systemd :) BG> >
BG> > But...then what would I use for systemd? (o_O) BG> BG> Apparently with Devuan you can choose sysvinit, OpenRC, or runit to use BG> instead of systemd!
Heh, Brian, you may not be familiar with my sense of humour yet. That was meant as a joke, not an honest question...(o_-)
McDoob SysOp, PiBBS pibbs.sytes.net
... 24 hours in a day and 24 beers in a case. Hmmmm...
Apparently with Devuan you can choose sysvinit, OpenRC, or runit to use instead of systemd!
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