Today I decided to look into using a minimal desktop manager and only start my VisualWorks application. I therefore changed my $HOME/.vnc/xstartup to look like:
!/bin/sh
# Uncomment the following two lines for normal desktop:
#unset SESSION_MANAGER
#exec /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc
[ -x /etc/vnc/xstartup ] && exec /etc/vnc/xstartup
[ -r $HOME/.Xresources ] && xrdb $HOME/.Xresources
setroot -solid grey
/home/visualworks/scripts/startVWVirgin7_3_1.sh &
xterm -geometry 80×24+10+10 -ls -title “$VNCDESKTOP Desktop” &twm &
Unfortunately, I found that the window title bars and the desktop manager’s menus were not being setup.
After some struggle I discovered that for some reason starting the vnc desktop i.e.
$ > vncserver :3
after logging in as the user wishing to establish the vnc desktop would cause the problem. Instead if one logs in as root and then does an “su” to log into the user’s account in question, then running the above command will set things correctly. Mind you, one gets a warning about not being able to “lock root’s xauthority” file but it will eventually come back with a successfully established vnc desktop.
For some reason the xterm does not start however one can spawn a new one via the desktop manager’s menu.
Perhaps a more Linux / VNC savvy reader can explain the whys. Typically, if using for example a gnome desktop there are no issues at all with the user’s desktop owner actually issuing the desktop instantiation command. BTW, I also made sure that the twm startup files (usr/X11R6/lib/X11/twm/system.twmrc by default or just .twmrc if under the user’s home directory) specified window borders (ClientBorderWidth “10” ) and even included one under my home directory but again to no avail.
At least the above workaround gets me back on track to what is most important i.e. development using VisualWorks Smalltalk. Hope this helps any other Smalltalker contemplating getting on the same boat with TightVNC or VNC for that matter.