Hi qole, vnc users, itt folks,

This may be a question already answered, but the truth is that I just don't know of any good search strings for this specific topic.

I want to use my laptop as a second screen for my nokia n800 internet tablet -- so I can leave the internet tablet charging and still play with it (also to do without having to drag the Phillips replacement charger's electrical cord around) without the touchscreen being an energy drain.

I've got VNC server (x11vnc) running on the tablet and tightvnc viewer/server running on the laptop -- and I've had both connected before but there are two problems:
1) Can't click the Apps panel button ... so: can't start new applications with the laptop connected to the Nokia.
2) Can't seem to get Debian LXDE to acknowledge any commands from the laptop (Debian LXDE is a window under Maemo isn't it?).

My progress so far:

I've used the ITT wiki-topic "How to access a linux pc desktop from an Internet Tablet using VNC and SSH" to get the basic applications and command information.

But I want my laptop to connect to my N800 with VNC. I can already SSH and SCP between the two; now I want to use VNC.

I reversed things so that VNC Server is running on the tablet and VNC viewer is running on the laptop.

I use this in X-Term available on maemo:
x11vnc -usepw -forever -display : 0 -loop -solid darkblue -skip_dups -speeds dsl

and it gives me the output you see in the attached file (who knows whether it's necessary or not -- I'm not as excellent as some of the folks here on the itt team, that's why I'm trying to be as explicit in giving the experts as much information as possible when I ask questions).

You may be experiencing a problem caused by WiFi power saving. Basically if tablet WiFi is powered down an external requiest to the tablet won't be seen. You'll need to configure the tablet to turn off power saving if this is your problem.

Doesn't sound at all like a power-saving problem. (Never mind the fact that I've never seen power-save mode causing any sort of a problem at all.)

It sounds like VNC is actually working. You can see the tablet's display on your PC and you can send input to the tablet except in two cases: The App button and Debian LXDE window. Is this correct?

If so, I can't do much more than commiserate with you. I have x11vnc running on my tablet as well, and have the exact same issue with the App button. Everything works fine except that one (pretty major!) thing. (I've never run LXDE, so I can't comment on that one.)

I've seen reports on the net that claim the problem with the App button has to do with an X11 input extension the tablet uses to differentiate a finger-touch from a stylus-tap. VNC doesn't support the extension so mouse clicks on that button don't register properly. It sounds like a plausible explanation (though I have no idea why clicking anywhere does work!) and this thread has instructions on disabling the extension. A word of caution, though. DO NOT DO THIS ON AN N810! The same input extension is apparently also responsible for the "Fn" shifted keys on the hardware keyboard. It was very hard to fix using a crippled keyboard. It might work okay on your n800, though.

IIRC to open the apps menu when VNC'd into the tablet, click the web menu (or contacts, I think), then use the arrow keys to navigate out of the web menu and down and into the apps menu. So, click web menu icon, arrow-left, arrow-down, arrow-down, arrow-right, and that should open the app menu.

HTH