[Slackbuilds-users] qemu & vnc

[Christoph Willing]

On 30/04/14 12:55 PM, King Beowulf wrote:
> On Tue, Apr 29, 2014 at 11:45 AM, Thomas Morper <thomas at beingboiled.info
> <mailto:thomas at beingboiled.info>> wrote:
>
>     Hello there,
>
>     The README for the recently updated qemu says to use the ENABLE_VNC
>     variable for optional vnc support. In the SlackBuild, however, this
>     variable is called VNC_ENABLE.
>
>     On a side note: what's the reason for making VNC support optional?
>
> Just responded to vnc option choice off list....
>
> 1.  Not  everyone wants or needs or uses vnc
> 2.  To use vnc you'll need to set up a bunch of stuff for remote access
>
> I don't use vnc...my qemu VMs are just plain clean build environments  I
> don't need vnc to view the VM  on my host's monitor.  If the consensus
> is that it should be enable by default, let me know.

 From the limited response, consensus doesn't seem strong either way. 
I'd prefer that vnc support is left enabled. I personally use qemu with 
vnc quite a lot and, in building the new Slackbuild, it was easy enough 
to set VNC_ENABLE to on.

However, a quick look over the qemu configure file seems to indicate 
that vnc is enabled by default already i.e. the only reason I now need 
to intervene to enable the vnc option is because the Slackbuild contains 
additional lines to disable it.

Surely this contravenes an often quoted tenet of the Slackware way, 
namely to prefer unadulterated upstream code over local/distro-specific 
modifications. If anything, the Slackbuild should default VNC_ENABLE to 
yes, rather than no; then minimalists can choose to turn it off if they 
want to.

Like many other things, the fact that something is available or legal 
doesn't mandate its use. The fact that qemu is built with vnc support 
(as intended) doesn't mean everyone or anyone has to use it. It would be 
much more utilitarian (and dare I say Slackware-esque) to let it be.

chris